Is it better to never be induced?

[Pianodiano]

I am doing some very early research so thought this would be a good place to ask.

Most of our local trusts maternity stats are that if someone is induced it is then most likely they will need an assisted delivery, or it’ll end in EMCS. Surely knowing this if it comes to induction it’s better to just opt for an ELCS rather than go through the stress of interventions and putting yourself at risk for a time-pressured emergency situation where a section is likely needed anyway?

I really don’t like the idea of forceps or episotomy (who does) but this is especially since a couple of relatives and friends of mine have had serious birth trauma from instrumental deliveries and interventions, one of their babies needed physio after as the forceps had injured them. I am also hearing in the news that most maternity departments are rated inadequate or requires improvement in the last 12 months.

I guess this just bothers me as I don’t want a traumatic experience and I am hearing of so many people who have had that lately!

What has your experience been and would you avoid induction? Thanks :)

I've had both kinds of induction. The pessary was slow for me, and I did need an episiotomy. Saying that, I was up and about really quickly after labour and felt absolutely fine.

My balloon induction was a dream, and I urge anyone to ask their hospital about it. I went in on the afternoon, had the balloon inserted, then went home. Next morning balloon fell out (meaning I was 3/4cm dillated) I went back to hospital for 8, had baby by 4:55. Labouring was easy. 100% reccomend it.

I had low Papp-A and was strongly advised to induce at 40 weeks - I considered declining but I was having a lot of stress about dog sitting for our dog who'd just had a bad injury a few weeks before and was on restricted exercise etc. I wouldn't have normally accepted induction just for that reason, but I didn't think the stress was helping, and I was also feeling very stressed about the idea of travelling to hospital while in labour - turns out that fear was very much founded..

I did a lot of research prior, and found it's not actually induction that increases the risk of c-section but epidurals. So needing the synthetic oxytocin which makes labour more likely painful and then needing an epidural. I accepted the induction on the condition that I would be left for the absolute maximum amount of time before breaking waters and augmenting labour.

Pessary inserted 10pm, out of nowhere at 2pm next day waters broke, labour instantly started, started pushing at 5:30pm, baby out perfectly healthy at 8pm. No pain relief, not even gas and air. No travel to the hospital while in labour and back home the next day.

If we have another, I'd be perfectly happy to have an induction again - provided I'm at term and less likely to need interventions other than the pessary.
My labour came on very suddenly and there was no slow build up we were taught about, so I would not have been able to get in a car and travel to the hospital.
I find there's a lot of fear mongering about inductions, but you can also end up needing labour augmentation and epidural in a non-induced birth.

I wasn’t induced but my experience is still relevant tk your question - I had an epidural and forceps with my first and it was MUCH better than pushing the 2nd one out with no painkillers I can assure you 😂

Hiya I'm new here and thought I would add my induction story, now don't let it put you off because I know loads of other women that have been induced and it's as resulted in natural birth.

So my daughter was due on the 19.01.18.
On the 11of jan I went for my fortnightly scans (due to baby measuring big)
The lady scanning me said that the cord had stop carrying blood to her brain and that I would probably get a date but they was sending me to the ward to be monitored, a midwife came in and explained to me that she's going to monitor me and while on the monitors she was going to get me a date for induction. I asked would I be able to go home first her reply was oh absolutely!

A little while later she came back and said she had good news and bad news the good news was she's got me a date and the bad news was that I wasn't able to go home after all as the date she had got was that day.

I was taken to the labour ward and had the 24 hour pessary fitted and then taken to the ante natal ward where I would stay until I went to have my baby, those 24 hours dragged I was on and off the monitors I was being checked every few hours to see if my cervix had opened, although I was having tightenings nothing major happened eventually the 24 hours was up and it hasn't worked the only thing it had done was give me false tightenings and false hope for that matter, the doctor then came to see me
With one of the midwives on shift and a plan was made to give me the 12 hour propez which in their words was 10x stronger than the 24 hour one, I was only aloud 2 of the 12 hours ones, so 5pm on the 12 they inserted the 12 hour propez 5am they took it out examined me and yesss you guessed it, it didn't work, so at around 5pm they inserted the second one by this time I was so sore down below from all the pushing and shoving and inserting and removing and examinations, 5am 13th another one was inserted at 5pm that day it was taken out and it had only softened my cervix, I was given a break until the next morning when the midwife came to me and said right because nothing as worked and you've had everything we can give down the pessary route our plan is to leave you, let you go home for 24hours and then start the whole process again which angered me in all honesty so I told them no I'm sore I'm tired and I've had enough there was a reason I was given such a quick induction date and now you want to send me home well
I refuse to go anywhere, and that if the induction wasn't working then give me a c section (by no means did I realise what a c section entailed and how awful the recovery was) anyway she said she would go and get a doctor, to have a chat with me, and the doctor came and said the same thing so again I told her the same thing that I was refusing to leave, she then said can I examine you one last time so I agreed by this point I was climbing up the back of the bed due to being so sore, I was literally crying and then my soul nearly left my body she started moving her hand in a circular motion I was screaming ouch that hurts what are you doing? She replied was giving you a sweep to see if I can separate the cervix and make room for me to pop your waters, and I've done it get ready you are going to the labour ward this was 7am on the 14th so I was taken to the labour ward and my birthing partners was called, upon arrival they didn't seem very happy which threw me off they seemed like they had been crying (I'm adding this bit because I do believe this had a massive impact of my delivery) my partner and my sister started talking to the midwife's whispering etc, once the midwife got me in my gown and god me on the bed they nodded at my birthing partners and left the room they then sat me down and told me that my 4 year old cousin had sadly passed away early hours that morning.

