ICP Induction

I was induced on my due date. Good experience but now i wish i just waited for spontaneous labour x

That’s good you waited until due date, glad you had a good experience! I really want to avoid induction, just not sure how long to go over my due date if it comes to that. I’m only 33 weeks so plenty of time to get him moving x

@Paige is it your first? What have your bile acid levels been like? I believe there is new research about stillbirths with cholestasis… I think the risk is believed to be even lower now.

@Ceri At the moment they are 42, hopefully they stay on the low side. Why do you wish you’d waiting to go into spontaneous labour? I’d like to do the same but obviously the pressure to be induced will start increasing over the next few weeks x

It’s good they’re not too high, mine were reasonably low too, highest they got to was 41. I had ICP with my first baby and was induced… since I’ve now had a second baby without ICP and went into spontaneous labour at 40+6. Spontaneous labour was so much nicer, quicker and definitely not as painful as being induced. I wish I just waited it out with my first. Stupid pressure to induce when the evidence is biased… there has never been any trial that has included women past 39 and 40 weeks for icp (as historically they induce at 39 weeks) so they cannot know the real risk, especially when bile acids are fairly low below 40.

I found this info really interesting… https://www.tommys.org/about-us/our-impact/impact-tommys-research-centres/predicting-risk-stillbirth-intrahepatic

@Ceri Thanks so much that’s all so helpful. I waited to go into labour naturally with my first, I was 42 weeks when I gave birth. I think I will decline induction as long as I can and ask for increased monitoring, fingers crossed baby comes on his own 🤞🏼x

Can I ask you both how you found out you had it? I've had an itchy bump since Saturday, without rash and on looking it up, I've come to realise that my hands and feet have been itchy too and I've been quite fatigued the past few days. I'm 38+4 weeks and seeing the midwife on Monday. Do you think I can wait until then to raise it as she's not the easiest to get hold of?

@Ruby I would raise it sooner rather than later as you’re so close to due date. If your midwife is hard to get hold of can you call a triage line/ use the healthier together app? They will ask for a blood test, do not fast for it as bile acids raise after eating. The type of itch is really intense and cannot be ignored. Is this how it feels? X

@Ceri I wouldn't call it intense but it's an itch I have to scratch and scratching doesn't alleviate it. It's not there all the time though. I tend to notice it in the evenings.

@Ruby Give triage a ring and hopefully they can do your bloods. The itching is worse at night, that’s one of the strange symptoms. I only really novice my itching at night x

Thank you both, I'll give triage a call x