The following story was sent to me recently by a lady who wishes to remain anonymous.
I’m so grateful for all positive induction birth stories we receive, whether the author remains anonymous or not – they are all hugely inspiring and informative, and help build a better picture of just how positive an induction birth CAN be!
Enjoy the read, and thank you to the lady who sent it in!
The birth of my daughter was fairly traumatic although I did recover quickly and escaped a c section.
When my waters broke at 41 weeks in my second pregnancy, there were no signs of labour and 24 hours later I waddled into the Westburn Ward to be induced. I really expected to be there for days and when I met a former work acquaintance who had been there for 4 days already I wasn’t hopeful.
I was examined and it wasn’t looking good, unfavourable cervix and not dilated at all. The pessary went in and I thought I had nothing better to do than get a latte and Twix and read the magazines I had packed. I even sent my husband home, being in the middle of a house renovation I was keen for him to take some stuff to the tip.
He wasn’t even gone 30 secs when the contractions started on top of each other. When they weren’t settling the midwife suggested some morphine to allow me to chill out and get a bit of rest. I happily accepted although was quite surprised we were hitting the hard stuff so soon, especially given I’d literally begged for remifentanil in my first labour in the labour ward and it took over an hour to get any. I’d have been happy with gas and air but it seems you can’t get gas and air on Westburn so a nice dose of morphine it was.
At this point I was examined and was 1cm. I did indeed have a hazy snooze and 4 hours later woke up in serious pain with contractions coming on top of each other again. There was a lot of pain, attempting to bounce on a ball, trips to the toilet and the pessary fell out in the middle of all of this. The doctor came by and said that they’d probably have to slow down the labour as perhaps I’d hyper stimulated.
At this point I had visions of c section. My husband appeared back to see how I was doing. I think he expected me to be sitting there catching up on the celeb gossip of June 2014. The nurse said she’d give me more morphine until the doctor came back. She had to examine me first. Next thing I know there’s no morphine and I’m being rushed to a birthing room! I was 10cm the baby was coming.
My husband looked a bit surprised and I couldn’t believe it. We got to the room where I was promised gas and air. I asked how long it would take and noted that I wasn’t really wanting to be pushing for hours. She said it’s 5.55 baby will be here by 6.10, that was all the motivation I needed and sure enough my beautiful baby boy shot out at 6.07pm.
I didn’t even need the gas and air, my body literally took over.
Less than 8 hours from when the first pessary went in! I was completely in awe of what an relatively easy labour it had been compared to my first. You hear so many horror stories about inductions especially when you’re not favourable or dilated but in this case it really was a positive experience. I never did find out what the celeb gossip of June 2014 was!