booked in for induction well before bubs is even due

hi girls!
my step sister is due to have her first baby on boxing day, her OB has decided that its a good idea to book her in for an induction on the 5th of jan. (yes my brain exploded too!)
theres no medical complications with either of them to book an induction in, she'll simply be over due. SS agreed to the date because she trusted her OB and didnt realise that she could say no to it.

the point of this thread?
Arm me with info!
ive already spoken with her about it, she's not happy about being induced, ive told her what i know, which isnt all that much. What else can i tell her? and can anyone tell me how she can make the most of an induced birth, if the induction ends up happening?

lol just re-read, doesnt make much sense, hope u ladies understand what im trying to convey!

pushy OB's!

She can still say no, she may have agreed to it now but can change her mind...or as someone I know did, just not show up to be induced :shhh:

Best of luck

Quite a lot of hospitals have a policy of scheduling induction for ten days post due-date, so this is pretty normal. They can't force an induction, and there's no reason why your stepsister can't simply refuse, or not show up for it, but I personally found it preferable to negotiate from an informed position rather than go toe-to-toe with my caregivers. Ultimately I had chosen my caregivers and I wanted to work with them during labour, so I was more comfortable taking this approach. I felt that my wishes were respected because I was clear, calm and respectful in explaining what I wanted.

In my case I explained my reservations about induction, and we agreed to monitoring the day before the induction. As monitoring showed no reason for concern we then postponed the induction, then postponed it again after further monitoring. I ended up going into spontaneous labour before the induction.

The biggest concern with induction is that it is rarely conducive to active labour, and because of the intensity of the labour it often leads to a cascade of interventions.

I'm pretty sure there are some threads on here about the best way to approach an induction if it does go ahead, including active labour techniques. There is also quite a bit of info about inductions in general in this article.

Wishing your stepsister luck with her decision, and with her birth!

suse thats my worry about her, shes not all that well informed, her ob just set the date and said if u havent the baby by then ur getting induced!
i spoke to her about the cascade of intervention the other day to help her see why i was having a spaz! lol! i spoke to her about seeing an acupuncturist(sp?) ect aswell.
my worry is that she's already putting pressure on herself to have the baby b4 the 5th.

i know its very possible she'll have it b4 hand, i also know that induction at 10 days over is very routine but she really really doesnt want to be induced ( cant say i blame her, it was hell for me) just trying to give her info on wat she can do...without sounding pushy, which is really hard!

Hi Skybie,

I guess she will be seeing her Ob again before the induction is due? Can she talk to him about how she is feeling? The first thing I would ask is whether there is any reason for her not to have a bit longer - with monitoring maybe.

Ask how the induction would take place, what exactly her ob has planned.
Some Drs offer Foley catheter induction which I *think* might be a bit more gentle? Helps the cervix dilate (someone please correct me if I am wrong here ;) ).

She might want to consider a few things like - if they start a drip, can it be kept low / turned off once she has regular contrax, etc.

She could talk to him pehaps about wanting an active labour - most induced labours require more monitoring & can be a bit restrictive - make sure that if she is induced, she can still move around, use the shower etc if she wants

Induction isn't the nicest option but it isn't always awful either - there are ways to make it better, I think basically taking it as slow as possible, and keeping it active as possible.

Definitely try the acupuncture first:) & good luck to her - with an induction date over bubs head it just might trigger something anyway ;)

As already mentioned, an induction at 10 days overdue is very normal. So that isn't very surprising.

I think the strange thing is that the OB is talking about a date already! It may be standard that he induces at 10 days and it kind of goes without saying that any OB is going to want to induce if you go very long past your due date. It just seems to be a lot of extra stress to put on your SS to be given an induction date before she is even due.

I think the problem here is an OB that isn't particularly sensitive with what he is saying. I would encourage your SS to do all the things that are supposed to bring on labour and then inform herself about inductions if she does end up going over her due date.

No point stressing too much now.

hi girls, thought id give u an update, i stuffed up, her due date was the 28th not the 26th, but anyway not important now!
lil elliot was born last night at 730 a fifteen hour labour with only gas. he ended up being vaccumed into the world and mum needed and episiotomy, but they got there in the end. a lovely early chrissy present for the whole family!!
went and saw him this morning, totally adorable and small and squishy!

Congrats Skybie! Great news...no induction needed after all :D
welcome Elliot... what a lovely Christmas present.