Elective Induction

Jennifer - posted on 01/18/2010

if you have dilated and effaced at all y ou should be ok. however if you have no cervical change you could be in for a lengthy stay. Induction DOES come with a higher risk of c-section, as in most inductions they will break your water relatively early on, and then you are on a sort of time limit. Alot of people tried to scare me with induction horror stories. i was induced at 38 weeks ( with IUGR ) with my first. however i was 90% effaced and 3 1/2 cm already. It went very quickly and was not any more painful, then my second labor whch was natural. i did not have to have cervidil, only pitocin. people says it makes contractions more painful, but i honestly did not think it did. contractions ARE painful regardless. pitocin just makes them more effective and regulates them...which your own body would eventually do anyways. i DID have an epidural with that labor ( natural with my second ) but it failed and only numbed one side. they started pitocin at about 8 am, and broke my water at 930 am, andi had her at 217 in the afternoon. not bad at all. Good luck! I am miserable right now as well ( 3rd baby, and have had no preggo related issues AND have been in a "pre-labor" state of contractions and such for over a week now...) and at this point an elective induction sounds like heaven to me!!!!

Jessica - posted on 01/18/2010

I was induced and absolutely LOVED my labour. I think it depends on the way and extent of your induction. I was induced because I had massive swelling and was 4days over due. I was 3cm dialated but hadnt experienced any pain or cramping. They tried a stretch and sweep on the Thursday and booked me in to be induced on monday if I hadnt progressed. Come 8am monday morning nothing had changed so they injected the the cream to start contractions. six hours later Id barely felt a thing and nothing had changed so at 4pm they broke my waters. At 5.56pm our daughter was born at 7pounds 11ounces. As Brandi Pregenzer said it is hard because the labour comes on so quickly and intensly, you barely get a break between contractions (I dialated 7cm in 45minutes) but I needed no pain relief and was so relieved it was over quickly. If I get the option I'll be asking to have my waters broken again.

Staci - posted on 01/17/2010

I had this option with my first child...and when I did some research, I read that about 60% of inductions end in a C-section. If you are hoping to avoid a c-sec, you should wait and see what your body does naturally. I wouldn't induce unless the baby was more than a week overdue. I went into natural labor with my daughter but didn't progress past 8cm so I ended in an emergency c-sec...trust me when I tell you that if you can avoid higher chances of a c-sec, avoid it at all costs...it's awful to not be able to care for your child well because you are so busy caring for yourself and your recovery...

Nikki - posted on 01/16/2010

I have been told that induced labor is more intense than beginning naturally. With my first, I was in a lot of discomfort and did elect to induce at 37 weeks. My labor was fine. My daughter was healthy and I am none the worse for it. I am pregnant again and am debating about whether to induce again. Of course, circumstances are different this time. It is all about doing what you feel is best for you and your child. If that is getting the baby here safely and on a timeline that is of your choosing, then I say go for it and be glad that we have the opportunity to make that decision, because our mothers didn't.

Kimberly - posted on 01/15/2010

i got induced a week early last feb.my doctor missed the delivery. they gave me poticin at 6am i had tyler at 9:14am. So it was quick for me..but every women is different. My due date is the 24th of february. I could have been induced the 18th if i want to but i wanted tyler to have his own birthday so i am going to be induced the 22nd if i dont have caylee on my own.

Katherine - posted on 01/14/2010

Hi Amie, I'm from Australia so I think its probably different in some cases, but with me i chose to be induced early with my first baby, as he wasn't moving and I was able to walk around, the comfort level wasn't too bad, it is different from normal labour, as i have 2 children and my second was natural. You have constent pain, but the labour wasn't that long it was 2hours and 50minutes. My natural labour was 2hours so besides the pain its about the same. I would do it again if i had too. Good luck :)

Angel - posted on 01/14/2010

Not all inductions are terrible. I was hooked up at 10 am and didn't feel anything until the doctor came to brake my water at 5:30. (He said he would be there at 1 to do it but someone else went into labor). As soon as he broke the water I could suddenly feel the contractions. but they weren't constant. Maybe I wasn't on as high of a dose as some women.

