Induction before due date?

[Maneandfeathers]

Does anyone know if it’s possible to request or do they make you wait until 40 weeks?

Thanks.

I had an induction at 39 weeks as they thought I'd have a bigger baby. They gave me a sweep at 38 weeks to get things moving but nothing happened. I got an induction appt made the day I got my sweep done.

Thanks @wifeyxx for your reply.

Ideally I would prefer to have things underway by 38 weeks but it seems like it’s more likely they will make me wait until closer to 40

Thet will only induce early for medical reasons as far as im aware. I was induced at 37 weeks for medical reasons with my second but I'd rather have gone naturally. If you have medical concerns could you speak to your consultant.

Suppose it depends on the circumstances. Are they planning on not letting you go past 40 weeks?
If they are planning on inducing at 40 weeks I would definitely at least ask for a stretch and sweep at 38w and 39w to try and get things going naturally. I would have been induced at 40 weeks with both of mine on medical ground but had sweeps at 38w with the first, she came 3 days later and at 38w3d with the second who came later that night.

I haven’t a clue what the plan is so far. My midwife hasn’t mentioned it!

I had DS at 38 ish weeks and had suffered badly for the final 3 or so with vomiting and being unable to eat. DS was born tiny with no fluid around him and with a rotten placenta.
Apparently there’s no notes of this bar his birth weight being 7th centile and so they are happy to let this baby come whenever it wants. I don’t feel my body can grow a baby safely past a certain point but they won’t take me seriously
I’ve had growth scans and they are happy with baby but I know my body and I know I feel worse and worse every day and the vomiting has started already at 33w.

A close friend also lost her baby at 39 weeks and it’s also in the back of my mind the closer it gets

Do you have a consultant? Given your last birth I’d expect you to be consultant lead! My placenta failed with DS2 and DD so both were induced at 38 weeks. With DS2 I had much more monitoring because of bleeding and reduces movements so they noticed he hasn’t grown much since my
Last growth scan at 34 weeks when I was 37 weeks and induction was booked but with DD although I had monitoring my consultant didn’t want to induce before 40 weeks unless anything changed … which it did … went for a check up after reduced movements (my only time
With dd!) and there was barely any fluid and issues with my placenta agin so she was induced that afternoon

@Blitzes I’ve been put onto a small baby clinic with my hospital where I get growth scanned every 3-4 weeks or so? I don’t get to speak to anyone though it’s literally a growth scan, they check I’m okay very quickly and then the consultant signs me off for another appointment in x amount of weeks.
I see my normal midwife inbetween but there’s no record of any placental failure etc in my notes. I know it happened because at the birth my midwife asked if I had noticed any issues with ‘leaking’ as I had no fluid at birth and no waters broke at any time.
When the placenta was delivered she commented it looked bad but it didn’t go any further than just a comment and it’s not in any of my maternity notes.
DS was small, jaundice and looked like he had wrinkled skin because he had no fat on him at all and I feel I was lucky my body decided to evict him when it did.
I’m just worried this one will be in until it’s too late as there’s no plan at all to get it out sooner before it gets to that point!

Sorry to hear you had a tough experience with your first!
Did they say at the time what caused the issue with the placenta?
My first was 5th centile (which wasn't picked up during the pregnancy) but she was perfectly healthy. In my area you get growth scans with any future pregnancy if one has been less than 10th centile. Assuming as you said you've had growth scans you will be the same. So they will do a growth scan at 36 weeks? At this appointment they should check water levels too. I'm sorry to hear you don't feel listened to. Pregnancy can be so scary, I've had two very challenging pregnancies so I feel for you
I can't comment on the placenta issue but my second was born at 14th centile without me doing anything differently from the first.

They don’t normally induce until min of 37 weeks and that’s normal for medical reasons. I had a failed induction at 35&5 weeks which turned into an emergency. Growth scans will pick up if the placenta is failing or any concerns.

I think for ivf cases also you can be induced from 39 weeks

Thanks all of you.

