Has anyone else had an induction experience like mine?

I was induced at 41+1. I went into hospital the Wednesday evening and had the gel put in arounf 7pm then again at 12. The next morning the nurses had said that that had not done anything and they would be putting more in (7am) then check at lunch. At lunch still no good so more gel. They came back and checked a few hours later and said they would call the Dr to check on me as nothing had changed.

The Dr came that night and said the gel had not worked and inserted a balloon like contraption to open up the cervix. This hurt like hell for the entire night.

The next morning the Dr said this has barely made a difference but would break my waters and insert the drip. So at 8:30am he did that and from 8:50am onwards I was having contractions two minutes apart. These eventually got on top of each other and the midwife turn the drip down for about half an hour to get the contractions back to two minutes apart.

BY 4:30pm I cou;dn't stand it anylonger and had an epidural. I had peace for two hours before the Dr said he would be stopping it and seeing if the Bub would come down further.

More pain until 9pm when the Dr finally suctioned my llittle one out.

The Dr did explain to me the entire way what was happening and I was very happy with the Dr.

I'm just interested to see if this kind of thing is 'normal'? Are my chances of this happening likely for my second birth?
Thanks

Sounds like your body was just not ready - and sadly this happens ALOT. Inductions can become failed inductions and more intervention is needed to get it going and sometimes it still doesn't get going and a c/s is needed.

First births are often learnt from and/or yucky - but not always... you are certainly not alone and no, it doesn't mean it will happen last time. You body may have a longer cycle and you may just have longer pregnancies. So I would tell the Ob to stay away from you with those yucky drugs unless its an emergency. Your body is designed to labour eventually - so trust your body, trust your baby and get some great support like a doula or private midwife where you have MUCH lower chance of interventions - even 50% less c/s's...

You could also make sure if you want Ob care that your Ob has a reasonable policy for inductions - it should be discussed after 42 weeks which is the end of term.

Kelly has made some great points, I had an induction experience very similar to yours, but mine sadly ended in c/s and Im now heading for a fabulous VBAC!

I was induced at 41 +3 - gel at 9pm on the Thursday night, gel again at around 8am... nothing. Waters broken at midday, nothing... drip began but very slowly at my request at 2pm... no difficult contractions until around 6pm.... she was posterior and I had a epidural at 1:30am on Saturday morning 7cms at this stage. VE showed I was 9cms at 6am... DD born at 935 via c/s...
Education and having great support people with you is the key... I know that my body can do this given the chance and I will not be bullied into anything we disagree with. I will be having a doula and my husband is very supportive of us having a vbac this time around.

There is no reason that with your next baby that you have to go down the same path of induction and remember that full term pregnancy is 42 weeks!
Good luck with it all

It's nice to hear that I'm not the only one. I was very pleased with m y Doctor although it was long and drawn out he kept me informed and explained all options in depth and was mmore than happy to answer any questions.

Next time I will wait longer though. I was lucky not to have a C/S although I was close as my little one had a very full head of hair and the Doctor said if the suction came off which was little because o all her hair then I would have had a c/s.

Funily enough my Doctor was great but the midwife that was on duty when I was in the final stages was HORRIBLE.

Which brings me to my next question. What happens if she still works there when I have my next one? If she walked in the delivery suite I would be likely to walk out. Could I ask for someone else? She was really revolting to myself, my Husband and my family who were waiting outside.

Yes, you can always request a different midwife.

As for inductions, I'm booked into one for this weekend at 38 weeks due to an eclamptic seizure I had last time, and I have done a fair amount of reading before agreeing to it. Basically, the chances of an induction being successful (ie, not escalating to a scary situation or requiring a c-section) is rated on a Bishops Score. This score takes into account how far bub is engaged, how ripe your cervix is, position of placenta, etc. If your score is below 5 (you can Google and find tables on how it is scored) then chances are the induction will not work very well, however if you score over 7 then chances are it will work well, possibly needing only gels. I have only agreed to go ahead on Sunday as bub is already down to 2/5 above brim and my cervix has already started to ripen.

