All four of my babies were born very overdue. Nobody passed them the memo on their due dates.
By the time I went over my due date with my third baby, I had accepted that my babies are just late. That’s just how my body does it.
Two out of the four ended in induction.
I had read about induction of labour and all the possible options that might be available and I knew that it wouldn’t be the most pleasant experience.
Each time I tried everything in the book to get labour going on its own, all the things people start to talk about when you approach the end of your pregnancy … I tried them!
My babies were far too comfy where they were.
I did not want to be induced. After a c- section it was my worst fear. I knew it would be more painful than a labour that began on its own. I was prepared for that.
I was not prepared for :
- Having a pessary inserted by someone who looked like she was pulling a calf out of a cow
- Walking and bouncing and jumping and repeating and nothing having happened after 6 hours
- Having a second pessary inserted with the tagline “I don’t think you are getting anywhere “
- Being made to feel I was useless and my body was rubbish for not going into labour on its own
- Having to stay the night in the assessment unit and hearing lots of screaming followed by babies crying
- Being sent home
- My baby being born three days after induction began.
When I was induced the second time. I was fully prepared for all the above.
I was not prepared for:
- A room full of other women being induced at the same time
- For contractions to be pretty intense after an hour of the pessary
- For my TENS machine to feel as if it wasn’t working
- For nobody to believe me when I said my contractions were two minutes apart and lasting for a minute and a half
- To discover I was fully dilated two hours after the pessary
- To be one of the people you see on TV being rushed down to labour ward in a wheelchair
I was not prepared for any of these things.
From my experience, induction is a means to an end. When you are so overdue it can feel like a relief to know your baby is finally on the way.
Like everything though one person’s experience is different from the next and between labours those experiences also alter.
I do feel however that more could be done to understand how induction can affect the body and how women can be better supported during this process.
Were you induced? What was your experience?
13 comments
Gosh it sounds like you could have been supported so much better than you were. I think fear and not knowing are the two main difficulties in labour – they make the contractions so much worse. Did you feed back to the hospital about your thoughts and experience? It I were a midwife I would definitely want to change my practice to make mothers feel more empowered. I would really struggle to be in labour in a room full of women also in labour!
I did feedback but it was shrugged off – I didn’t feel it was enough to make a complaint, I was just a bit disappointed. Thanks for reading 🙂
I was induced. I was told by three different midwives it was going to be much, much more painful than if I had gone into labour naturally. I appreciate they were doing their job but having never had a baby I didn’t know painful from ‘much more painful’ so when the contractions hit I pretty much had a panic attack. Oh and I had the pessary and jumping up and down like a noob biz and in the end a doctor just stuck a big knitting needle up there and popped the waters – so high tech 🙂
Oh gosh – very hard when you have nothing to compare it too isn’t it! Thanks for sharing your experience 🙂
I was induced with both my girls. I too was not prepared for the surge of pain instantly. It came on so strong so fast. I did not have. A long drawn out process. Once the contractions started it wasn’t too long. My first daughter came out so fast it developed a hematoma (blood clot) and I kept insisting I felt pressure and it HURT!!!! They gave me an Advil and said it will go away. I did not, it persisted and I was soon in tears and almost screaming. They gassed me and they had to squeeze the blood clot out. Kill me now right? It was awful.
I would love if you took a look at my latest post and hopefully more 🙂
http://abigaildaybyday.blogspot.ca/2015/05/the-bane-of-my-existence.html?m=1
Thanks for sharing your experience Susan – I have left a comment on your post. 🙂 Sounds awful – “kill me now” yes I can totally understand that.
I was almost induced with B and lucky had him the night before but I always wondered what the process was. Sounds very community involved hahaha Thank you so much for linking up to Share With Me #sharewithme
You escaped – that’s a good thing 🙂 Thanks for reading
Great post! I too had the pessary induction, twice. Both failed and the registrar kindly told me I had a ‘non-pregnant cervix’ Good to know. The third attempt came by way of the hormone drip and oh my goodness, I’ve never known pain like it. That’s something I don’t want to experience again any time soon!
I’ve heard that about the drip – I can imagine that wasn’t nice at all. It must have been so intense. Avoid at all costs!
I feel you! I have one child (Noah who is 2 next month) and he was induced just before his due date due to a change in his movements. I went in on the Friday morning thinking I would be bringing home a baby that night! So stupid to think that! I had a similar experience to your first, I had two pessaries (the first of which was inserted WRONG?!) neither did much but just made my bits swell up and then I had 2 doses of gel too. It took forever to be dilated enough for them to be able to break my waters but once it had been done he was born 6 hours later. A 3 day induction is exhausting and emotionally draining but we did it!
Ah Noah! I have a Noah as well 🙂 Thank you for sharing your experience. You are so right, both exhausting and emotionally draining but like you say you did it! I felt a bit stupid too xx
I had to be induced with my third as my water level was too low.I had been having niggling pain all day but then when I said that I knew I was in slow labour the midwife tried to brush it off and said it would only be Braxton hicks.I have had 2 other children at this point so I knew she was wrong especially since I was also getting back pain.She then gave me an internal and decided that I was correct and was indeed in labour so I could wait for labour to progress on its own for a few hours.I then lost my plug and had my waters broken and was left another hour in agony with no pain relief they finally they decided to do an internal and realise I needed to be taken to the delivery room after 4 hours of active labour I finally had my baby but I was disappointed that I wasn’t believed when I told them I was in labour and when I was I was left alone for hours to just get on with it despite being classed as high risk and being told i would be needing a cannula in case I needed another blood transfusion which they didn’t have access to on the ward I was on.It did however happen to be the least painful labour I have had my first was back to back which I had a vaginal delivery with and my 2nd was a normal vaginal delivery but the most painful.