They literally only said that my placenta looked bad and asked if I had noticed my waters had gone ‘a while’ before birth. I also hugely swelled up pre birth so didnt really register as I was still getting bigger!

I believe I will get a scan at around 35 weeks. I’m 33+4 now and I’ve had them regularly since 28 weeks. I’ve heard the leading cause of stillbirth is placental failure and it’s giving me nightmares every night because that’s all I can focus on. What if I was scanned at 36 fine and then by 37 it wasn’t fine, would I know? I didn’t know last time

Not an IVF baby so no standard induction but I’m sure if DS had stayed until 39-40 weeks he might not have been here judging by how malnourished he looked at birth!

@Maneandfeathers

Hello OP, I posted a very similar thread a while ago and unfortunately didn’t have any concrete answers. I’m in a very similar position.

First DD my waters went at 34 weeks. Scheduled for an induction at 36 weeks and at 35 weeks I started to feel unwell, movements changed, but very little was done. I had a successful induction at 36 weeks but she was born very poorly with early stages of sepsis and I was told it was very likely that if I hadn’t been induced she would have died in the next few days/hours. Thank goodness she recovered and is well now. It was commented at birth my placenta had some signs of deteriation but nothing was recorded on my notes.

Second pregnancy all went really smoothly until 36 weeks when overnight movements went from perfectly normal to practically nothing. I went in for monitoring several times and had a scan and was told all was fine. The movements never increased though and I was constantly in and out of hospital. I was terrified and so certain something wasn’t right. I was eventually induced at 38 weeks and this time my placenta was very deteriorated. My midwife told me that I was very lucky, and honestly what she showed me didn’t even resemble a placenta. It was stringy, dry, falling apart and grey. I had issues with retained placenta as a result and developed an infection from residual placenta being left inside me.

Fast forward to baby number 3 and I am terrified at the prospect of going beyond early term. My inductions were positive experiences and my girls had no issues at all as a result of their prematurity, but both had low birth weight and complications connected to the last few weeks in utero.

Like you, I tried to speak to my midwife about what would happen going forwards and she was very non committal, and then confessed there were actually no notes at all on the birth of my daughter. The hospital seem to have lost them!

I don’t know what happens now. I’m 17 weeks and have a consultant appointment booked for in two weeks time. I am so anxious that they won’t listen to me again. I feel like both times my worries have been downplayed, despite me not having a single issue earlier in pregnancy. I’m not someone who is back and forth every week with problems!

Anyway, after that monologue, I just wanted to let you know that I am going through similar and I’m really keen to hear what happens for you. I really hope they listen to you. One thing I will definitely be using to fight my case is that the risks of an induction decrease significantly after you’ve already had a successful induction, whereas the risks of me going late term are unknown to say the least.

To clarify, they have lost my notes on my second daughter’s birth. With my first daughter placenta deterioration was much more mild and nothing was recorded on my notes at all. So from their perspective they have no record of any issues with my placenta

I was on the small gestational pathway too and your DC at birth sounds very simoalr to my ds2!

As well as the growth scans do you have separate consultant appointments? In my trust I saw the consultant at 16,28,32 and 35ish weeks ago my 28 week appointment we first discussed induction where I was told I would t be allowed to
Go past 40 weeks because of Ds2 (also because I was gbs positive in DS1 birth and he got ill and same with DS2 but they caught that on a swab so we had antibiotics) we discussed the induction options again at my other appointments. I guess it massively depends on your consultant but mine was lii ok very and really understood my worries and basically said to trust my instincts and if I wasn’t happy even slightly to go to triage ASAP (which is what happened with Dd) for monitoring and a scan to check on well-being

So sorry there are others with the same concerns!

I have a consultant but I’ve only met her once, very briefly. All of the work at my hospital is done by the midwives and passed through her so I haven’t been able to ask directly!

I’m going to see my community midwife for a routine appointment today so I’ll ask again then and see if she comes up with anything!