I was induced after 26 hours of labour as I had only progressed to 6 cms and was getting pretty exhausted at that stage. I had had my waters broken 6 hours earlier but that had not helped to much. I had been super active through the whole labour up until the induction and spent most of the time in the shower and walking around the labour ward leaning on DH when the contractions came. I was not impressed about being strapped to the bed to get the drip. I had tried the gas (which made me violently sick) and pethadine which actually seemed to slow the minor progress I had been making I agreed to an epidural due to the fact I would not be able to move anyway.

It was pretty awful, the first time the needle was in too far and only numbed from my thighs down... not helpful, they tried to pull it out a little and gave me an extra boost but the needle was still not in the right position so only just past the top of my legs was numb, they tried a third time but with no luck either. Apparently DS was posterior and just in the wrong spot to let the drugs work.... at any rate after the 3rd attempt and 4 hours after the drip had started they thought to look and found I was 10cms and needed to push. Legs were numb for 12 hours after birth, which was not great as i needed to go to the bathroom about 3 hours after birth and fell out of bed not realising me legs were numb. It made having a shower after pretty tough too.