Scheduled induction for baby Andrew next week. Any advice from anyone who has been through this?

[kathsmom]

Hi, everyone!

After being on bedrest for 2 weeks, due to high blood pressure, my OB doctors have decided to induce next Monday morning (9/23/02). I will be 39 weeks at that time. My high blood pressure started several weeks ago, and they have tested me 4 times for preeclampsia (high BP, swelling of feet, and protein in urine), but the tests all come back negative for it. They also sent me to labor and delivery twice last week to be monitored and to check the baby - they even did an indepth ultrasound for 30 minutes, in which he had to do 4 things and do them twice. Luckily, he passed and he is doing fine. It is just me and the high blood pressure. When I am not pregnant, my BP is low-normal.

Anyway, I am not dilated at all now and they plan to go ahead and induce next week. I go for a checkup this Thursday, and if they need to go ahead and move up the induction, they will.

Can any of you give me any advice about the induction? They said that just because they induce me Monday does not mean that the baby will automatically come Monday. They said it could take a couple of days to get him out!

Sorry this is so long, but I get chatty when I get nervous about something, especially when I have no experience with it! Thank you for any advice you can give!

Toni - mom to Katherine (5/19/96) and Andrew (scheduled for 9/23/02)

[egoldber]

Inductions, especially if your cervix is not already favorable (starting to dilate and efface on its own) can take awhile. My main advice would be not to let them break your bag of waters until you are already dilating on your own.

My story is that my waters broke at 36 1/2 weeks. My cervix was, as they say, closed and tight. They attempted to induce, but I never dilated at all, even after hours and hours on the max dosage of Pitocin and hours of very intense contractions. Once your waters break, they generally only give you 24 hours to deliver due to the risk of infection. So I ended up with a C section.

There was also a simlar thread a few months ago. http://www.windsorpeak.com/dcforum/DCForumID30/107.html

HTH,

[Hallie_D]

Toni,

I was induced at 41+ weeks. I had planned on as natural a birth as possible, with visions of myself walking, relaxing in a bath or shower, squatting to deliver, etc. With the exception of not having a C-section, absolutely nothing went as planned! However, I had prepared myself for that possibility so I wasn't upset--after all, I got the same baby! (and what a cutie he is!)

My advice to you:
1. Take the epidural, even if you didn't want one in your birth plan. Induction by pitocin can be extremely painful--much more than a "natural" birth. My contractions started less than 2 minutes apart, 55-65 seconds each. There was no natural build-up. I lasted 5.5 hours on lamaze breathing techniques but was only 6 cm dilated by that point. They wanted to break my bag of waters, so I took the epidural and the rest of the delivery was easy. If you are on pitocin they will probably want you strapped to fetal and contraction moniters anyway, so you won't be getting out of bed much.

2. Know your rights. I delivered in a teaching hospital and had 3 different medical students coming in and out to examine me all day. The first one had trouble reading the contraction printout and wanted to immediately break my bag of waters and insert an internal fetal moniter, and incorrectly estimated how effaced/dilated I was (my own doctor had already estimated 80% and 2 cm, the student said 40% and 1 cm). At that point I was still hoping to do it all naturally and wasn't ready to have my water broken, since I'd only just started contractions. I had to insist on speaking to my own doctor, who was furious with the student and told her she was wrong and had no right to insist on a procedure I didn't need or want.

Hope this was helpful, and not too much info. Whatever your experience, it will be beautiful because it will end with the arrival of your baby!

[candybomiller]

Hi Toni,

I was induced at 41 weeks. I definitely have to agree with the advice about the epidural. Don't go in with the attitude that you are *difinitely* not getting the epidural, cause you'll probably change your mind part way through.

I would definitely take some light reading, magazines or such, and something to keep you occupied, like a deck of cards, or whatnot. I was fortunate enough to sleep through most of my labor (I loved my epidural), but that may not be the case for you and daytime tv can be mindnumbingly boring.

I guess the most important advice I can give is to go with the flow and be ready for absolutely anything. Hopefully you trust your doctor and just put yourself into their hands. Let them stress, you stay calm and the baby will be all right.

