Induction stories? I don't have much of a choice in being induced.

[LuLu03]

I'm 35 weeks, and getting a little stressed about the fact that I will most likely be induced around 40 weeks. For my first baby, I went 2 weeks over, and on the day of my scheduled induction, I went into labor on my own. This time around, I live out in the desert, 2 hours away from my hospital. My doctor is thinking (and I agree) she should induce, to reduce the possibility that I go into labor at home, and have to drive that far while in labor. It only took 8 hours from first contractions to baby with my daughter. So, they say sometimes the 2nd one comes faster. I just want to be sure I can be in the hospital when I'm ready to deliver, and not driving through a mountain range. Basically, my options are to stress out while laboring over a 2 hour drive to the hospital, or be induced. When I look at it that way, I feel like being induced is worth it so that I know in case anything goes wrong, I'll be at a hospital and not in the backseat of my car.
I'd love to hear your experiences. A few moms that I've spoken to are telling me that it was actually a pretty good experience, and it didn't take too long.

[rverrone11]

Are you my neighbor?

I don't have an induction story, but my story is very similar to yours. I live out in the desert as well. I had my first at 41w 3d but I lived 5 minutes from the hospital. When I got pregnant with my second daughter, I was surprised to find out that the two closest hospitals to us (55 miles and 90 miles) don't deliver babies. So we ended up going with a home birth midwife that was 3.5 hours away in Vegas. We had the birth at her house. I was very worried about the drive and being in labor on the way there. This is what happened:

DH and I are teachers, and DD was due a week before school got out. The last day of school came (6 days after my due date), and still no baby. So we packed our bags and decided to just head down to the city the next morning, get a hotel, and wait for DD2 to arrive. About halfway there, I started having contractions. They were all 3 minutes apart. By the time we got to the hotel, I was in pain. DH checked in, we went to our hotel room, and we quickly left to go to the midwife's house. When I got to her house, I was 9cm dilated, and DD2 was born a half hour later. My labor was 4 hours from first contraction. So if I would have waited at home until I felt contractions, I may have given birth on the side of the road in the desert.

This time, we opted to go to a hospital that is only 1.5 hours away and just suck up the out of network costs. My OB hasn't mentioned induction yet, but I assume she will. I don't know that I will agree to it or not...probably not. The OB I had earlier on in this pregnancy (that was in the city 3.5 hours away) suggested induction for the same reasons your OB did. Had I still been going to the OB that's 3.5 hours away, I would agree to be induced after 40 weeks if baby was in the right position and if my cervix was ripe.

[MakingHome]

Originally Posted by LuLu03 I'm 35 weeks, and getting a little stressed about the fact that I will most likely be induced around 40 weeks. For my first baby, I went 2 weeks over, and on the day of my scheduled induction, I went into labor on my own. This time around, I live out in the desert, 2 hours away from my hospital. My doctor is thinking (and I agree) she should induce, to reduce the possibility that I go into labor at home, and have to drive that far while in labor. It only took 8 hours from first contractions to baby with my daughter. So, they say sometimes the 2nd one comes faster. I just want to be sure I can be in the hospital when I'm ready to deliver, and not driving through a mountain range. Basically, my options are to stress out while laboring over a 2 hour drive to the hospital, or be induced. When I look at it that way, I feel like being induced is worth it so that I know in case anything goes wrong, I'll be at a hospital and not in the backseat of my car. I'd love to hear your experiences. A few moms that I've spoken to are telling me that it was actually a pretty good experience, and it didn't take too long.

Eh, I'd take my chances if I were you.

I've been induced twice. Once with #2 and once with #3. They were 8 hours and 4 hours long. The contractions are so so so much more straining on your body than natural ones think of the difference between you tightening your own calf muscle vs. a charley horse.

That said, I did both of them almost entirely naturally, with no epidural. One I had stadol the last 30 minutes and the other I had Demerol the last 30 minutes. I had back labor with #3 and that was truly awful.

