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Experiences of induction (also in labour and birth)

Hi there, sorry to G/C. I'm currently 41+2, and I'm being induced on Saturday if baby hasn't made an appearance by then. I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience of induction, good/bad that they would be willing to share? I'm quite scared that it will fail and I'll end up with a c section! So just after other peoples experiences for reassurance and for preparation! Thank you xxxxxxx

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    Hi,



    My DS was born in Aug 10 and I had an induction at 10 days over. I too was petrified as I though the sweep was bad enough...lol



    I was admiited to hospital on the Satuday afternoon, and they monitored baby's heartbeat for a while, took my temp and blood pressure, filled in paperwork etc.



    Once all this was done a few hours later I was examined and they inserted the first gel pessary (which wasn't half as bad as the sweep) It was like a very small plastic tampon and I hardly felt a thing. Thay was about 5pm, through the night I had some very mild period pains that would come and go, I also had some back ache and ended uo taking some paractemol just to get comfy to sleep.



    I will say at this point I had a very unfavourable cervix which was closed so I was warned that it may take a few gels before anything happened.



    The following Sunday morning babies heartbeat was monitored again and I was examined, and had made no progress. Throughout Sunday I had 2 more gels. By Sunday evening I was in quite a bit of pain and used my tens machine all night. It was like a very low constant very bad period pain, and all I could do was pace up and down throughout the night.



    I was examined again Monday morning and had gone to 1 cm dilated so was given another gel, was examined a few hours later and had moved to 2 cm. At this point they booked me into the labour ward to break my waters ( they only need you to dilate a little before they can do this).



    At 8pm Monday night I had more waters broken (this did not hurt at all) I puffed on a little gas and air to distract me as I was so anxious is would hurt as I felt quite sore from all the examinations and gels, but it was fine.



    I was put on the induction drip and requested an epidural straight away as the midwifes recommended this with my induction. I was quite frightened of this but it was fab and would totally recommend it! My contractions were all over the place and were really irregular, the midwife said I must be still in rally early labour, however, when she examined my just after my epidual I was 9 cm dilated!! I must have got further than they thought with no real pan relief, just a few puffs of has and air. This was bout 4am -I had to wait about 6 hours for my epidural!!



    Anyway, at 6.47am my little boy was born via forceps on my last puch before a c-section. He weighed 9lbs 13 oz and had the cord wrapped round his neck twice. These 2 factors must have been why it took so long to induce me.



    The worse part for me was the Sunday / Monday waiting as I was in quite a bit of pain and was tired due to no sleep. Once my waters were broke I dealt with it all much better.



    Please don't worry I'm a wuss and I coped!



    Sorry if I've rambled!



    Good Luck you'll be fine!



    xx
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    Hi,



    My DS was born in Aug 10 and I had an induction at 10 days over. I too was petrified as I though the sweep was bad enough...lol



    I was admiited to hospital on the Satuday afternoon, and they monitored baby's heartbeat for a while, took my temp and blood pressure, filled in paperwork etc.



    Once all this was done a few hours later I was examined and they inserted the first gel pessary (which wasn't half as bad as the sweep) It was like a very small plastic tampon and I hardly felt a thing. Thay was about 5pm, through the night I had some very mild period pains that would come and go, I also had some back ache and ended uo taking some paractemol just to get comfy to sleep.



    I will say at this point I had a very unfavourable cervix which was closed so I was warned that it may take a few gels before anything happened.



    The following Sunday morning babies heartbeat was monitored again and I was examined, and had made no progress. Throughout Sunday I had 2 more gels. By Sunday evening I was in quite a bit of pain and used my tens machine all night. It was like a very low constant very bad period pain, and all I could do was pace up and down throughout the night.



    I was examined again Monday morning and had gone to 1 cm dilated so was given another gel, was examined a few hours later and had moved to 2 cm. At this point they booked me into the labour ward to break my waters ( they only need you to dilate a little before they can do this).



    At 8pm Monday night I had more waters broken (this did not hurt at all) I puffed on a little gas and air to distract me as I was so anxious is would hurt as I felt quite sore from all the examinations and gels, but it was fine.



    I was put on the induction drip and requested an epidural straight away as the midwifes recommended this with my induction. I was quite frightened of this but it was fab and would totally recommend it! My contractions were all over the place and were really irregular, the midwife said I must be still in rally early labour, however, when she examined my just after my epidual I was 9 cm dilated!! I must have got further than they thought with no real pan relief, just a few puffs of has and air. This was bout 4am -I had to wait about 6 hours for my epidural!!



    Anyway, at 6.47am my little boy was born via forceps on my last puch before a c-section. He weighed 9lbs 13 oz and had the cord wrapped round his neck twice. These 2 factors must have been why it took so long to induce me.



    The worse part for me was the Sunday / Monday waiting as I was in quite a bit of pain and was tired due to no sleep. Once my waters were broke I dealt with it all much better.



    Please don't worry I'm a wuss and I coped!



    Sorry if I've rambled!



