Have you had the gel on the cervix before an induction? Booked in for next week

Hi. I have gestational diabetes so have to be induced a little earlier than usual. I am booked in for induction next Sunday at 5pm to have the gel put onto my cervix. I will be 40+5 wks.

I had an internal today and not dialated at all (plan was to induce this week) so OB said to wait. Cervix soft but closed.

The OB said the gel will be inserted at 5pm Sunday, stay overnight in hospital as it takes 12hrs to take effect and then he will induced early Monday morning.

I would love to hear people's experience with the gel and induction.

I was induced with my first son at 41wks but as my cervix was dialated, I did not have the gel - went straight to breaking the waters at 7am the day he was born. Then the drip at about 10am when nothing happened. He was born at 3pm and contractions commenced at 11am.

What has the gel done for you?

I had two applications of the gel when I was induced with DD1 at 39+5 (for no medical reason). It didn't work at all - my cervix didn't budge and 12 hours after the second application, it was onto the drip, ARM, the works :/
I'm pretty sure the gel only works if your cervix is pretty much ready to go anyway, I hope you have the same luck this time around as you did last time! :) Good luck, hope it all goes well!

i had 3 lots of the gel with ds2 and it worked and i didn't have to have any further encouragement. my cervix was closed and soft to begin with. how many doses of the gel are they willing to give you before they start the drip?

With DS I went in on the Tuesday (41w+2d) around 4pm for 1st app of gel they checked at 10pm and decided I didn't need another app. I started having pre-labour pains around 11pm that lasted all night. By early morning I was having real contractions and at 6:30am my waters were broken, DS was born at 2:07pm (didn't need the drip).

If this little one doesn't make a move I am booked in for the gel again at 41w, but the hospital I am going to this time will do 1 app of gel in the evening and then monitor you and if all is well you can go home and see if anything happens over night then come back in the morning for 2nd app (or sooner if things really get going). This sounds like a much better plan to me as I hated being alone in a hospital room with pre-labour pains all night. If you have to stay in hossy I would push for your partner to stay with you, I really wish I had.

Good Luck!!

I was induced with the gel for both my boys at 41 weeks. With DS1 I was 2 cm dilated when they applied the gel at 8pm, my waters broke by themselves around 1am and started to get mild contractions (I actually didn't think I was in labour!) and was 9 cm by 8am!

With DS2 I was 1cm dilated, the gels went in around 9pm and I started to get tightenings immediately, once again my waters broke spontaneously around 2am and he was born at 3.35am, so much quicker!

I was really glad that we decided to stay at the hospital both times as everything progressed pretty quickly. Seeing as it is your second baby and the cervix is soft hopefully you'll only need the gel, your body has done this before!

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Hi. I have gestational diabetes so have to be induced a little earlier than usual. I am booked in for induction next Sunday at 5pm to have the gel put onto my cervix. I will be 40+5 wks.

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I wouldn't call 40 + 5 with GDM earlier than usual, but it's great that you have come so far with it! We only got to 38!

Glamourcide - sorry the gel didn't work for you but thanks for your well wishes.

Ginger, Jaffaz and sweatpea - thanks for your stories! It really clues in me in more.

Ginger - I don't know how many doses they are willing to give? I didn't know they could give multiple so didn't ask the question. Over what period did they give you your 3 doses?

Jaffaz - Thanks for info re checking in the night. Great that bubs was born without the use of the drip. I think doctor is planning on breaking my waters early in the am. And thanks for information re hubby as I was contemplating that as I have a toddler at home but yours and sweatpea's stories have helped with that! (Although home is only 15min from hospital) so I guess I could call him to come in - as it is a private hossy with a double bed! What do you think?

Sweatpea - It worked well for you both times. 9cm by 8am with DS1 and bubs born in early hours second time. OB did say that he expects me to have a quick labour again once my cervix gets moving - so fingers crossed! Did you have hubby with you at night too? Or did he go home to toddler then you called him in?

Stretcher Bearer - I meant earlier than usual for a normal pregnancy. I am very happy with the fact that OB is letting me go on - as I was originally told my best case scenario was 39 weeks! And each visit since then, they have been happy for me to go a bit longer! So, yes it is long for GD but early for normal!!!

Dh stayed with me both times, we thought it was easier to arrange someone to already be with DS1 than try and get someone there at 2am! Luckily we did, the midwife didn't realise that I was ready to push so he probably would have missed the birth, she ran out of the room to call the ob! All the best with your induction, hope it all goes smoothly.

Thanks Sweetpea!