So if you have to do it, you can. But do read up on the stark increase in csection rates due to induction,if you haven't yet. Be informed and walk into it with your eyes open. I had #s 4 & 5 completely naturally-- with normal contractions and would never choose to induce after experiencing the normality and relative ease of natural contractions. Night and day.

[iwiamandaiwi]

I was induced with my first child and it ended in a csection due to failure to progress. I feel like my doctors did not give me a choice even though my baby was not in distress and they just rushed me into agreeing to the csection. It was a horrible experience and because of it I have never been able to experience giving birth the regular way (too scared of a VBAC).

[mama_to_DJM]

I was induced with my 2nd and 3rd pregnancies, and both went very well! My first induction lasted 12 hours, my next one lasted 6 1/2! They went wonderful, and were smoother & easier than my one non-induction, that was a 27 hour labor! GL mama!

[gingerpeachee]

I'm sure you're already going to do this, but talk to your doc about induction methods, what he or she considers acceptable time frames for progression/pushing and if you were to end up on pitocin how fast they normally increase the dosage. An induction or even an induction turned c-section can still be an empowering birth experience as long as you're not being pushed around by policy and you're being provided information and allowed to make your own choices! Best of luck!

[Mommy to Eli and Baby#2]

I don't have an induction story but you should talk to someone about how to handle it if you go into labour earlier than the induction date. They wanted to induce me with DD as my first labour was just over two hours. I opted for midwives and leaving for the hospital at first sign. But that's not the point. DD was born at 38 weeks, 3 days, earlier than I'd have agreed to induce.

What helped me was sitting down with the midwives and going through what I'd do if labour came on too fast to get to hospital. They were very reassuring. You are probably fine, since your first labour was 8 hours but it may help to prepare for every possibility.

I hope your birth is a great experience!

[thirdtimemomma]

Originally Posted by LuLu03 I'm 35 weeks, and getting a little stressed about the fact that I will most likely be induced around 40 weeks. For my first baby, I went 2 weeks over, and on the day of my scheduled induction, I went into labor on my own. This time around, I live out in the desert, 2 hours away from my hospital. My doctor is thinking (and I agree) she should induce, to reduce the possibility that I go into labor at home, and have to drive that far while in labor. It only took 8 hours from first contractions to baby with my daughter. So, they say sometimes the 2nd one comes faster. I just want to be sure I can be in the hospital when I'm ready to deliver, and not driving through a mountain range. Basically, my options are to stress out while laboring over a 2 hour drive to the hospital, or be induced. When I look at it that way, I feel like being induced is worth it so that I know in case anything goes wrong, I'll be at a hospital and not in the backseat of my car. I'd love to hear your experiences. A few moms that I've spoken to are telling me that it was actually a pretty good experience, and it didn't take too long.

I've had 7 inductions.. all have turned out fine. My best ones were the ones where they used cytotec to rippen the cervix before starting pitocen. The two with pit first were very hard labors. So if you aren't already favorable for labor I suggest getting them to rippen the cervix in someway, cytotec isnt preferred anymore. I had great iduced labors and all vag births

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[AniMommy]

I had one horrific induction and one awesome induction.

The first I wasn't ready for and it lasted for 4 days with a threat of c/s looming the whole time.

The 2nd I was physically much more ready for but mentally really against. This one they started cytotec at noon. At 5, they turned on pit at lowest dose and it never got turned up. I was having lots of regular contrax. At 9pm, dr said turn off meds and go to sleep, we'll restart in AM. I continued on with labor on my own. Baby born at 4am in 40 min of pushing.

It was a great experience and I felt handled so differently from the first. Had I known it could be so peaceful and under control I wouldn't have hesitated as long to be induced again. One the other hand being physically ready for birth probably made the difference.

[karlitacat]

I was induced with pitocin during my first pregnancy when my water broke but labor didn't progress. I HATED it and wouldn't choose to go through that again (especially knowing the risk factors and that fact that inductions can lead to c-sections). I was going to be induced for the second pregnancy (I'm high-risk due to rH-factor), and we discussed other induction options, but thankfully I went into labor three weeks early - SO MUCH EASIER! The only thing we did to speed it along was to break my water, which really helped.