Scheduled Inductions - your experiences??

[INDISMOM]

I was induced a week and a half early with DD#1 due to low amniotic fluid. They started a pitocin drip around 9am. I had contractions, but nothing too bad until the doctor checked me at noon. She decided to break my water to see if that would help move me along -- it sure did! The contractions were getting worse, but the nurse kept telling me that the monitor didn't show them being that bad. She checked me around 12:45 and said I was only 4cm dialated and couldn't have an epideral until I was at least 5cm because it might slow down my labor.

Well, she left and about 15 minutes later I told my husband to go get somebody because I thought I needed to push. The nurse came back in and told me there was no way I needed to push yet, but checked me anyway. I was 10cm and the baby was crowning. I have never seen anyone move so fast! Before I knew it the doctor, 3 nurses and a neonatalogist were in the room and I was pushing. Doctor told me to stop pushing 2 times because she wasn't ready. I ended up having DD at 1:20pm -- much sooner than anyone anticipated. In fact one of the nurses told me in her 25 years of labor and delivery she had only had a few first time mothers be induced at the beginning of her shift and actually deliver on that same shift.

All in all, my induction wasn't that bad -- just a little scary at the end because no one was ready and everyone was running around the room like crazy people!

 

[mommasita]

My first was an induction.

I had EXTREME toxemia, and was induced at 36 weeks. It was considered an emergency situation. The doctor said to my husband, if we don't do this today, you may lose your wife. My blood pressure was sky rocketing, and I was in/out of consiousness.

I was watched every minute, and if my pressure rose any more, I was to have an emergency C section.

I was in hospital already, and at 6AM starting the pitocin drip. My water was broken at noon. I had an epidural around 2pm, and another shot at 6pm. After that I had this incredible urge to go to the washroom. My mom said, NO YOU DON"T have to go, you have to have the baby. Nurse says OMG, you are at 10...BLAH BLAH...There were many complications, and my pressure rose, I had no time to prep for a C section, and had to be basically cut down there, from one end to another. 47 stitches later, my son was born..He was taken right away to NICU.. He was fine..THANK GOD..I was fine, he was fine. I stayed in the hospital for a few days, for my pressure..

I had my 2nd naturally, no issues of toxemia ...THANK GOD..

Good luck to you.

 

[Karel]

My third child was induced and actually it is my most pleasant labor memory. She was overdue and my doctor was going out of town. I had a one year old and a two year old already at home.

My mother came down to watch the boys and we all went out for a nice dinner. Went to the hospital the next morning at 6am for the medicine. Got a lovely epidural a few hours later. Watch tv for most of the day and chatted with the nurses.

At 3:57, I watched Luke and Laura returned to General Hospital and my daughter was born at 4:10. She slipped out so nice and easy, they didn't think I was going to make it to the delivery room.

I felt soooo good, much better than the boys deliveries which I slept after and didnt' get to see the babies until 6 or 7 hours after their delivery.

 

[HamTown]

All 3 of my children were induced in one way or another...

DS: Water broke at 38 weeks with no contractions 2 cm dilated. Friday of Memorial Day weekend at a teaching hospital. They didn't wait around to start the pit. They were full and all the small hospitals were dumping high risk patients so they were going to need my bed! The intern would turn up the pit and the contractions would increase rapidly and on top of one another, then my L&D nurse (fabulous) would turn it down a notch. Had epidural. Water broke at 5 am, DS was born after 45 minutes of pushing at 5:50 pm.

DD1: Umbilical cord only had one artery so the OB was worried about cord compression during delivery. Scheduled induction with cytotec at 8:00 am. Went from 2 cm to 4 cm by lunch time. Ate lunch. OB broke my water at 1:00 then went off to do a C-section. I went from 4 -10 in less than an hour. I called for an epidural because I never thought I would be ready to deliver that fast (nurse was horrible and never checked me) and was seriously uncomfortable. The anesthesiologist almost delivered DD. Only pushed three times.

DD2: 2 days overdue. Cranky. My husband's paternity leave had started and my mom was already here to help. Went for a regular check and was dilated 5 cm. Midwife decided to break my water after administering antiobiotics (strepB +). Water broken at 11:30, DD born at 4:20.

In retrospect, I wish I had not had my water broken with DD2. I've never gone into labor on my own and I'm not planning on having that opportunity again. I think maybe I missed something. Plus DD2 was born on DD1's birthday. I don't know what I was thinking agreeing to the induction.

