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Original poster

Induction- Hormone Drip

77 replies

Sophierella24 · 06/03/2021 16:37

Hey everyone,

I'm being induced for medical reasons on 17th and have been told this will be done by bursting my waters then straight onto the hormone drip (due to health condition I then have 24 hours to deliver otherwise it will be a section). Can anyone share their experiences of the hormone drip please? Any advice?
Starting to get anxious!!

Thanks all xx

OP posts:
justanotherneighinparadise · 07/03/2021 07:46

The drip is horrendous. Absolute torture.

UltraVioletRays · 07/03/2021 07:48

My experience on the drip was awful. I had it with all three of my births. The first two times was due to slow labour but the third was an induction. I told the midwife because I'd had it twice before I knew how painful it was and I wanted an epidural before the drip. She convinced me to try without, saying she thinks some people just "panic" and I would be fine. I don't know why I didn't stand my ground. When the pain predictably was absolutely horrendous I then had to wait an hour and a half for the epidural. I'm still pissed off about it.

The pain is

UltraVioletRays · 07/03/2021 07:49

Beyond anything anyone should have to go through.

justanotherneighinparadise · 07/03/2021 07:57

Agreed. They didn’t even offer me an epidural. I swear by the time i’d laboured I’d shouted obscenities at everyone in the room. I think the only word I didn’t use was cunt.

elsaesmeralda · 07/03/2021 07:58

Bloody hell, just reading this thread if I ever give birth again I do not want to go on a drip. I thought natural labour with waters broken was bad enough 😱😱

Ihopeyourcakeisshit · 07/03/2021 08:05

Bloody hell, OP will be frightened silly after reading this.
I know pain is subjective but absolute torture Hmm

Janxyb · 07/03/2021 08:06

I had the drip and an epidural at the same time after 3 failed pesseries and 72 hours in hospital I was exhausted so I took the ep straight away. When it came time to push they did my catheter and instead of urine it filled with blood (i waas told this was a rare reaction to the drip being in so long) so ended up emergency forceps. If I ever have another child I would refuse it. Sorry to be negetive but best to hear every side of the story. Good luck OP 💐🍀

Jjjjjj1981 · 07/03/2021 08:07

Another one who went straight onto the drip with my DS, absolutely horrendous, and no pain relief had any effect at all until epidural and emergency section.
Insist on an epidural OP, good luck.

Hazelmazel · 07/03/2021 08:13

My drip experience was fine. First labour, induced for medical purposes. I went on the drip around 7pm I guess and they gradually increased it until contractions started around 8pm. It was very intense as soon as they started so I got gas and air going and that was easily enough for the pain, I didn't feel like I needed anything more.
Baby was born after just less than 2.5 hours! I insisted on mobile monitoring and was able to be upright and moving around throughout which makes a big difference I think.

SharedLife · 07/03/2021 08:14

I would definitely get the epidural in first!

justanotherneighinparadise · 07/03/2021 08:16

@Ihopeyourcakeisshit

Bloody hell, OP will be frightened silly after reading this. I know pain is subjective but absolute torture Hmm
I’m sorry that is the truth. It was absolute torture. Do so the advice is to get pain relief before the drip. Then the OP doesn’t have to go through it.
justanotherneighinparadise · 07/03/2021 08:17

Oh and the midwife told me it would make my contractions ‘more energetic’. That’s one word for it! Hmm

AlwaysLatte · 07/03/2021 08:20

I had the drip with baby no1 and the contractions are more intense - my body didn't have time to get my own natural pain relief built up. I had said no pain relief but I did end up on gas and air. I would have gone for an epidural at the time too if I could but I was too far gone - I had the pessary at 6pm and they caught me waddling off to the toilet in the small hours and I was fully dilated!
Baby no 2 was not induced and was far less intense (but I still ended up having gas and air despite my best intentions!)
You are in control still. My husband had a lot of knowledge due to his profession and when he saw how much they were cranking up the oxytocin without an apparent upper limit he told me he'd like them to stop if I agreed, which I did.

Ihopeyourcakeisshit · 07/03/2021 08:23

Well I'm genuinely sorry to hear that was the case.
I did laugh at 'more energetic' contractions.

17caterpillars1mouse · 07/03/2021 08:24

I had an induction with Dd2 at 38 weeks.

I was around 2cm when I went in do they broke my waters straight away (didn't hurt) then they gave me an hour to go into labour naturally before going on the drip. Contractions were painful but not as bad as my spontaneous labour with Dd1 where I thought I was going to die lol. They did get more intense towards the end but that's natural but I did it all on gas and air. I did ask for pethidine but by that point I was transitioning so too late, but honestly it was fine.

