Cervidil

Hi

I'm now 11 days overdue which is quite frustrating but at least I know that the big day is now only a few days away at most. I had fetal monitoring earlier this week and they said everything was great. I'm going back to the hospital today for more monitoring plus an internal (have not had any internals to date) and they said depending on what my cervix is doing they might give me cervidil in preparation for a full induction on Saturday.

Has anyone else had cervidil? What should I expect? Is it likely to trigger labour or is it more likely to just get things ready for Saturday? If it triggers labour is this a better method of induction than other methods - will I be less likely to need other forms of intervention? I'm a little scared, anxious and excited about all of this!

I guess I will ask all of this at the hospital today but just thought some of you lovely ladies might have some advice or experiences to share.

Thanks,
Fi

Cervadil is common in the USA and they talk about it on the DVD, The Business of Being Born... as one couple stated, 'Once we had the cervadil, the chance of following our birth plan and a normal birth were out the window.

Induction of Labour: To Induce or Not Induce
Hospitals Crack Down On Induced Labours (a news article in BB but a great discussion with members).

Being Seduced to Induce

Cervadil is just an alternative to normal gels. The only difference is that it has the advantage that it can be removed should the baby get distressed.

I went straight into labour after having it inserted.

Be prepared that if you do have it inserted they might decide to keep you there until bub is born.

I had cervadil inserted at 38w5d in order to start the induction process - I had it in at about 8pm and had to stay in the maternity ward overnight. Contractions (though mild) started an hour or two after it was inserted and my waters were broken at 7am the next morning. DS was born 8 hours later.

I had Cervidil inserted at 38 weeks with DS due to him being a large baby (apparently!). I had to stay in hospital once I had it in. My 'contractions' started almost immediately only they weren't contractions - they were uterus being irritated by the cervidil and my cervix wasn't dilating at all. I went on like that from the Tuesday night at 8pm when they inserted it to 11am on Thursday morning when they broke my waters. They gave me pethidine for the pain on Wednesday afternoon so that I could sleep that night as well as panadeine forte and a sleeping tablet.

I had to have regular visits up to birth suite to check my progress (every 6 hours) once the cervidil was inserted and they would take out the cervidil and then put it back in. The cervidil made everything down there very sensitive, swollen and irritated which meant that the internals were extremely painful. I am a bit surprised they would send you home once it is in - they kept me in because it can cause the baby to be distressed so they like to do regular monitoring of the baby once it is in to make sure that they don't get distressed. One friend that was induced with cervidil had to go and have a c-sect within 30 mins of it being inserted because her baby's heartrate dropped significantly and dangerously.

My cervix was still very high and closed when I had the cervidil inserted so it meant they had to reach a long way to put it causing more pain. It may have worked better if my body was ready in any way, shape or form to go into labour, but I think they were really forcing my labour because nothing was ready to go. It may work for you if your cervix is more favourable, I don't know.

I never want another cervidil experience again. It was a horrible 2 and a half days and left me quite worn out for when labour actually did begin, but that is my experience and everyone's bodies work differently.

Good luck with everything and look forward to reading your BA very soon!

ETA: I also just remembered that when I did go into labour as a result of my waters being broken (they could only break my water because I had previously had a baby so my cervix was just wide enough to get that crochet hook looking thing up there), it didn't progress really well by itself and I had ot have a drip inserted with syntocin (I think it was called). They gave me an epi because they said the drip is extremely painful. So I had a lot of intervention as a result of my induction but again I am not so sure if that is to do with the method of induction or just that my body was simply not ready to go into labour.