Your experience of Dilapan-S rods for induction?

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Hi all,

I have had three sweep attempts this week, none of which worked due to my cervix only being 0.5cm dilated. Despite this my cervix is nice and soft and I have been told baby’s head is very low.

I am therefore being induced on Saturday and looking at the Dilapan-S rod method of induction. (feeling very excited and nervous!!)

I am just wondering peoples experience of this method of induction? Some things I have been wondering are:

1. was it painful?
2. did you go home after the rods were inserted?
3. how long did it take to bring on labour?
4. anything else 😊

I am leaning more towards this method as I am scared to have the pessary/gel as I heard this can bring on labour in quite an abrupt and intense way.

thank you for any advice or words of wisdom

Congrats on your pregnancy.

How many weeks are you and why have they booked you for an induction?

I have no experience of the rods, but if you’re keen to avoid them I’d spend the next few days having oxytocin day. Anything you can do to raise your oxytocin can increase your chances of going into labour spontaneously.

It can also help to read up on inductions and the reasons why they might not work. It could be that baby just isn’t ready to come yet. Theres some great information on evidenced based birth and with dr Sara wickham.

Thank you @Happymchappyface😊

I am 39+5 and will be 40 on Saturday. Reason for induction is that it’s taken 8 IVF cycles to get pregnant 🙈 so us and the midwives are just being a bit risk averse and want baby out safely if I go past 40 weeks.

I will look into how to raise Oxytocin!

Having been there I fully understand the worry that comes with a longed for and hard fought for baby.

The evidence for inducing at 40 weeks for IVF pregnancies isn’t as strong as is sometimes made out. While the placenta will start to fail at some point, that point is very individual and not related to how the pregnancy started. Again Sara Wickham has great summaries of the evidence on this. An alternative is regular monitoring. While this cannot predict the future it could allow baby to cook for a couple more days if they need to.

In the meantime anything you can do to make you feel loved, safe, relaxed, happy etc can raise your oxytocin (and a bit of nipple stimulation or if you’re up for it sex)