My gut tells me that position matters a lot to the success of an induction, as the clock starts ticking from the first contraction which will be doing what would normally happen at home prior to labour, ie baby rotating into a nice position. This leads to more c/s for "failure to progress" and "maternal exhaustion" that IMHO could be otherwise avoided by waiting a few more weeks. I would love to see the stats on what gestation women are when they are inducted for non medical reasons as I suspect that there are a lot of inductions between 38 and 41+6 weeks which is of course term. This will skew the statistics on average gestation for Australian women.
To be honest I would like to see induction for "overdue" to be properly studied and hopefully the whole practice stopped. Induction for PET or diabetes is another matter entirely but I feel that inductions are being offered for so many reasons (maternal exhaustion, partner's holidays, childcare) without any consideration of the medical implications of this. And I do not feel women are giving informed consent, because they are not told of the likely implications of an induction.
My experience with induction 2 years ago is all I can contribute to this thread!
I was induced because I was 9 days overdue, DS was posterior.....but didn't know till I was actually in labour (possibly a reason he wasn't ready to come out when I was ready for him to ). I was given gels on a Thursday night, which didn't work on me, and was induced with the drip on the Friday morning at 7am.
I went into labour hard and fast and had an epi. After they'd checked me, they knew that DS was posterior, but that didn't mean anything to me at the time (no BB wisdom!) I sat on a chair labouring which I think helped him to drop and I was quite relaxed after I'd had the epi which helped too.
The doctors thought that I wouldn't have him till six pm, but I wanted to prove them wrong. They also thought that I'd need help to get him out, either with suction or forceps. I didn't need any of that, at 3pm I was 10cm and ready to push and at 3:55pm DS was born. I had managed to turn him (well maybe he did that himself I'm not sure) and have him with his hand up against his face. The doctor was well impressed!
I'm not sure whether being a public or private patient would contribute. Had I of had a scan and seen that DS was posterior, whether that would have changed their reason to induce me, or leave me a bit longer to see if he changed position?
Induced at 42 weeks because...42 weeks.
Cervix was 90% thinned but not low or ripe when folley catheter thingy put in night before induction. Baby still not engaged
On morning of induction, cervix thinned, cervix still high but somewhat ripened. Baby not engaged. But still in left/anterior position.
DR says: Very high chance of ceasar (but continues anyway - never occurred to me to say, ok, we'll come back later then!)
Waters broken. 3.5 hours later, synto started. 1.5 hrs after that 8cm. 3 hrs after that 10cm, but baby in distress (and so was mum!) = forceps delivery.
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). I was given gels on a Thursday night, which didn't work on me, and was induced with the drip on the Friday morning at 7am.
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