Hi ladies,

I was wondering if any of you had to be induced and if so what was your experience like?

I'm being induced on sunday when i'll be 2 weeks overdue however haven't been given any information about what will happen and what it will entail so i'm feeling pretty anxious at the moment!! All mw has said is that i need to ring hospital first thing for a time to go in!!

Would love to hear about your experiences and if any of you have any tips as to what i could do to prepare for it i'd really appreciate it!

Thanks
Gem x x

I was induced at 10days overdue but it failed. When you first go in you are examined and if it possible they will break your waters and put you on a drip to start the contractions. If it is not possible to break your waters you will have a pessary inserted that is meant to open your cervix. You will be monitored after this insertion then after 6 hours or so you will be re-examined and if there is any change, your waters will be broken, if not, you can have another pessary. And so on, until you have had 3, sometimes 4 (depends on the NHS trust in your area) pessaries. If nothing happens after all the pessaries then you would more than likely be given a c section. My induction failed because my baby was stuck and was too big to get out so no amount of pessaries would have done anything!
Don't worry, remember that your goal is to get your precious baby out safe and sound.
Best of luck and let us know how you get on.
xx

when my waters broke i was told to go straight in only to be told that i was having sky high contractions (which i couldnt feel) but it was only my hind waters that had broken and i wasnt dilating at all.
they wouldnt let me go home but kept me in and chcked on me overnight and gave me a sweep. in the morning they gave me a pessary and at lunch they came back to monitor me again. my contractions were still off the scale and i still couldnt feel them (please dont ask me why coz i still dont know!) and the pessary had done nothing, so they gave me another one. at 6pm i was 1 cm dilated (and very bored and tired after being in for 24 hours now) so they put me onto a drip and broke my forewaters. i was on the drip for a further 6 hours before they examinded me again when i had got to 4 cm dilated....so they left me on it (btw they couldnt control it properly and i was having either double contractions or none at all) and at 5 am i was fully dilated. for the next hour they had me pushing but nothing was happening so in the end i was rushed into theatre for forceps which failed then an em c sec.

they tend to use sweeps and pessaries first in this area and if they dont do anything move onto a drip then and break your waters, with a c sec being a last resort (unless its elective)

but dont worry - most of the time a sweep or a pessary works and everything goes ok.

xxxx

i've been induced with 2 of my 3 dd's......the 1st was 16yrs ago and i was taken in 11 days over due, examined and hooked up to a hormone drip, and a baby heart monitor I had every pain relief available and had trouble giving birth, it wasnt the most pleasurable experience of my life but worth it in the end......my 2nd birth was natural at 4days overdue, no pain relief or stitching.....my 3rd was 14 days late i was induced they took me in hooked me up to the baby monitor and examined me, gave me a 2nd sweep in the hope that it would start me off but it didnt, after a couple of hours they decided to break my waters to see if that would start me off, then they decided after still getting nowhere fast to use the hormone drip and 8 hours later with no pain relief, tears or stitches out came paige.......i wont lie to you the hormone drip is alot more painful but needs must to get your lo out and its well worth it once they are here.......every midwife knew about me in the maternity ward the woman who had the hormone drip and no pain relief

sorry just realised the title is any tips..........the only tip i can give you is......although you probably have a birth plan set out e.g no pain relief, every kind of pain relief........i would say dont set your mind to following it to the tee cos if you've set your mind to no pain relief you may decide as the pain worsens you want it all.......tell your birthing partner to be prepared to have his/her circulation stopped by you squeezing his hands, also if your birth partners a man he may want to wear some protection over his manhood lol just incase you decide to grab his willy squeeze it and twist it and tell him never to come near you again lol..........i just squeezed my dh's hand so hard that it went a funny colour lol i also told him that number 4 would be on hold for quite a while lol

Ha ha loving your response BigMumma!!!

Thanks very much for all your responses ladies they all seem pretty positive which was what i was hoping for...just feel completely fed up at the moment and the last thing i wanted was to be induced and find that it's an awful experience.

This is our first baby so obviously want everything to go smoothly so here's to focusing on Sunday and hoping that everything goes smoothly and our little man or lady is here by Monday!!!

Thanks again
Gem 41+3 x x x

i was due in nov 3rd and on the 7th nov i was fed up, the mw w3as due to give me a sweep, so that night my bf gave me what we thought was a sweep and a few hours later contractions started.we will nevr know if thats why it happened, but its worth a try x

Gem24 good luck for sunday......it really is worth every contraction to have your lo finally arriving safely and having him/her in your arms

also they recommend skin to skin contact as soon as baby arrives, i wasnt sure i wanted to do this as i didnt do it with the others and bonded just fine, plus wasnt sure about being completely naked in a room of people but in the end i thought sod it my dh has seen it all before, my mum ( birthing partner number 2) well she has the same give or take a few wrinkles lol, and well i just had my legs spread with the midwife looking up my fanny lol so i figured what the hell threw caution to the wind and let it ALL hang out and i held my dd to my skin, i have to say i thought it was a lovely bonding experience

Hi, I was induced due to high blood pressure. I went into hospital at 10pm and at midnight i had the gel inserted. At 1am my waters broke and then i was in so much pain that i asked for paracetomol which obvioulsy didn't work, they forgot about me and then at 5am i was still in pain so they gave me pethidian (sp) and i fell asleep and at 7.15 i woke up with my lo's head in the world - i still had my knickers on!!!!!

I've decied to have the skin to skin contact straight away and hopefully going to breastfeed straight away too, i'm so excited about meeting lo and can't wait to find out the sex although i'm convinced it's a girl now who is stubborn just like me!!

Thanks very much BigMumma - really appreciate it!

Wow Shell&Marcus that is an amazing story bet you weren't expecting that when you woke up!!

x x


[Modified by: Gem24 on February 20, 2008 11:13 AM]