Best of luck to you, and congratulations.

Candy
-SAHM to Matthew Nicholas, born 5/22/02

[schums]

I was induced at about 41 weeks also. I second and third everything everyone has said above. The most important thing to remember is that it doesn't matter how your precious baby gets here, its that he gets here healthy with a healthy mom. Be prepared to take the epidural. If you are on pitocin, they will adjust the dosage for any slowdown in contractions you may experience.

Just one more piece of advice: If your husband/significant other is a totally techie type, keep him away from the monitors. Mine sat and "informed" me of impending contractions (BEFORE I got the epidural -- like I didn't know they were coming). He then proceeded to offer commentary on the strength/length ("Wow! This is a HUGE one!"). It was the only time in my married life I strongly considered divorce!!

Good luck and know our prayers are with you!

Sarah

[suzska]

Toni,

I don't know if I have any advice, but here's my story incase you haven't seen it before:

My water broke when I was 37 weeks 5 days (16 days early). I was at 1cm and nothing, as I always say. But that wasn't going to stop Evan. :-) I had a high, slow leak, so the nurses didn't believe me at first when I got to the hospital (I think Evan's big head was acting as a stopper). The resident checked me and said that it had indeed broken. I wasn't really feeling any contractions or anything. My water broke around 7:30am, got to the hospital just before 9am, and was checked around 9:30 if I remember correctly. They had me walk around the halls for a while to see if things would get moving on their own, but they didn't. I think my doctor came in around 11:30am, but they didn't start the Pitocin until 12:25pm. Because I have Scoliosis and had spinal surgery when I was 14 (and wasn't carrying my x-ray's around with me ;-) ), they were concerned about scar tissue, etc. so I couldn't get an epidural. I did get the shot with the 2-drug-mix to take the edge off. Or at least try to. I think my parents got to the hospital just before 1pm (they didn't believe I was in labor when they heard the message on their answering machine). Having them there actually helped to "pass the time" even though all I did was lay in bed. DH was there the whole time, of course. I was lucky enough to have the L&D nurse that teaches the Lamaze classes (which I had taken 8 days before) come on duty around 3pm. I think I was still around 3cm and they thought I would be having the baby well into the night, if not the next day! The nurse kept trying to get me to try different positions to help things along, but I didn't want to move. Around 4:30pm I felt like I wanted to push--they checked me and I was at 10cm! I guess I'm one of the "lucky" ones that Pitocin works quickly for. But this also meant that my contractions were coming right after one another with not much of a break. Until they got everything set up it was probably closer to 5pm when I really started pushing. So after 1.5 hours of some ineffective pushing, and "threatening" to get the vacuum, I gave a few good pushes and Evan was born at 6:24pm! His big head didn't want to "make the turn" so I had some trouble, but once that happened, things went much better. So it was about 6 hours from the time they started the Pitocin. If I knew how to push, I think it would have been sooner.

On the flip-side, I know a woman that was induced 2 weeks passed her due date, and after about 28 hours of labor she ended up with a c-section. She had hoped to go natural, no drugs, and all that, and she had completely the opposite experience.

I didn't have time to get nervous since I was 16 days early. I was supposed to go to a friend's shower that day (she was due 3 weeks after me) and hadn't finished training my replacement at work. I also had no bags packed for the hospital and the nursery wasn't finished yet. But of course, it all worked out in the end! :-)

Good luck!!! And I can't wait to hear about Andrew....

[KathyO]

Bring food. They won't let you have anything substantial during the labour, and if it drags, you'll be ready to eat a horse when it's over... and if it's the "off-hours", you'll probably get something pathetic like crackers or a leftover sandwich. If I'd have been thinking, I'd have stashed a couple of Power Bars or some packaged nuts in my bag. As it was, my husband brought some fruit and muffins and stuff the next day, which was great because the hospital food lived down to its reputation.