Anyways fast forward to around 8am the doctors gave me gas and air while the struggled to pop my waters poking prodding shoving twisting after what felt like forever suddenly I felt a pop and then a massive gush, she then said she had done it and I would now be put on the hormone drip and that my contractions will be brought on gradually and will get more intense the more they turn the hormone drip up.

My contractions came on thick and fast and so intense, after 6 hours gas and air was no longer helping so I was given a shot of diamorphine which tbh I can't remember much, I did start screaming and ask for the epidural but that failed ahah story of my life these things failing on me!

Anyways my heart rate started rising and so did my daughters, a make doctors came in and did and internal and said that they would take me down to theatre and help deliver baby by forceps but before that he explained he needed to take some blood out of babies head to see if she was getting enough oxygen to her brain, the test came back and she wasn't, if we would have carried on she would have been starved of oxygen (this is what happened to my 4 year old cousin who sadly passed away that morning) baby was coming down but just couldn't get past the threshold, I was given 20 mins to push, I will tell you something now I pushed with all my might but she just wouldn't come, then suddenly the room
Was filled with doctors, putting stockings on me and making me sign a declaration regarding emergency c sections, I was rushed to surgery give the spinal block which then kick started the epidural that failed so instead of being numb from
Waste down I was numb all way to my throat, I couldn't cough, I couldn't be sick I could barely breathe , I was passing out and gasping for breath I even told them that I was dying and they assured me I wasn't, I kept drifting off and waking myself up gasping all of a sudden the monitor started bleeping and it was all
So fast my beautiful daughter was born at 05:01 on the 15.01 she was taken and had a cannula put straight into her tiny hands her and my partner was then taken out of the room while they got my bleeding under control. I was then taken to the recovery room and put on oxygen, I them had swabs taken and it turned out that I had sepsis and also strep B and my daughter had infection markers that were sky high. I also haemorrhaged, I was put on iron tablets and antibiotics and my daughter was fed antibiotics through her cannula every 2 hours and had observations taken every 2 hours also, after 10 days in hospital we was aloud to leave all healthy and happy!

She's now 5 nearly 6 and she's grown up really well with minimal problems, the only thing is with her she's being tested for ADHD with autistic traits, I don't believe her delivery as anything to do
With this but I thought it was worth adding.

Anyway I hope I haven't scared you too much, would
I go through all that again? I absolutely would just to ensure that my baby was ok. Sometimes a c section is what's best for mum and baby and sometimes us mummy's have to risk our lives to ensure our babies are alright! Xxx

Balloon induction and pretty straight forward birth - no assisted delivery or EMCS needed.

not sure which source you used for researching epidurals but ‘modern’ epidurals do not increase the chance of needing a section. There is an association between epidurals and instrumental delivery (forceps/suction cup) but it is only an association and not necessarily a causative relationship. Women who are having labours which are not 100% straightforward are more likely to request an epidural and the association with instrumental delivery is more likely to do with the reason things weren’t progressing easily rather than the epidural as such. HTH.

Hi OP, I had all the same worries about being induced. I went through every single research paper to figure out what the most common outcomes were, at different weeks (37,38 and 39 were my options) and how often they led to interventions ect. I was absolutely terrified and literally loosing sleep over it. My waters went at 35 weeks and my contractions never came so they gave me 2 rounds of pessary's which didn't work, then we moved to the drip. Honestly it was the worst pain of my life, however, i didn't need any interventions and I only had a 1st degree tear! It took about 9 hrs for me to go from 3cm to fully dilated and then and hour of pushing and he was here! I'm sure a lot of people will have all sorts of horror stories regarding induction, but apart from the pain, it was actually OK.