I kept getting out of bed and dancing with my husband, while the nurses begged me to lay back down because the monitor slipped and couldn't detect my son's heart rate every time I got up. I stayed up anyway. they can't force you to lay down. The nurse checked me and I was 8.

everyone thought I had an hour to go. I wanted a waterbirth and told them to start filling the tub. I couldn't get in until I was ten tho because they couldn't unhook the iv to soon. my mother in law listened and filled up to tub to the nurses dismay. I am thankful that she did because 12 min later I told the nurse I was getting in the tub to push and she needed to call the doctor. She said I couldn't be ready yet but decided to check me. I was 10 cm and unhooked my iv myself. I went into the tub and the water relaxed me so much that without the iv I stopped having contractions. after 15 min of pushing with no contractions the doctor suggested I get back onto the bed. hook up to the iv and have him in the bed. I delivered my son 2 pushes later.

It wasn't terrible but my body wasn't helping at all. Next time If I have to be induced I'll stay on the bed. but if it's not medically necessary I'll have a waterbirth without being hooked to an iv and monitors.

Casey - posted on 01/14/2010

I think it depends how much your "comfort level" is bothering you... From my experience (6 years ago with my 1st) I elected for induction because my doc was going to be across the country (i'm in FL and he was going to CA) on my due date. I had a bad experience, the contractions never stopped, it was really just ongoing contractions, no breaks between them. I know labor is painful anyway, but with mine, it wasn't a contraction and then a short timespan with none, it was just continuous pain, and the hospital was busy that day, so I didn't get my epidural until I was 8 going on 9 cm (which I am told was really too late to have one but they gave it to me anyway, so maybe I just got bad doctors that day) Maybe I just had too much pitocin? I'm not sure, but just going on my experience I would never recommend induction unless it was necessary. I hate to give you a horror story, my labor was actually really short, so maybe the induction helped with that aspect- I got induced at 9am and daughter was born just after 4pm. Do whatever you feel is best, certainly if you're in pain and need to deliver soon, that may be what you need to do, I just felt obliged to tell you about my experience- Good luck to you and your baby!

Amie - posted on 01/14/2010

Thank you all for the advice and sharing of personal experience. I didn't realize that I missed a couple key points that the doctor did mention. I have been 70% effaced for 3 weeks and only dilated 1 cm for 2 of those. She said that our BG keeps dropping, but it hasn't changed the dilation any. She only mentioned the elective induction AFTER I told her how much trouble I've had with sleeping and getting around lately. If I lay on my right side I feel like I'm going to throw up. If I lay on my left side, I get terrible heartburn and my hips start to throb. (And at this point, I can't even think about laying on my back even for short periods of time.) During the day, every time I get up to walk around, it feels like my hips are going to pop out and every joint throbs. That's why she said that due to my "comfort" level we could induce.

I'm still hoping that having sex over the next couple of days (until our appointment) will kick things into high gear, but we wanted to get the appointment set up just in case. At our hospital here in IL, they only do 5 elective inductions per day for ALL doctors who deliver there so you have to set up at least a week in advance.

Jenna - posted on 01/14/2010

i was a week overdue and went in on a wednesday night to be induced with pitocin and the cream stuff to soften your cervix. well needless to say i didnt have my daughter till saturday morning via emergency c-section cause she went into stress. I never dilated or anything. My water broke as they were taking me into the surgery room. I recommend you not be induced unless your doctor is making you but i would just wait it out. Pitocin makes your contractions intense and strong. i was so uncomforable for all those days not from the contractions cause i have a high tolerance for pain... to me the contractions felt like bad period cramps. for others though ive heard it hurts alot. but yea i would not be induced you never know how it will turn out you may be induced and have your baby within a few hours or like me days later and thats very tiring and uncomfortable.