My labour stalled at 2cm for 24 hours, so I got to ride the Pitocin train from there to the full 10cm. It was intense, and I've certainly had more fun at other times in my life, but I'd do it again in a minute. Was open to the idea of an epidural, but ended up not needing one.

My Mom had an induction for her second (me). Induction started at 9am, nothing much happening at lunchtime, then - off we go! - baby born at 2pm. They're wise not to make you any promises, but since it's your second, you may find that it proceeds reasonably briskly.

Best wishes!

KathyO

[kathsmom]

Ladies,

Thank you for telling me about your labors and deliveries. I should have mentioned in my original post that I did have Pitocin with DD, but with her, I was already having contractions and starting to dilate and efface, although it was too slow according to the doctors. They gave me the Pitocin because they wanted to speed up my delivery due to my BP being so high the during the labor and delivery. Up until that time, my BP was normal-slightly elevated. I did not get the epidural until the last 4 hours of labor and I was in labor for 18 hours!! I did not realize until reading these posts that Pitocin contractions are worse than regular labor contractions!

Anyway, my concern with this induction is that my body is not ready to have the baby - no contractions, no dilation, no effacing. At least with DD, I was already in labor when they gave me the Pitocin. This baby is healthy and has regular movements and heartbeats. I am afraid of being in labor for 2 days, and am not sure what to expect. I will be visiting the doctor this Thursday, and you have given me some good insight on questions I need to ask. I guess I was just glad to hear they had some plan to help relieve my high BP - which is the induction- that I didn't know what questions to ask.

I will let you all know how things go at the OB's office on Thursday.

Thanks again!

Toni - mom to Katherine (5/19/96)

[candybomiller]

Toni

Don't worry! I know, easy for me to say. When I went to the hospital to be induced, I was 0% effaced and 0% dilated. On Tuesday afternoon when I went into the hospital, my doctor told me that it could take until FRIDAY and I shouldn't get my hopes up. I almost cried.

The nurse put the cytotech in about 4 p.m. and they were supposed to do another at 9, then send me home. I was supposed to come back at 5 a.m. the next morning to get the pitocin started. When they checked me at 8 p.m. the nurse and doctor decided not to give me another cytotech because the contractions had finally started. YAY!

They gave me morphine to help me sleep, and I woke up around 4:30 the next morning and I had to go to the bathroom sooooooo badly. Unfortunately, they told me that if I had to go, I had to have a nurse help me, as the morphine made it dangerous for me to walk. They didn't get there in time and I um....peed all over the bed. When the nurse came in, I was in tears, apologizing for making a mess, etc. She laughed at me and told me that my water just broke. Holy surprise to me!

Anyway, to keep a long story from being longer, I got the epidural around 7 am, slept til about noon, pushed about an hour and half and had a beautiful baby boy at 2:26 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.

I guess my point is that anything can happen. Do keep us updated on how you are doing, and if you need to talk or just rant to a total stranger, my email is [email protected].

I hope I've helped a litte.

Candy
-SAHM to Matthew Nicholas, born 5/22/02

[Shirale]

Good luck with the induction! Everyone has given wonderful advice so far, I just wanted to add that taking the epidural is good for another reason- it tends to lower blood pressure which in your case will be an extra benefit! I too had no symptoms of Preeclamsia except the medium to high BP from about 7 months until the end and I was 2 weeks over due (but the baby was small)and after my water broke on its own on a thurs night, I went to the hosp and wasn't dilated at all and so we waited and then my bp started to go up and I had protein, and then trhey tried to induce and it didn't work...anyhow- I ended up with full blown Preeclampsia and had a C-section....so- do what the Drs tell you, rest rest rest and relax and drink! And again- the epidural not only helps (less pain, time to rest up for pushing) but also in your case has an added benefit!! Please email me [email protected] if you have any Q's!!! In the 21 hours before my DD was born my husband and I talked a lot and tried to rest, but i had a high risk Pregnancy anyway so the whole thing was a little scary! After going through e/t including being on bedrest for a couple months, hyperemesis, preeclamsia etc- I think labor was the easier part!!! and you get SUCH a wonderful reward at the end!!! Take it easy!!!