    Good Luck you'll be fine!



    xx



    Just read back and realised my spelling is awful - typed in a rush! :lol:
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    I was induced at +7 and unfortunately it failed. I had pessaries and a syntocin drip (and an epidural!) but after 30 hours I had still only got to 8cm. I ended up with an emcs but what I will say is that it was absolutely a positive experience and I recovered extremely well (in fact so positive was my csec that I am having another one in Sept :lol: ).



    Good luck! x
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    I was induced at T+7 with both of mine (due to complications with the pregnancies) first time with the drip and second time with Prostin, it was absolutely fine both times and I managed with just gas and air.



    First time was 4 hours and 13 min in labour (pushing for 13 minutes), and the second was mega quick - Milly sort of slipped out, I had only had 2 sucks on the gas and air!



    For me the worst bit of both, was what happened after the babies were born, first time I got a second degree tear, and the local anesthetic didn't work for the stitches (ouch!) and the second I had a bad bleed which was pretty scary, but I think that both of those were because the labour was so quick.



    You will be fine hun.

    Nx
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    Hiya



    Im from born in august 10 and izzy was 8 days late. My waters broke but i didnt start contracting which is why i had my induction. I thought it was great. I went in for 10am to have the tablet (just one was needed), started contracting around 2pm, went down to the labour ward around 6pm and has Izzy at 12.34am. The only pain relief i had was pethadine which i speak highly about.I didnt really have time to read about inductions because it happened so quickly but i can honestly say it was great. I class myself very lucky to have a wonderful labour.

    The only thing i didnt enjoy was once i delivered Izzy i had to wait for the hormone drug to come down on the machine and it took about 3 hours. Be prepared for a wait after birth. I was glad though in a way because after your cleaned up and had your bath your hubby has to leave at our local hospital.



    Goodluck, relax, dont put your energy into screaming just PUSH (lol)and you will be fine image



    Make sure you post your birth story on here!!
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    Hi I haven't read all the messages but from reading opening lines my induction was quite different. On 10th june my waters broke and on 11th June I was induced with Prostin. (I was 10 days early). I had Prostin at 11am and at 3.35pm my dd was born! My contractions started at 11.30am, (although the midwifes said they weren't contractions and I was moved to a post labour room!)and were very intense and came very quickly. If I'm being honest, but I don't want to scare you, I was in so much pain that I couldn't sit or lie down so for the 4 hour labour I stood up hardly moving. However, as they didn't think I was having contractions I wasn't given any pain relief, other than the TENs I had brought. So I'm sure if I had pain relief it wouldn't have been as bad.

    I hope this hasn't worried you, I just wanted to be honest. Good luck and all the pain is definitely worth it!
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    Although my story im sure is very unique, it is a very positive one. My little one was born on August 31st 2010, I was induced at T+10, always believed I would go as long as I could! I had an easy pregnancy and a small bump - people are going to hate me after reading this! I actually lost weight in pregnancy (to make you feel better, ive put it all back on, lol)



    I went in at around 8pm, they examined me, said I had been having slight contractions and was 1cm dilated, I would not have dreamed I was in any kind of labour? After being monitored for a while they gave me a sweep and the prostin (excuse spelling) They put me to bed with some sleeping tablets and I guess this was around 11pm ish and my mum and best friend went home - Id always believed induction was a long process and was told they would most likely have to do it again in the morning.



    As soon as I tried to lay down I felt a little uncomfortable, I just kept walking between my bed and the loo and could not lie down. Although it was uncomfortable it wasnt horrendous pain, I just kept feeling like I really needed to go to the loo.



    I enventually called a midwife and she gave me some co-codomal and said it'll get a lot worse, nice! They rang my friend as I realised I couldnt cope too well if this was only early labour pain, luckily for me the attached birthing suite was completely empty so they ran me a bath in the birthing pool and put the radio on, I got in here and the midwife left me to it! I was on all 4 as this was comfiest and within a couple of minutes Id had a little poo - delightful!! I pulled the emergency cord and a midwife came in, I felt very nieve as I really had little idea I was in labour? I said there is something down there, she said itll just be part of the show - give it a tug, iit was my babies head and with one pull I was holding her above the water by her head!! The midwife grabbed her and gave her a rub, she was absolutely fine - luckily for me just 5lb 14 and perfectly healthy, I didnt even tear.



    Then my friend walked in, lol! The whole labour was a couple of hours, with the main part going down in the notes as 2 minutes (active labour!)



    The point of this essay is to say that I also was a little apprehensive of induction, but as with everything to do with pregnancy, labour and bringing up baby, we are ALL so different, so just go with what is right for you.



    Best of luck xx image
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    Hi,



    I was induced at 11 days overdue. I was dreading it but it wasn't too bad!



    I went into hospital at 10pm on the Thursday night and when they examined me my cervix was still closed. They monitored the baby's heart rate and took my blood pressure and pulse, then put the tablet in around 12am. Then I was left overnight so that I could sleep (although I don't think I slept at all!). They came back about 6am to monitor baby's heart rate again and take my blood pressure and pulse. They examined me again and said my cervix was nice and soft, then put the second tablet in about 8am. My contractions started almost straight away after that and by 12ish they were every minute or so.



