HELP - How long did your induction take??

[MrsRose2018]

Hi ladies,

I’m being induced at 37 weeks on the 27 June. It’s my first baby and I am just wondering how long It will take from start to baby? I know every woman, induction and birth is different but the MW said once me and my husband are In we are IN and can’t leave the ward due to Covid.

I’ve been told that due to my circumstances/waters breaking prematurely it will be one pessary and then the drip and no sweeps due to infection risk.

Just trying to plan ahead with snacks and cat care essentially 😂😂

TIA xx

44 hours from pessary to baby arriving.

@RandomMess

My advice is ask for an epidural before you agree to the drip...

Fwiw I did mine mostly without pain relief other than TENS - I had an epidural for the last few hours but had I known that it would only be a few hours more I would have done without.

Judging by the reaction of the midwives I was fairly unusual in that though - most people do want pain relief of some sort with the drip.

6 hours from pessery to baby. But 5 hours of that was waiting for it to get going.

I never had the drip but I'm not going to lie although the tens machine was amazing for the belly pains I had pain down both legs from the first pessary and every few minutes and took hours and hours to get into labour 😳

Last one was a doddle birthing ball, tens machine and gas & air for the couple of hours, was only in labour for 60 seconds 🙄 the previous 11 hours of pain didn't count.

You can have the epidural sited and not have the drug actually passed...

I was already dilated, so no pessary.

From drip going in to baby, probably about 6 hours. I had an epidural put in before the drip, which I would have ended up needing anyway because episiotomy and forceps were needed.

The pessary/ gel isn’t meant to start your labour, it’s meant to help soften and dilate your cervix enough to be able to break your waters. You can’t go on the drip if your waters haven’t gone. So they won’t let you go straight to the drip j less they are able to break your fore waters x

@MrsRose2018 yes, I had the long anxious wait with the PPROM slow trickle.

Once they examined me and found I was dilated it was straight to the drip (or a section, which my Consultant would have preferred - but he felt he would humour me and 'let me give labour a try'!).

I refused an epidural for a long time and then by the time I changed my mind it was too late. The pain was manageable, in the end I'd said yes to an epidural because I just longed for sleep, so it was ok. The TENS machine and gas and air were my best friends throughout.

I've got a huge personal fear of instrumental delivery/tearing so I'm trying to avoid an epidural if I can absolutely manage!

My hospital offer remifentanyl so I'm going to go for that in the first instance I think....I do not have a high pain threshold

Started on the Friday morning, baby arrived Monday lunch by EMCS. The pessary didn’t work for me and after 15 hours on the drip I still wasn’t fully dilated so had to have the section.

The best advice I had was to get the epidural in before the drip. The contractions on the drip are very intense and you don’t want to be faffing about trying to put the epidural in your spine between contractions when you’re already in pain!

@Wineandrun thank you for explaining that to me!! That's really helpful... maybe if my upper waters have broken they can go in with the drip?

@stopgocar was that the case with you? Or was the drip right in because you were dilated?

I'm in for my twice weekly CTG monitoring on Friday so I can literally just ask the MW then but I'm running with a train of thought now lol

DC1 3 days and ended in emergency c section.
DC3 8 hours. Second successful VBAC.

When I had my 3 epidurals they let the level of drug drop towards the end (or didn't increase it to mask the pain?) so I could feel enough pain for the pushing to be effective etc.

1st baby my waters broke at 36 weeks and 48 hours they admitted me to go on the drip as I wasn't having contractions. 5 hours on the drip, with them constantly upping the dose and I still wasn't contracting. It was then they noticed that it was only my hind waters that had gone. Dr broke my waters at 10:30am and DD was here at 4:40pm.

Had my 2nd baby 2 weeks ago, they broke my waters at 9:30pm and DS was born at 12:15am - less than 3 hours all in.

They never distinguished which waters had gone. I just remember that as there was already dilation it was straight to the drip.

I'd been put in a really terrible delivery room without an en-suite/WC as all the staff thought it was inevitable I'd end up with a section. 12 hours of having to push the drip stand down the corridor, contracting constantly, every time I needed a wee wasn't fun - never mind the pain relief, my main tip is make sure there is a loo close by!

14 hours on the drip but only 4.5 hrs of active labour, according to my birth notes. The drip was really grim for me, but could have been a LOT better if anyone had helped me work out how to time the gas and air - everything got so intense so quickly that I was shocked and disorientated. I had pethadine first which was lovely but seemed to wear off after an hour(!) so went to an epidural. God bless the epidural.

17 hrs from Pessary in to baby out!

DH dropped me off at 10am. Couldn’t stay due to covid only allowed when in active labour. Pessary in at 11am. Lots of bouncing on ball and watching Netflix. 6pm very mild period type pains. 11pm bit more period type pains. Had a bath and two paracetamol. 1am waters went in specials fashion. Examined was 2cm. Called DH moved to labour ward. 3am contractions coming thick and fast 5cm and had diamorphine. 5.30am really struggled with contractions. Asked for epidural checked was 10cm too late for epi time to push. Pushed for 45min but then contractions slowed down so had the drip in high. He was born 20 mins later. Had to go to surgery to repair a third degree tear but that aside I would say it was a very positive experience. Yes the contractions were painful but knowing you’re meeting your baby at the end of it gets you through. Good luck

5 hours with a pessary

16 hours from first gel to baby being born. 12 hours of two gels, waters broken manually at 7.30am and baby arrived by 12pm.

You can see from this thread how much it varies. Personally 4 days and it didn't work so ended in a c section.

I remember sitting on the ward and about 5-10 ladies per day passing by me and going into labour and me just sitting on a ball and bouncing/walking around 🤦🏿‍♀️

No proper contractions until I went on the drip and then about 4 hours, very intense for two hours and I was pushing for less than 10 minutes.

Ask if your hospital has mobile monitors. It was so important for me that I could move around whilst labouring and push whilst on my hands and knees. I attempted pushing on my back for about 20 seconds and knew there was no way that was happening!

I was two weeks over due which will have contributed to this but my induction was quick. First pessery went in Sunday night at 9pm. Nothing really happened over night just a couple of tightenings. Second pessery went in Monday morning at about 8am. Baby was born at 1:20 pm on that Monday. About 16 hours in totally but only in labour for 5 and a bit hours of that.

5 days and emcs

3 long fucking days.

Hi @MrsRose2018, mine took a bit of time. I had the balloon and it was in for 24 hours, I then had to wait for about 12 hours for a space on the delivery ward where they broke my waters. I was then on the drip for 24 hours before they decided to move to c section as it wasnt progressing well.

While it was a bit of a process, all staff were really nice and I felt well supported. Both my husband and I were allowed to leave the ward if we wanted.

I didnt ger an epidural till hour 23 and to be honest if I were to do it again I might have done it earlier as it does make it easier, but it was very manageable either way.

Good luck

Did anyone have remifentanyl instead of/as well as an eidural?

I need to speak to my MW but I assume since it's heavy duty opiates and you need oxygen whilst you have it you can't be hooked up to it for 3 days....