Brandy - posted on 01/13/2010

I had to be induced with my first because my water broke at 37 weeks and my daughter was running out of fluid and we were starting to worry about dry birth. I will be 40 weeks on Friday and I am getting really nervous because the doctors here only let you go 1 week over before induction and I never ever want to experience that in my life again. The insert induction was not bad, but it wasn't progressing fast enough so they had to put me on an IV induction and it is really intense and your contractions are more painful and come one after another with only a few seconds in between sometimes. And that intense no break labor in my case went on for almost 12 hours and I had already been in there a full day and a half before they started the drip. Mind you, my cervix was still hard and long and hadn't dilated at all when we went in and maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if I had made some kind of progress before hand. Not to mention the fact that they strap you onto a table with an IV, 2 straps around your belly, a heart rate monitor on your finger and take your blood pressure really often so it's very uncomfortable and not like everybody else where you can go in the shower or lean on a wall or wander around to make things more comfortable. I wouldn't suggest it unless you are overdue or have to be induced for medical reasons and then if you do decide, I would just order the epidural in advance because most induction stories I've heard have been just like mine and the ones who didn't have the epidural look back at it as a really negative experience as compared to the ones who went into labor naturally.

Carolee - posted on 01/13/2010

At one doctor's appointment I was informed that I had the choice of being induced on a Monday (that same day), that Thursday, or the following Monday and go through more tests to make sure my son was still doing okay... kind of a similar situation. I elected to go in for the induction that day. It really wasn't that bad. Yes, it took a long time, but my son has been that stubborn since he was conceived, so you never know how long it will take. Honestly, I was in labor for 23 1/2 hours, and went 20 hours before having an epidural. After the epidural I slept for 3 hours. The nurse woke me up to check how I'd progressed, and told me to start pushing. 1/2 hour later, my son was born. I didn't have to stay in bed until they broke my water, which was well into labor. All I had to do was make sure I had the monitors on my son and I once an hour for about 15 minutes. As long as everything was okay, I could walk around and drag that medicine baggie holder thing around with me. If you are really uncomfortable, go for it. Personally, my hips came out of socket about two or three months before my son was born, so I was glad to have him sooner... even though it was only a week before his original due date! He's perfectly healthy, and still stubborn at 2 1/2 years old. Good luck, and congrats!

Brandi - posted on 01/13/2010

I was electively induced with my first due a combination of factors. My son was already reading at 7 lbs at 36 weeks, I was dialating a cm a week since 34 weeks and my doctor was going on vacation the following week, leaveing my FIL as the on-call OB (akward right?)

I had a really great expierence though! They set up the IV by 8am and I felt the first twinges at 12:30pm. Labor for me only lasted 1.5 hours, with a half hour of pushing. It was had because there wasn't any break between contractions but looking back, I liked that it was over so fast. Good Luck!

Kristal - posted on 01/13/2010

I would never recommend it. With natural labor you are able to walk around and do whatever feels comfortable. With an induction you will be constantly monitored, stuck in a bed without the option to get up or move around, and the chances of your labor ending in a c-section are a lot higher. The drugs that they use to induce labor can cause maternal hemorrhaging and increased intensity of contractions. I was induced with my first and will NEVER recommend it to anyone or allow myself to be induced ever again. It was the WORST birth experience and I regret it a lot!

If you are considering it, do your research. Know what drugs they will use on you and find out what the adverse effects are.. also look up the phrase "Pit to Distress" and make yourself aware of this dangerous and unnecessary practice that goes on behind closed doors in many hospitals. It was attempted on me and I am just happy that it was not successful. Knowing what I know now I will never be induced again for both personal and medical reasons.

Joley - posted on 01/13/2010

It is different for every woman. I am a firm believer in letting your body do things naturally unless it is medically necessary. My Sister-in-Law was induced with her first child and her labor never progressed and she had to have a C-section, but my sister was induced and everything went ok. It just depends on you and your cervix.

Lauren - posted on 01/13/2010

i'v heard that it can sometimes lead to prolonged labor and on some occasions end with a c-section if the labor does not pregress quickly enough.