Induction vs elective C-section

You could always try induction as even just the pessary may be enough to get things going for you, and if nothing happens you can opt early for a c section? I think people opt for a section because for some people induction doesn't work after three or four days and ends in a section anyway. It is worth a try though in my opinion, but it's totally your body and your choice! You are past your due date so induction could work for you, have you had any sweeps yet?

From my own experience and reading inductions are only successful if your body is ready for labour. You could do research and look up bishop score to get an idea of how your cervix is ready. If your cervix is not ready for labour then you’ll must likely end up having a c section anyway (emergency or planned) 40% of inductions end up in c sections. I found my induction horrific and ended up in a section with my first my bishop score was 2 out of 30 I should have opted for the c section to begin with. Only my experience and opinion everyone is different

I was induced on Wednesday morning, baby was born early hours Friday morning and discharged the same day. Induction is different for everyone, personally I’m glad I got to experience a vaginal birth. The induction process wasn’t as bad or long as many of the stories I’d heard. One piece of advice if you do opt for induction is to stay mobile - walk, go down stairs as much as possible to speed things along and try to stay relaxed

I had an induction with my first and second ended up in a C-section anyway. I hear too many cases that it leads to a C-section or instrumental delivery as your body isn’t “ready” with my second I’m choosing an elective and my only birth preference is not to have any form of induction 🙅🏼‍♀️ But everyone is different and everyone’s body may respond to inductions differently

I think the recovery from an induction will be better than a c section however it’s more the process of the induction itself. I had one with my first and it was horrific back to back contractions and they gave me some morphine type injection and I was totally spaced out when my son was born don’t remember him being weighed or all of it tbh. Just now I have to get my baby out this week and due to her position she’s needing to be a section but they said if she goes head down for todays scan they can change me to induction and I’m honestly praying she doesn’t turn. As terrified as I am of a section and the healing process I just absolutely could not go through another induction. It’s also worth noting that if your body isn’t ready and induction fails you’ll end up with a section anyway. I would ever want to sway you either way it’s a hard decision to make but I couldn’t imagine having the trauma of an induction then having an emergency section!

That being said there is people who have positive induction stories. Why don’t you ask them if you can try the balloon? I’ve not looked into that properly as not an option for me but I think or believe it’s an unmedicated way to get you to dilate and get labour to start naturally xx

Definitely do what @ML8 says and read up on Bishop’s Score. When you have your appointment you can ask for an exam and discuss bishop’s score with your midwife - where your body is at and where it would be at ideally for induction. I didn’t know any of this for birth 1 and at 40 weeks I had a 6-day failed induction followed by c-section

@Zahra were you dilated at all before being induced? / had any sweeps? Thank you!

@Hayley i would love to havw the balloon first as its non hormonal however as of right now my cervix is too far back/closed so can’t even sweep let alone insert a balloon :(

@ML8 thank you - reading into bishops scores now! My cervix is currently too far back/closed so no good!

@Chloe i tried 2 sweeps but they couldn’t reach my cervix as too far back so looks like my body isn’t playing ball just yet 😭 i will ask the midwife if inductions are possible with an un-ready cervix or not and the likeliness of them doing anything if it’s fully closed

@Liv (previously Peanut) I wasn’t dilated at all before being induced. I had the pessary in for 24h and got to 2cm and regular contractions. I accepted a sweep and was at 3cm. I was left to labour naturally for 4 hours, prorgressed another cm and accepted another sweep which helped move things along. Followed by couple hours on oxytocin drip after which labour progressed rapidly

I think alot of inductions end in c section from what I gather however my induction with my first was nothing to do with why I had a c section. I was induced due to having sepsis I went from 1-9cm in 4 hours, also had epidural so pretty much napped all of that. Her heart rate stopped and they were worried she had got the infection so to be safe wanted to get her out asap. If it wasn’t for the sepsis I think I’d have had a successful induction. However I weren’t taking any risks with my second as I had them so close and chose elective which was pretty relaxed and very controlled ☺️

@Zahra thanks for this! Did they break your waters or just do sweeps and let your waters break by themselves?

@Liv (previously Peanut) they broke my waters after waiting to see if they’d break themselves