I had the same ob for both my pregnancies, 1st one naturally conceived and second one IVF, and it definitely wasn't standard practice for him But that's not to say that may be the case for every ob, or that elective induction wouldn't be offered.

And TBH, please don't shoot me for saying this , I can see why some IVF ladies would go for the induction. After miscarriage and IVF I felt like all the confidence had been sucked out of me. I was worried the whole pregnancy about things not ending well and despite my best efforts I could not totally shake this feeling Also, in my eyes this pregnancy was my very last chance at having my second child. I am a poor responder to the IVF meds and we only got one egg and one embryo, if I had've had to repeat the process there was no guarantee that we would have even got another embryo to put back. And with each passing month of failure, my risk of miscarriage was increasing as well - that was the way I felt anyway. When you are having feelings like this it is very easy to start thinking that induction may be the way to go, I know I did.

I had a low intervention ob, but by the time I reached 39 weeks I was feeling very anxious and totally weary of feeling this way too if that makes sense? I just wanted things to be over and to be holding my bub. So I convinced my ob to book me in for an induction at 40 weeks. But being fully aware of the risks, and having gone into labour naturally before and knowing I could cope with it, I had doubts about going ahead when it came to the crunch and I cancelled at the last minute My ob was chuffed that I did LOL and I subsequently had DD2 at 40w5d after a 1 hour drug free labour with no intervention. Actually she was born so fast that my ob didn't even get there in time LOL I'm very proud of the fact that I overcame my fears, well somewhat anyway, and held out to have DD2 naturally - I knew it was the best thing for me, my baby and my family. Also, being diabetic as well and knowing what that could have led to - well that's another story that I won't go into!

So what I guess I'm trying to say is that it is easy to believe that early induction while the bub is still well is a good thing and be talked into it, because you never know what could happen down the track a week or two. And even more so if you believe that this is your one chance to actually ever hold your own baby. And it may be uncommon to lose an IVF baby late in the pregnancy but it does happen.

Also, I do believe there is a perception in general that elective induction (and c/s too for that matter) is/are just as safe as waiting. Everyone here may realise that that is not true, but from what I know of people IRL that is not the case.

Hope I'm not opening a can of worms here, but I really just wanted to give my take on things