 

[Robinrs]

My scheduled induction was for January 6th, when my doctor came back from his vacation. He came back just in time to visit me and my son, who was born on January 5th!

 

[MareQ]

Baby #2 is due on April 12.

For a bunch of reasons, and I will admit, none of them medically indicated, I am seriously considering a scheduled induction this time around. I know what the risks are, which is why I am not taking this lightly. I am trying to decide if I am willing to take those risks or not. I was always sort of "against" scheduled inductions that were not done for any medical reason before now - if you had told me before that I would even be considering this I would have never believed you!

I am interested in hearing any scheduled induction stories (medically indicated or not, I guess, because I am interested in hearing the outcomes.) How far in advance of your due date did you induce, what were the "conditions" of your body like at the time - did you wind up having a c-section? That kind of stuff.

Of course, if this baby does what DD did and arrives at 38 weeks, then I guess all of this worrying will be for nothing....

I really appreciate your input.

Sorry but I'd run FAR FAR away from a Doctor that would even consider doing a scheduled induction for any reason that was not medical.

 

[mommasita]

Sorry but I'd run FAR FAR away form a Doctor that would even consider doing a scheduled induction for any reason that was not medical.

I totally agree with this. It is not something to toy with at all..Even as sickly as I was, the DR waited and waited, till there was no other option.

 

[floridafam]

Dr. induced me 2 days after my due date.

Broke my water at 8:45 after starting Pitocin a short time earlier. Nurses checked me off and on until noon. Doctor came in at 12:30 and I was at 5cm. Started feeling pressure and was at 10cm at 1:00. Baby born at 1:30.

Wasn't too bad at all. It was somewhat nice to have it planned. I got to sleep the night before. Dh scheduled his time off without having to rush. It went pretty fast.

I don't think my labor was any worse than the 2 I had without being induced. The worst part was the antibiotic IV for Group B Strep. It burned going in and I thought my arm was going to explode.

I guess mine was medically needed. I was dialated a little bit and very worried that I would deliver my 3rd one quite fast. I needed to make sure that I had the antibiotics before I delivered and there may not have been time for that if I rushed to the hospital and delivered quickly.

Best wishes to you.

 

[lulugirl]

I had an induction w/ my second child.
I was three cm dilated when they administered pitocin. They started me on pitocin at about noon, DS was born that evening at 6:20pm. I would do it again in a heartbeat, it was about as pleasant as childbirth can be.
Good luck w/ your decision!

 

[MUFFYCAT]

I was induced at 41 weeks because the doctor felt it was getting to late.

It was great, we brought my DD to my mothers house night before.
My Dh and I went for a nice breakfast.
I went to hospital they hooked me all up. Got the drugs when the pain got bad.
(didn't get it for my first DD and the pain was horrible. )

She was boirn within 8 hours of getting to the hospital.

 

[clori]

I was induced twice with no signs of labor prior to being induced.

with #1 things were going fine until suddenly at 36 weeks I measured behind and a followup ultrasound two hours later showed a smaller baby than the ob would have thought. I was put on bedrest etc and at 37 weeks I was still measuring behind and the ultrasound showed no growth. That was around 11am. I then saw the ob again who was very concerned about iugr and wanted to induce that day. She scraped my membranes and sent me to the hospital. Basically I had cervadil at 2:30 and had to wait 4 hours for pitocin. At 6:45 my water broke and then I started feeling the contractions which were 2 minutes apart. At 8pm I asked for an epidural but instead I was told to push and delivered at 8:19pm My dd was 4lbs 6oz. She had some initial problems learning to suck and maintaining body temperature but otherwise healthy. In her case since my body was not providing adequate nourishment and not showing signs of labor not inducing could have actually let to more complications. The ob had done some test earlier in the day that showed though that I should be a good candidate for induction.

With #2 I was monitored closely for iugr. At 38 weeks the baby hadn't grown any since 36 weeks so the ob thought it was best to induce. I was given cervadil at 6:30pm and my body started contracting without any pitocin. My water also broke this time on its own. The cervadil was pulled out due to problems with heart rate but I stayed in labor. This was a much longer labor maybe because I didn't have pitocin. I ended up getting an epidural around 4:30am and delivered at 5:31am. DD was 5lbs 13oz. The only thing I regret was getting the epidural because I hated the lack of feeling etc. DD was healthy but lost over 10% of her body weight before leaving the hospital and did have jaundice.

