Induced on first baby - share your experiences PLEASE

Girls, I'm being induced on Wednesday, will be ten days overdue then. Anyone else have this experience? How was it? Did you have a quick labour? Feeling terrified, but trying to look forward to it and be positive too. Had a hospital appointment yesterday and the doctor tried to do a sweep but my cervix was hard, also she told me my baby's head isn't fully engaged. So I really don't think I will go naturally. Have tried currys, pineapples, bouncing on my ball...Have SPD so walking isn't an option...Thanks in advance for the replies xx

I was brought in 4 days over.... i had two rounds of gel... and then they broke my waters.... i was hooked up to the drip... i didn't experience any pains until the drip and i had a tens machine and air and gas on the go.. and i was flying it with that... but i got an epidural after a few hours.. as i needed a rest for the pushing part... but unfortunately i only dilated to 4cm.. but because i had the epidural.. i didn't mind too much as it wasn't that i went through hours of pain to end up with a c-section. ... the section was fine and baby was out in no time.. i healed very quickly from the section and had no complications thankfully. Every woman has a different pain threshold.. i would say i experienced very little of it as I chose the epidural.. and you will have the same options... u can choose to experience as much or as little pain as u want... But trust me when i say induction isn't bad at all.. at the end of the day.. u will get the best present at the end.. which is a massive motivation..

Thanks for that reply StellaBella, can I ask, how long in total were you from getting the gel to having your baby? x

I got my first lot of gel at 7pm on the Tuesday evening, second lot of gel at 9am Wednesday morning... had absolutely no pain during this time... was checked at 4pm was informed i was 1cm dialated.. broke waters and brought to delivery suite.. drip was started at 7pm Wednesday evening... daughter was born 5:20am Thursday morning by c-section... i should point out by the way i had SPD also.. and i am already experiencing it with this pregnancy... but it did disappear straight after my daughter was born..

Oh My God, that's great that you got on so well with the SPD...Very reassuring. Thanks a million for all the information - it's really really helpful. xx Edited to add the very best of luck with this pregnancy xx

I was a little different in that my waters broke but labour never progressed so I was bought up to delivery suite 24 hours after my waters broke and the drip was started at 11.15am. I never had any gel becasue my waters were broken but think they were fore waters or something becasue they still went at me to break my hind waters. Got first pains within minutes of getting the drip and then made it to about 4 cm on gas and air. got the epidural at about 3pm and that slowed me down a bit as I had a reaction to it and they's to stop the drip for an hour to get my heartrate back up and then I got to 10cm by about 9.30pm, they had topped up the epi so I couldn't feel much so they decided to let me labout for an hour at 10cm to make baby travel down the birth canal, so i went to sleep for that hour! it was bliss!! DS was born after about 20 mins pushing at 23.18 so 12 hours start to finish. best of luck!!!

Lilytiger, were you in hospital when your waters broke? 12 hours start to finish sounds great and thats including a sleep?!- good on ya Thanks for the reply - it's good to get another perspective And all the very best for you with this pregnancy xxxxx

I was 10 days over when they started induction and like you his head was still not engaged and cervix closed even after 2 sweeps. Got my first that night (Thursday ), second next morning (friday) with no effect had to wait 2 days before next could be given. Third Monday morning got a few cramps with this one then got fourth Monday evening about 2 hours later s##t hit the fan and he became distressed, I'll be honest the pain at this stage was awful. I wasn't dilating they just managed to break my water but it was full of meconium so I was taken for section. Best advice I can give is be prepared for anything.

Thanks yeah - Yes,I'll have open mind going into all this...was that gel you had? No drip?good luck with this pregnancy too xxx

Thank you. Yeah it was the gel. Apparently they can only give so much then wait to see what happens. It was very frustrating I just knew it would end up a section but they wouldn't do it until it was an emergency. You have to go on a trace machine just before and after you get the gel. It's hard to stay still for so long. Best of luck. Hopefully yours will work without a big wait.