Induction - gel or break waters?

[Workingmama1]

I'm due to be induced on Thursday, and at my sweep today the midwife said I was 2cm and stretchy and they are likely to go straight to breaking my waters instead of the gel to get things started. However, all the guidance I've read suggested breaking waters to start labour should be a last resort. Has anyone got any good evidence either way?

As I understand it, the gel is generally used to make the cervix favourable to enable your waters to be broken.

I had my ds on Friday. I was 3-4cm dilated and baby showed some signs of distress. So they broke my waters and he arrived just over an hour later.

When I had my induction I was told the purpose of the pessaries was to get me to 2cm so they could manually break my waters (if I hadn't managed to get cracking by myself at that point).

So I don't think they'd put a gel/pessary in if you are already dilated enough to break your waters as it wouldn't add anything to the mix. I'm no professional though and I was only just 2cm after 3 pessaries so not a very close model to you 😂

Hope all goes well!

Yes you are correct in saying it’s better to use prostaglandins (gel/pessaries) if you can rather than straight o breaking waters. The prostaglandins are to favour the cervix so shorten it, soften, move from back to front, dilate. It’s preferable to break waters with a 2cm dilated cervix that is 1cm long and mid-posterior versus a 2cm dilated cervix that is 3cm long and posterior.
Have a chat with your midwife at the time, put your concerns forward. All hospitals work quite differently but where I work rarely go straight to breaking waters

Thanks ladies. On Friday I was also 2cm and she said my cervix was anterior so maybe that's why I'm being told they will break my waters? The midwife that did Friday's sweep was on in the day unit today and was very surprised to see me as she thought I'd go naturally over the weekend! Apparently baby was very low down too...
I'll definitely try to ask questions on Thursday, though still holding out to go into labour between now and then. Baby has been sporadically back to back so I'm wondering if that's why it's not progressed on it's own.

@Mummyme87 glad a professional came along to correct my not very good best guess 😂 that's really interesting info (hoping I won't be induced this time myself but all knowledge is good!)