Hope all this helps...

Arh I hadn't heard about the Bishops Score. I'm going to look into it just in case I need to know more for next time.

If I were to ask for a different midwife do we really think they would change or would they just tell me that I have no choice and this mid wife has been rostered on and there is no one else?

Dee73 good luck and let us know how it all goes.

I'm sure you'll be fine
:)

Someone asked about clashes with midwives at my antenatal class, and we were told that you could always request a new one, but yes, it might depend on how many were rostered on and if there was someone who could swap. I guess if you could somehow find out her name then it would be easier to arrange a swap before the event if possible?

my experience wasnt exactly the same--- but along the same lines.
I was induced at 38 weeks due to a 'large baby'.
I had the gels put in sunday morning. Check on monday morning- nothing had happened. Had atards put in tuesday night- the ballon thing in the cervix- which was taken out wednesday morning with only 2cm dialation. Waters were broken and drip put in. Officially started labour at midday. From about 4pm to midnight I was having 4-5 contractions every 10 minutes- drip on 16ml/hr!. Gave in to morphine at 10pm had epi at midnight after drip turned off and delivered by c-section at 2am.
In all that time my cervix had dialated a total of 4cm. Bubs just wasnt ready to make his entrance.

neeky, how big was your babe?

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Funily enough my Doctor was great but the midwife that was on duty when I was in the final stages was HORRIBLE.

Which brings me to my next question. What happens if she still works there when I have my next one? If she walked in the delivery suite I would be likely to walk out. Could I ask for someone else? She was really revolting to myself, my Husband and my family who were waiting outside.

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Funnily enough, I had a situation with bub #3 where I was in hospital, in labour, but not "actively" enough for the doctors. Then my bubs heartbeat skyrocketed to over 200bpm (not the first time this had happened), the doctor rushed in, checked everything, I was contracting really hard, so he checked my cervix, I was 5-6cm dilated, so he arranged for a delivery suite, and prepared for induction.

Down at delivery, some snooty midwife walked in, took one look at me out of the corner of her eye and said if I was more than about 2cm dilated, she'd eat her hat. (literally in those words). She promptly cancelled everything the doc had organised, then about an hour later (yes I was still down in delivery) she came in and asked if she could do an internal (of course I agreed, i wanted her to eat her hat!! :lol:) She "surprisingly" confirmed what the doctor had said, and told me that the induction could have gone ahead as "conditions were very favourable" (duh!!).

Anyway, that happened on the Friday. The poor doctor (he turned out to be an intern) was furious that he had been undermined, got a second opinion (from a FABULOUS doctor!) and rescheduled the induction for Monday (so yes, I spent all weekend in hospital in pain, after already being there for a week!).

On the Monday morning, that same snooty midwife walked into my delivery suite, said, "Oh I remember you", walked out and we never saw her again. So I know it was only a couple of days between seeing her, but she obviously felt bad or guilty (or else had been told to stay away!!). I guess what I'm trying to say is that if that midwife is still there, she might remember and get someone else to look after you of her own volition.

Hope all goes well for you! (and sorry this got so long!)

I have two inductions, both different situations .
My first with DD was due to preeclampsia , I had been on strict bed rest for a week in hospital and my BP refused to budge. I had gels put on at 7 pm, came back to ward and went to sleep. i woke at 3 am to go to the toilet and my waters broke, I asked for my partner at the time to be called to come in and was told are you sure it will still be a long time, i told them to call him and my MUm, lucky i did my DD was born at 7am.

I was induced with my DS at 40 + 10, i had gels administared at 7 pm, then again at 7 am, by luch time still nothing, i had my watrs broken and contractions started pretty much straight away, I had my DS in the shower , my labour was written down as under 40 minutes.

I guess i am one of the lucky ones, i have not had the drip with either, i must say though i have my fingers crossed i will go into labour on my own with this bub.