 

[mickeyboat]

I was induced at 34 weeks with my first because my water had broken at 31 weeks.

My second came on her own, full term.

I much preferred the second one. Contractions from pitocin are VERY strong and it seemed there was no break in between them. I really wanted to not have an epidural, but after 6 hours on pitocin, I begged for one. And the contractions were not really effective, either, until I had my epidural and they could turn the pitocin way up.

You would have to have a very compelling reason to make me agree to have an induced birth, again.

Denae

 

[LynnTH]

Well, I had a stubborn son who did not want to come out. Dr. wanted to start gels and inductions on my Due Date, as baby was looking like he could be over 10 pounds. (which was Feb 4th - 1999). Many of my friends were given gels and went into labor right away. Well, not me.

In the next 2 weeks I ended up having 10 gels and 3 separate inductions. They could not get me to dialate to even 1. (if they could then they could break my water and they would have to deliver within 24 hours). So, everday I would get sent home. (in tears of course).

Finally, on the third induction I went into labor but would only dialate to 7. So, they finally made the decision to do a C-Section at 1:30 in the morning. My son was born finally on Feb 21st. Weighing in at 8lbs 11 oz. He was a big baby - now he is the skinniest thing that I have a hard time finding clothes for.

Second Baby - I was given the choice of trying to deliver normal or have a set C-section. Well, I went directly for the C-Section. My Mom and Aunts all had to have C-sections, so I just assumed that I would and I did, so to me it was really no big deal.

 

[Strawberry Lemonade]

I was induced a week early because I had gestational diabetes. DS was estimated big, but was actually only 6lbs 5oz when he was born. My timeline is sketchy, but I know I had pitocin in the wee hours of the morning and DS was born after a quick and easy labor in the mid morning. Thank God for epidurals.

 

[JNorris]

I was induced at 39 week 4 days. The doctor was convinced that the baby was going to be large, and was concerned because I had not started to dialate any. So I checked in, was started on the gel that night, and I went into labor. I labored all night, at 5:30am my water broke, and I was still only 1 cm. They started me on pitocin, and it took until 4pm that day for me to get to 10 cm. However, the baby's head would never drop into the birth canal, no matter how much I pushed (2 1/2 hours). I started to run fever at 6pm, so they took me in for a C-section, and the baby was born at 8:45 that night.

By the way, she ended up just being normal size (7 lbs 12 oz), and had the most perfect little round head since it didn't get squeezed in the birth canal. And today she is my perfect little DD8 (almost 9)! I ended up spending 4 nights in the hospital (one before the birth for the induction, 2 because of C-section, and one more for fever).

 

[Kimmumum]

My 1DS was 11 days OVERdue so they had me go to the hospital at 6am on a Monday morning. At noon I asked what we were waiting for (they hadn't done anything yet). They said we were waiting to see if anything was going to happen (okay, I'm already 11 days late...NOTHING is going to happen). At noon they finally broke my water. At 3:30pm I asked what we were doing. "We're waiting to see if anything happens". HELLOOOOOOOO!!!!! Finally at 4pm they started the Pitocin and my son was born at 7:21pm. I only had to push 3 times I just want to know why we didn't do this at 6am??? I hadn't had anything to eat since the night before so I was starving (and it was late so even the cafeteria was closed)!!! My sSIL saved the day and brought me McDonald's (at that point I didn't care what I ate )

 

[JVL1018]

I was induced 2 days past my due date-I got Pitocin and my son was born less than 4 hours later...
The Pitocin worked wondedrfully, but O!M!G! pain pain pain pain PAIN--get the epidural(if you are into that) right after the Pitocin, because it kicks in like gangbusters very quickly... I waited and then when I wanted it the anesthesioligist was in with a C section so I had to wait-it sucked.I know mine was fast, but the nurse said I was contracting on my own before I even got there and probably would have ended up having the baby that day anyway..
Besides the pain, I thought it was a great experience, I wouldnt hesitate to do ti again--I am not into going early, thats just me, but once the due date comes, I get nervous that the baby will die or something-get tangled in the cord etc..when I could have been induced

 

[mom*to*2*princesses]

I'm not reading any replies, just giving my experiences.
I was induced with both of my DDs. With my first I had high blood pressure. I didn't really like my OB but trusted her. I felt like she didn't listen to me about my cycles and that she had my due date too early (she said July 27, I said August 3). Anyway, I was put on bedrest for my blood pressure starting on July 11. I actually felt fine, but my BP was high and I went into her office every 2 days. On the 17th she said, "I'm going to schedule you for an induction. Come to the hospital at 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday (the 19th)." Talk about slightly freaked out. All of a sudden she made it sound like we had to do an induction for the health of the baby. My DH and I went out to eat our "last supper" the night before. It was very surreal.

