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What You’ll Need To Know About Inducing Labor - All the Secrets Nobody Tells about Induction
Updated: Feb 25, 2022
When you are approaching your due date, you wonder what your OB feels about
inducing labor.
They never give you a real plan if everything is normal with your pregnancy,
until about 38 weeks.
Then you are suddenly approached by the idea without getting much time to do research or think about all the pros and cons.
It can be overwhelming.
Around 2020 doctors came to the conclusion done by a massive study, that inducing labor between 39-41 weeks reduces the chances of emergency C-Sections.
So until doctors find evidence of the opposite they will continue giving moms the option of inducing labor.
Your Last Doctors Visit
No matter if you decide to induce your last doctors visit will be around 38 weeks but no earlier, unless your baby decides to naturally stay in for longer than their
expected arrival date.
Before you go into a room to wait, they will take you to get your very last ultrasound!
This ultrasound will be to see where their head is, and “measure” their weight to see if your baby is eligible to be induced.
After the usual checks you have every appointment, the doctor will come in and see if you have dilated already any. No matter if you haven't, he/she will then ask if you are ready for your baby to come out.
Your OB can give you some time to think about it, but not very long, and this is the purpose of this article.
If your answer is yes, you will then confirm a date with your doctor to make sure your OB will be there to delivery your baby.
After you are settled on a date you will go to the billing/schedule department of the clinic office. There they will confirm your inducing check-in date, give you some soap to use before hand, and tell you all the basic instructions
you will need.
The Nights Before
The few nights before your induction date, you are so ready to meet your baby. But there are also some feelings of anxiety.
Trust me, you are not alone in that feeling.
Do everything you have to in order to calm those nerves. What calmed me to prepare for my baby was nesting, I deep cleaned the entire house. I had to be doing something, I couldn’t just sit there. But everyone is different, so do what you need to do to have a positive birth experience!
A few days before, your hospital should call you to give you all the more information you need.
You will wash with the soap they give you the night before your appointment, and then again the day of before you leave.
Make sure to pack plenty of snacks for you and your partner. And try to eat a big meal before you head to the hospital, because you won’t want to eat until after you delivery your baby.
Arriving at the Hospital
You will bring all your bags and anything else you want for your stay with you inside, and you will go straight to the Labor & Delivery wing of the hospital.
You will then be greeted by nurses to check you in. They will give you many papers to sign and acknowledge, wrap you with multiple different arm bands, and walk you to your room that you will be in during your entire hospital stay.
The nurse that walks you to your room, will give you a gown to change into and get your bed ready, to ensure you are comfortable.
The nurses will then wire you up, put any IVs in you, and place monitors on your stomach.
If something hurts, tell them because you will need to be comfortable and mobile for delivery.
Induction Methods
Now every hospital is different on what they may try first but it’s usually all around the same.
Every situation is different, sometimes you’re body will respond well to the very first intervention or sometimes your body might have to go through several of the steps.
After you finally get situated, a nurse will check you again to see if and how much you are dilated.
If you have not dilated any or much, they will use this “pill” called Cytotec to start with.
They will place this vaginal depository as close to the cervix as possible. Cytotec basically relaxes the walls of your vagina and forces your cervix to start contractions.
This depository can make labor contractions extremely harsh and painful
depending on your body.
Just remember at the end of all this horrible pain you are going to see that beautiful face you have been longing for.
You got this mama.
With using Cytotec you will have to lay flat for almost 2 hours.
After that you can move around normally.
After 4 hours, a nurse will come again to check to see if you have dilated any and how much.
If you have not dilated much after the first round, the will most likely do another round of Cytotec. And the process is the exact same.
After the second round, if you still have not dilated any, they will discuss doing another round of Cytotec or moving on to a harder medication: Pitocin.
I say a harder medication because this medication is said to give you even more severe contractions than Cytotec, and thats why they don’t start with it.
At any given moment, your water may break and you will have to give up your freedom of mobility of moving and walking around, and you will have to stay in bed for the remainder of the delivery. This is also when they will put your catheter in, so you have no excuse
but to stay in bed.
If the rounds of Pitocin doesn’t work, they may try what is sort of like a balloon. They place this in the vagina and will fill the “balloon” up with air. This process basically just relaxes the
lining of your wall.
If none of these items work after several attempts, they may send you on your way and schedule a time for you to come back
and try again, if that is what you choose to do.
More often than not though, the induction process works. Don’t get yourself and your baby stressed out, when you honestly don’t need to be.
Methods to Relieve Pain
The methods to relieve pain during an induction is the all around same for a natural delivery.
You will have all the options of using what are sorta like yoga balls, but what they call “the peanut” to bounce on.
This really does help and relaxes your hips and vagina while having these severe contractions.
Unless your water breaks early, I suggest moving around and walking as much as possible. Standing up and walking, not having to just lay in bed and only concentrate on the pain, honestly helps more than you might think.
The biggest option to help relieve pain though?
Yes, you guessed it. The Epidural.
Hear me out.
Do not look up pictures or videos of this process, it will only scare you when there is nothing to be scared of.
My advice to you to help relieve as much pain as possible is to ask for the epidural as soon as you are having contractions where it is hard to breathe. And I would say not waiting past dilation of 5 cm.
If you wait too long, the epidural will not have enough strength to catch up with the amount of pain you are in, which
defeats the purpose.
In total honestly if you wait for the appropriate time to get the epidural, you will not feel or be worried about that needle. You are only worried about getting through the next contraction.
The anesthesiologist will face your back inserting the needle and you will be holding on to the nurse in front of you.
Don't be worried about using the nurse in front of you for support to stay as still as possible during a contraction, that is what they are there for and what they love to do.
In no time at all the anesthesiologist will tell you that she is all done, and you still have yet to feel a thing. Even the tube that connects to the medicine leading into your back,
you will not feel.
I promise it is worth it to try and sit as still as possible to get this epidural, because this will make delivery so much better. Doing this, you will not feel any tearing, pinching, or even getting stitches if needed.
The only thing you will feel is the sudden feeling of release when your baby slides out right before seeing their beautiful face.