    They examined me and said I ws 4cm so could go to the delivery ward. once there, I was examined again and they said I was only 1cm but because Harry's heart rate dropped a little bit, they said I could stay on delivery rather than going back up to the other ward. I found the contractions got pretty painful pretty quickly but managed to get to 6cm with no pain relief, then started on the gas and air. They broke my waters when I was 4cm and I had gas and air for that as I found the internal exams painful because Harry's head was so low down they had to reach up behind it to reach my cervix.



    I found that I couldn't sit or lay down as it was too uncomfortable so spent most of the time either bouncing on a ball or standing up leaning over the back of a chair. I found I had to change position a lot too. I tried to keep moving as much as I could.



    For the birth itself I tried laying on my side and then went onto my back, propped up by pillows. I was lucky in that I didn't need a drip to make my contractions speed up - they came fast enough by themselves! I think I was pushing for about an hour and Harry arrived at 11.40pm.



    I had a second degree tear so i needed stitches and I lost a lot of blood too so I had to be put on a drip after the birth but on the whole I had a pretty good birth experience.



    xx
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    I was induced at T+12 after a failed sweep at T+5 and T+10, in fact my cervix was so high 3 different midwifes couldn't even reach it.



    I went in at about 6pm on the Wednesday evening and had the pessary insterted about 7pm after the usual monitoring. My OH went home about 9pm as nothing was happening and I was taken up to the ward to rest and told that I would be taken back down to delivery suite in the morning when they had a bed for a second pessary. I started getting quite painful period type pains and a lot of pressure in the night and was only comfy walking around so paced the corridor most of the night. At about 6am I had a bath and went for a walk outside. Not long after I started getting stronger pains approx 10mins apart and hoped things were going to get started.



    By the time OH arrived at 10am it had all stopped. They didn't have any beds so I ended up on the ward til about 4pm with no monitoring, they listened to babys heartbeat just once from me being taken up there the night before.



    We went back down and my cervix was still really high so they gave me the other pessary and I went on a very very long walk, I had lots of pressure, it felt like someone was blowing up a balloon in the bottom of my tummy and it was about to pop any minute. At 11pm that night I was 1cm dilated so they broke my waters, there was meconium in them. The pains started pretty quickly after that but we had the radio playing and I was pacing the room/dancing which really helped but was pretty difficult with the monitor, I couldn't bare to be sat down. At 3am I was just 3cm and absolutely shattered, I'd spent the hour previous throwing up even though I hadn't had any drugs, yet! The midwife gave me a tiny dose of Diamorphine, I was already falling asleep between contraction, which were about every 3 minutes so she just gave me a bit to let me to sleep. I didn't have long but woke up feeling a lot better and ate some chocolate and a packet of crisps lol! When they checked me at 7am I was still only 4cm so they decided to put me on the drip. I'd already decided if I had to go on the drip then I wanted an epidural so they sorted that out and moved me into a bigger room. I managed to sleep for about half an hour after I had the epidural which was great. Abut 11am they wanted a urine sample and said I could either have a quick in out cathater or try on the bed pan and I chose the bed pan so these 2 midwifes are holding me up on it while OH is at the toilet and I'm mid wee when he walks back in :lol: then baby pooped again and my sample was ruined, it had taken me ages to go as well haha!



    About 1pm I got a sudden urge to push and I couldn't stop it but I knew I shouldn't, it just didn't feel like the right time so they examined me again and I was approx 7cm but she had turned back to back. Well that urge never bloody left. I just felt like I needed to do a poo and couldn't help but push, it was so hard to try and fight it. I kept saying I've pooed and I'm sorry and the midwife kept looking and saying no you haven't its just how baby is positioned but I made OH double check everytime lol!



    I don't know why but I started bleeding and another Dr came in to examin me and said they would either leave me another 2 hours or put a clip on the babies head as her heart rate had been quite slow all day and she hadn't been very active. They decided to leave me :evil: Come about 6.30 another Dr came in and as he went to examin me baby pooed again and there was just blood and poo everywhere when they moved the mat from underneath me and I was afraid that I was killing my baby! He said he was going to speak to the previous Dr about either leaving me another 2 hours and just putting a clip on her head or going for a section as I was still only 7cm and as he left the room my midwife told my OH to put some scrubs on ready for theatre. He said he wanted to wait in case they decided to leave me but she said they wouldn't, sure enough he came back with consent forms and that was it, my baby girl was delivered at 7.10pm by emergency section, almost 48hours after induction started. Surprisingly she had a birth score of 9 which went up to 10 at the 5 minute check and was just fine. Sometimes I think about it and it sounds horrendous but it really was the best day of my life :lol: OH is more traumatised from it than me. I'm just glad my baby arrived safely, although I do think that had the second pessary been inserted early the morning after the first one then things may have gone differently as I was having pains so something must have been trying to happen.



    Anyway your experience will all be over and done with now but it is nice for me to re live it all. I hope you had a nicer experience image x
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