I only had the gel and it moved everything very quickly. Check out our story on my sig...Good luck :)

My baby's position/my cervix wasn't that favourable at my last appointment on Wednesday so I was scheduled to have gels at 8pm (Sunday night) and 5am (Monday morning) and then waters broken at 8am - so giving me plenty of opportunity to get things going without further measures. I started getting light cramps at midnight, waters broke and had real contractions by 2am and delivered at 4:30am. I think things had changed between my last appointment and the gels because it seemed as thought I didn't need much assistance and I was off and racing!

With my DD i had Gels put in at around 8 pm, then went back down to the ward for a sleep. I woke at 3am am to go to the toilets and my waters broke, she arrived at 7:30am.

With DS1 i had gels administered at night, then settled down for the night, had gels again in the morning, still no action so had waters broken, then bang action quick and fast with him arriving 45 minutes later.

DS2 was al naturale

i had 3 lots of gel with DD, i wasnt dialated... not even close. My waters broke on their own after the 3rd dose and i didnt need any further induction.

Thanks Ladies!!! Seems like it generally does get things moving!!

i too had GD (insulin dependent) and was induced with gels at 39 weeks. i had the first lot put in at 3pm (20/01/09) which started a few mild contractions (nothing too bad) then another lot of gels put in at 10pm which ramped up the contractions but were still bearable. at 12.55am i rolled over in bed and my waters broke - no further induction methods were used. by 1.00am i was in active labour and DD was born vaginally with no assistance, no tears at 8.00am (21/01/09) :)

GL!!

Thanks Negrita!!!! That's the kind of story I want to hear!!!

i actually had a reaction to the gel and had something called an hypertonic contraction. a contraction that went for too long and compressed baby so much the heart beat slowed right down. i dont know if there is any way to prevent that from happening, or find out beforehand if that could happen to you. i have read of a way to apply it attached to a string and they just pull it out if a reaction occurs. with the gel, once it is in ther it is in there and they can try to scoop it out with little success.

so my advice to you is, if you feel an immediate contraction tell them ASAP. they should monitor your tummy straight after application. (being my first baby i didnt really know i was having a contraction cause i didnt know what it felt like and it didnt hurt really it was just a tingly/tensing feeling to begin with) so if you feel strange just let them know.

also, wanted to add that my cervix was no where near favourable and i had what they call prosto pains all night, i think cause i had the reaction they were more intense but thing is they werent doing anything! had to have waters broken and had drip too.

thats just what happend with me though.. best of luck.

I was induced at 41+3. My cervix was completely closed and not at all soft & stretchy. I had the cervadil put in place and left in overnight. It was put in roughly at 4pm and I started having pains/contractions at about 4am that got closer together but not really all that painful, just achey. My waters were broken at 8am & i was 2 cms dilated. I then was put on the drip & had really strong painful contractions etc.

Having said that, I ended up having a C-section because after about 10 hours I hadnt dilated more than 4 cms! Finally a doctor told us that my pelvis was too small for bubs head and that a section was definetly needed.

The gel is really just to get things moving, they will definitely break your waters in the morning. I agree with the others that said keep your partner with you. The pains after the gel is inserted aren't very nice & I really loved having my partner with me to keep my company, and also so I knew he would be there when they broke my waters.

Good luck!

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Thanks Negrita!!!! That's the kind of story I want to hear!!!

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Glad to help hun :) - i know my induction was a "lucky" one as not many turn out that way, but according to my OB my cervix was already favourable which is why he opted to do the gels rather than ARM and drip (which is what i would have had done if the gels hadn't worked)

littlebear - thanks for sharing your story and advice re hubby!!

Thanks for sharing Hollo...I had an allergic reaction to misprostal when applied to the cervix and it was absolutely horrible. My OB assures me this will be different.

I was induced with the gels at 3pm which started period type pain. At the time of the first application I was around 1cm dialated. At 9pm I had a second lot inserted which didn't do much but at 1am I started getting really painful contractions, well actually one long contraction that never really stopped! I couldn't deal with no break in contractions so opted for an epidural, but by the time they got the epi in it was 3am and I was already 10cm dialated, so useless really. An hour later, at exactly 4am DS was born with the help of the vacuum. My labour was recorded as 2 hours 6 minutes, but it was really 3 hours.

So no other induction methods apart from the gel were used, but I'll do anything to avoid it again. Too hard and too fast for me, and an assisted delivery too.

So no

Gracious G - I was induced with first bubs - waters broken and then drip - and it was hard and fast and had vontouse delivery - sounding much like yours. So probably won't be much different this time, I guess!!! Wow - looking forward to that!

i had 2 doses of the gels, and required no further assistance, 18 hours later my little girl was there