We got to the hospital on the 19th, got checked in, hooked up to pitocin, and nothing much happened. She broke my water at 1:00. I don't remember much of anything from about 2:00 to 7:00; I was in so much pain. Forget breathing--it went out the window. Around 7:15 they started prepping me for an epidural (finally!). While I was sitting up I realized that I was in the final stages because I was nauseated. I got the epidural at 7:30, and wonder of wonders, the pump didn't work right. I only got that first dose. That was okay, though, because by about 8:30 it was time to start pushing. I felt great at that point because of the epidural. Our first DD was born at 9:11. I was exhausted. I had one of the worst tears that you can have from childbirth. OUCH. Our baby cried for the next 24 hours. Nursing really was hard for the first few weeks. Looking back on it, I was not ready to be induced. My OB sucked. The poor girl was born weeks earlier than she should've been. I vowed the next time would be different.

Enter pregnancy #2. No more OB. Now I have a Midwife who is AWESOME. No high blood pressure, but everything else is the same, and we were going to the same hospital. My due date was July 19 (our older DD's birthday!). My midwife asked if I wanted to be induced to make it easier to take care of DD#1. Despite my first rough experience, I trusted the MW and knew much more about the process. I was comfortable with the due date. We agreed on July 14th. I was able to line up grandparents to come and stay at our house with DD#1. It was a real relief to know that was taken care of! I wake up at 4:45 a.m. on the 14th. to a call from the hospital--all of the beds are full so don't come in. It should be fine by noon--they'll call. Noon comes and no call. I was just about ready to take a nap at 2:00 when they call and say to come in now! Thankfully we were just 3 blocks from the hospital. After waiting for everyone to resume their proper places, my DH, mom, and I all get to the hospital. By 3:00 I am ready to go and have pitocin pumping in. By 4:00 I had my epidural. By 7:15 I was pushing, and DD#2 was born at 7:37. I can seriously say that I had a vag. childbirth with NO PAIN. The recovery felt almost instant. I was up 20 minutes later. No big tears, no big problems, happy baby, happy mom. It was a great experience. My ILs even walked over with DD#1 that evening to show her her new baby sister. What a special moment!

I hope I've helped in some little way. It is a big decision, but it is just one moment in parenthood, yk? Even though my first induction stunk in many ways, it wasn't that bad and it doesn't leave me with lingering issues. I still consider her first week of life to be one of the most precious times I'll ever have experienced.

I do think it's really important to be on the same page as your OB/MW/Whatever. I know some women get all up in arms over planned inductions that aren't strictly for medical purposes, but to each her own. It's your body, your pregnancy, your call. I trusted my MW so much and knew that she wouldn't steer me wrong (believe me, I did my homework before going to her!). A planned induction was perfect for me the second time around. Good luck, whatever you decide!

 

[ChrisnSteph]

Out of the four children I've had, two of them were induced. I didn't want to, but both were medically necessary.

I don't agree with inductions just to fit into the mothers or doctors schedule. I think it's wrong, for several reasons. So many doctors will do it these days at the mother's request, and I don't get it, because every day that your baby is in utero is one more day for that baby to grow and develop properly. There are obviously exceptions, but when babies are ready to be born, they will. Babies aren't cakes - you shouldn't just take them out when you think they're done.

 

[FSUGrad97]

With my first, I was induced at 36 weeks due to preeclamsia. I had been on bedrest for a week at home and the hospital, and my blood pressure was not going down. That, and the protein levels in my urine were astronomical and my OB was concerned about my kidney function. If I wasn't delivered in time, my kidneys may have failed.

I was hooked up to Pitocin, and for the first few hours, it wasn't too bad - not great, but I could deal. As the day went on, the contractions became incredibly painful and there was no break between them. At this point, my water broke, but I was still at 2 centimeters, and not progessing at all. In addition to the lack of progress, my DD was showing signs of distress, so I had a C-section.

My second DD was a scheduled C-section at 39 weeks without any complications at all.