Induction - was yours positive?

[Toomanytoomany]

If it was a positive Induction, what did you do to prepare for this? What did your partner do if anything to prepare for this? I'm wanting to make sure i'm prepared and covering all bases. Have a check up tomorrow and will ask for a sweep to be done but DH and I have also spoekn about it and if bub hasn't arrived by Friday naturally then will have the induction.

I've had four very positive inductions, but the big thing to consider is your bishops score - ask your OB/midwife what yours is if you have a sweep done tomorrow. The better your bishops score, the more likely it is that things will go relatively smoothly (although of course there are absolutely no guarantees). It may be that you can have it done in a staged way... an AROM to get things going, if that doesn't work, just a little bit of syntocinon (with #3 I just needed a "sniff").

If your bishops score isn't great when decide by Friday to have an induction (if baby hasn't arrived yet) then it may just be worth waiting an extra couple of days to give yourself the best chance of getting into an induction working.

Good luck - with Tom I had decided to have an induction on the Wednesday if he hadn't arrived (he was due the preceding Friday), had the s&s done on the Monday and he decided to come on his own on Tuesday. Must have scared him out!!

[Toomanytoomany]

Oh and to answer your question - in my inductions, I tried to make them as normal as possible - walking, moving around. Many hospitals will require constant foetal monitoring now with an induction, but you can get your partner to hold the belts on you so that you can move around without too much difficulty. I did this with dd#5. My sister helped too - I didn't really have restricted mobility, used the ball, etc. I think if you can avoid an epidural, it will help.

I always asked them to increase the synt slowly and warned them that I was a quiet achiever so not to feel they had to bump the stuff up to make me look more like I was in labour!

When you go in for an induction, it's easy to feel like you've given up a natural birth and are in a highly medicalised environment, but it doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to accept everything they want you to do because they've stuck in a drip and taken control from the beginning.

[BrightSparkles]

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When you go in for an induction, it's easy to feel like you've given up a natural birth and are in a highly medicalised environment, but it doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to accept everything they want you to do because they've stuck in a drip and taken control from the beginning.

This was my biggest worry. I had an induction with DD and swore black and blue that i'd NEVER have another one and have a c/s over an induction anyday. Though i've done more research now and will have the induction if I have to. I just don't want to lose the feeling of a natural birth when it's something I have worked on and have been preparing myself for for so long.

[Toomanytoomany]

This was my biggest worry. I had an induction with DD and swore black and blue that i'd NEVER have another one and have a c/s over an induction anyday. Though i've done more research now and will have the induction if I have to. I just don't want to lose the feeling of a natural birth when it's something I have worked on and have been preparing myself for for so long.

Sunshine, mine felt very "natural" despite the fact that they were helped along. I didn't have internals or anything, was able to do what I wanted. Really the only thing that was different was the monitoring. In fact, my last labour which was more spontaneous was much more disrupted by my annoying midwife than any of the inductions had been!

One extra thing - afterpains can hurt more after an induction, and certainly more so with subsequent babies. Also, it can take a little longer for your milk to come in after an induction for some reason, so be really scrupulous about making sure you can get the baby to the breast as soon as possible, and have a lot of skin to skin and nurse, nurse, nurse! I think neonatal jaundice is more common with inductions too but I could be wrong there.