They can induce after a c/section as long as it's taken very very slowly and carefully, my guess is that it's not tried often because inductions will often lead to a c/section anyway so what's the point IYKWIM. But anyway, this was the plan for my induction last year.

I was to go in to have my waters broken at 7am. At the time it was booked in I was 3cm dilated & effaced 0.5cm. I would be given around 8 hours for contractions to start, which meant I would be walking the hospital grounds to get things going. After that time I was then going to be given the lowest possible synto drip dose. If contractions started the drip would be stopped & I'd be left to labour away, if they didn't it would be turned up a maximum of twice. I think they said that it would still be less than the starting dose of a normal induction. If contractions didn't start I'd be sent for a c/section, if they did the drip would be stopped & nature would take it's course. I think after that I would have been given 24 hours to have the baby because of the infection risk after the ARM.

Prior to that if you are dilated less than 3-4cm you should be able to ask for a Foley's Cathetar induction. Essentially the insert the cathetar into your cervix & blow up the balloon part to force your cervix to start to open. It can take around 24 hours but from everything I read it works really well to get to that initial 3-4cm.

You can also try a stretch & sweep, acupuncture or clary sage oil to try to get things started.


Just so you know there is no reason why you couldn't go into labour beforehand. I had my appointment on the Friday & booked the induction for the Monday, at 10pm the Friday night my waters broke & contractions started around 1am. So you never know you might not need to worry about an induction at all