Just wanted to give a different perspective to all the horror stories given

justanotherneighinparadise · 07/03/2021 08:26

@Ihopeyourcakeisshit

Well I'm genuinely sorry to hear that was the case. I did laugh at 'more energetic' contractions.
🤣 Plus they even took away my gas and air and just left me with the end bit to gnaw on. Unbelievable really. This was eight years ago so perhaps things have improved since.
FTEngineerM · 07/03/2021 08:40

@Ihopeyourcakeisshit

Bloody hell, OP will be frightened silly after reading this. I know pain is subjective but absolute torture Hmm
It was tho I think that’s the consensus here which the OP has asked for.. yes pain is subjective for natural contractions but it’s like one of those machines that forces the muscles to contract instead of doing sit-ups. Sit ups don’t hurt if your body does them itself but slap one of those on full pelt and ARGH yikes agony. It’s a similar thing to forcing your uterus to contract.

I would have one again but absolutely not without epidural first.

HeyDW96 · 07/03/2021 08:50

You don't have to have the drip just remember that, you can decline induction and ask for an alternative!

I'm planning on turning an induction down unless 100% necessary, I got a plan from the midwife of everything that happens at appointments "38 weeks: fetal HR, fundal height, discuss induction and sweep"

The NHS is so backwards sometimes!

Mummyof2Terrors · 07/03/2021 10:04

@HeyDW96

You don't have to have the drip just remember that, you can decline induction and ask for an alternative!

I'm planning on turning an induction down unless 100% necessary, I got a plan from the midwife of everything that happens at appointments "38 weeks: fetal HR, fundal height, discuss induction and sweep"

The NHS is so backwards sometimes!

Just sometimes? 🤣

Maternity care is poor, as is the subtle undertones from healthcare staff that you don't have choices. Even if it's the right thing to do, everything should be questioned and explored.

My husband was told in labour that if I refused forceps, there was nothing else they could do to get the baby out i.e. a C-section wouldn't be done. Just a downright lie to scare him - and he bought it! Given him a lesson ahead of the next one.

AyyX · 07/03/2021 10:15

I was overdue 11 days and booked in to get induced. They gave me the sweep twice and said I didn’t need to get induced since I was dilated 2cm. They ended up breaking my waters, waited a couple hours to see if there was any progression. There was no precession so they gave me the hormone drip. I didn’t want to have any pain killers for the birth but after holding out for about 7hrs I couldn’t take the pain anymore and had the epidural.

HeyDW96 · 07/03/2021 10:16

@Mummyof2Terrors I work in the nhs and I really hope my care of patients isn't backwards, I don't work in maternity care so I can't really say but we try to be forward thinking in my department and give patients choices! One of the reasons I know I can refuse and have alternatives I suppose! Scaring and pressurising people into agreeing to things is fckn awful!

Mummyof2Terrors · 07/03/2021 10:28

[quote HeyDW96]@Mummyof2Terrors I work in the nhs and I really hope my care of patients isn't backwards, I don't work in maternity care so I can't really say but we try to be forward thinking in my department and give patients choices! One of the reasons I know I can refuse and have alternatives I suppose! Scaring and pressurising people into agreeing to things is fckn awful![/quote]
Unfortunately I've found every area of maternity to be lacking and if you're in the slightest bit informed i.e. utter the words NICE guidelines or say you know you have the choice not to consent, you're unfortunately labelled as difficult.

Heyha · 07/03/2021 11:52

I agree there did seem to be some resistance to sharing information about options, for reasons unknown. It was actually an HCA that told me about gas and air for examinations!

HeyDW96 · 07/03/2021 12:53

@Mummyof2Terrors @Heyha ah that's so bad! I must admit I didn't like being given an itinerary for each appointment and the word induction cropping up already! OP, don't do anything you're not comfortable with, it's important to get baby here safely but your choices and wishes matter!

sproutsnbacon · 07/03/2021 13:08

You could just ask for a cs. I had the drip to speed up a labour that had already started, the epidural went in before the drip started it was still painful. I had an emcs in the end.
My next was a vbac and without an epidural, it was bloody painful but not unmanageable. I think the length of labour does affect a woman's ability to tolerate pain. Id been in labour for 6 days before the drip with my first (on and off contractions but strong enough to effect sleep and eating). With my second I had 36 hours of very weak contractions then a sudden increase so I had slept and eaten, made it much more manageable.
If I have a third I would want to move straight to cs if induction is mentioned.

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