Inducing birth next Monday

murfilein

Today at the doctor's appointment my wife was told that they are going to induce birth next Monday! Wife currently is 38 weeks 2 days pregnant.

It's fine for us, but: how exactly does it work? How long does it take usually? Does anyone has experience with this?
Does my wife stay in the hospital from Monday on?

Our first kid was a fully natural birth, she got the contractions when we were home.

catrionanic

I haven't had the experience myself, but some family members have and I watch a lot of One Born Every Minute! My understanding is that it's a slow process. Usually you expect the baby to arrive 24-48 hours after induction starts. They generally will try to break the waters first to get things started, although often this isn't possible. So they usually insert a pessary vaginally and give that a good few hours to work. Failing that, they'll give her a drip (I think it's a prostaglandin in the drip but not sure). The drip most definitely works, but it causes a very fast and very intense labour which is tough going. So if breaking the waters or pessary works first, that's the preferred option.


In short, it's a slow old process with lots of waiting, so you'll need to be patient! But baby will get there in the end.

bp

I was induced and for me it wasn't pleasant. I had to stay in the hospital for the duration of the labour (about 60 hours) had contractions the entire time - more painful than my first natural delivery but spaced about 5-10 minutes apart (so no sleep). When the baby did arrive it arrived fast.

I don't think all inductions are as bad as mine as I was already sick so it made everything worse.

You lie on your side for 30 minutes (I think it was) then have to be upright and walking for an hour. I have blocked most of it out to be honest (ah hormones and forgetting birth!).

Anyway, tell her to bring a good book as it could be a while, and good luck.

irishgirl19

It depends how 'favorable' your wife is.. As in if they can break her waters they will probably just do that to get the ball rolling.
I got induced in the coombe last year. They couldn't break my waters... Gave me a pessary that I had to have for 24 hours to try soften my cervix and get things started. That didn't do a whole lot so I got the gel which I had to wait 6 hours. After the gel they brought me to the labour ward and broke my waters and hooked me up to a a drip.
It was a long process but it was my first so maybe thats why. Went in on Wednesday morning to start process .. Had baby 7.40am on the Friday morning

irishgirl19

And I almost forgot.. Best of luck :-)

January

The good news is that having had a natural birth before induction is usually easier on a second because your body knows what to do. (I say sometimes because obviously not every birth is the same).

As above if your wife is favourable (her cervix is soft and open a bit) they will try to rupture the membranes (bag of water around your baby). If that cannot be done they will use prostin gel to try and soften the cervix. This is inserted as a pessary into the vagina and your wife will have to lie still while being on a monitor for about an hour afterwards to let it work. After she will be encouraged to walk around to get things moving.

If that works (sometimes that alone is enough to put you into labour) then yay. If it softens the cervix enough to break the water then they will try that next. Again she will be given time to go into labour naturally as long as all is well with her and baby.

If she still hasn't gone into labour with those two she can be put on a drip (called syntocinin, synthetic oxytocin) to bring on contractions. It can be intense and you are usually advised to get the epidural if you do get the drip. But you don't have to if you do not want to.

If none of those work (and beware , some hospitals have an active management of labor policy so you'll be on a clock where once your wife is in active labour and she's not progressing, 1cm for every hour,) they will recommend doing a cesarean. She does not have to consent to these things if she doesn't want to, as long as her and baby are well.

Remember your BRAIN (ask these questions)
What are the Benefits?
What are the Risks?
Are there any Alternatives?
Use your Intuition.
What if we do Nothing?

Good luck!

Gatica

I think if you're induced, you can also ask for you Bishop score so as to assess how likely an induction is to work.

seeing as thread is "old", hope it went well.

murfilein

Gatica wrote: »

I think if you're induced, you can also ask for you Bishop score so as to assess how likely an induction is to work.

seeing as thread is "old", hope it went well.

we actually went to the hospital yesterday, that was the day we were told they wanted to induce.

turns out they changed their mind - the doctor made a swap and told us to come in next monday. if the kid is not coming by himself by then, they will induce.

with our first kid, 2-3 days after a swab my wife went into labour.
this time she got the swab yesterday, and now says that she is definitely having some pain. no labour-pain just yet, but lets see...