I'm a FTM and at my 39 week appointment my midwife said I was 4cm dilated and 80% effaced. She said that was very unusual to be that dilated for a FTM and not have the baby within the next few days. A week went by and she said, "how are you still pregnant?" I hadn't made any progress. I was scheduled for an induction for Jan 3rd. I really did not want to be induced or have any interventions and wanted to have a natural birth. I tried every method in the book except castor oil to make Labor start on its own. I even did the baby inducing yoga dance the day before my induction. And let me tell you it made my legs so sore. But it didn't bring on any contractions at all. The day of my induction rolled around and we got up and headed to the hospital. I was 41 +5 days pregnant. My midwife wanted me to think about what induction method I wanted to use. My options were pitocin or breaking my water. The other methods weren't considered because I was already 4cm dilated and ripe. I asked if she could try a sweep one more time. So she checked me and I was 5.5 cm already somehow. She swept me and told me to walk around for half an hour. I still was not feeling any contractions other than Braxton hicks. When I came back from the walk I bounced on a ball to try to keep things progressing in the hope that I could keep from being induced. My midwife checked me again and I was 7.5 cm. I don't know how I was getting so dilated without having any pain worse than a very mild period. Monitors were saying my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart but I was feeling fine. She told me to take a nap because I would need my strength. After a few hours she came back and my contractions had spaced way out. I still was not in active labor and we needed to decide how to induce me. I was leaning toward breaking my water, but she wanted to use pitocin because baby was still not anterior and if she broke my water, she might not rotate around on her own. She was also too high still and I could risk compressing the umbilical cord. I asked to go for one more walk after explaining why I didn't want pitocin. I was afraid my contractions would come on too strong and I wouldn't be able to resist the epidural and really wanted to lessen my chances of needing a c-section. She said "Ok, Go walk for 30 minutes". This was my last chance. She came back 45 minutes later and checked me. I was still 7.5-8cm. But if she broke my water the pressure would make me go back to 7.5. But baby had descended enough that she decided to just break my water right then as long as I didn't change positions. She broke my water and left me to labor on my own with my husband. By that time I kept feeling like I had to go to the bathroom and went 3 times. I labored for 45 minutes with strong contractions. But honestly they were not any worse than my periods used to be (which were awful, but labor was not worse). The worst part was the nausea that came with each contraction. I changed positions 3 times in 45 minutes. Kneeling over the back of the bed was too hard because my thighs were so sore from the yoga dance. She had me stand and labor leaning on a peanut ball on the bed. It got too hard to stand and I sat down on the bed upright. She made me turn and face the other way knowing it wouldn't be long. As soon as I did I felt like I would need to push. I was at 10 cm and baby was coming down. I vomited. I pushed. I felt like I was going to rip and was told to do small pushes holding my breath and to hold my knees up. I was too tired to hold them up. Once I started pushing holding my breath baby was coming out faster. 3 pushes for the head and one for the shoulders and she was the rest of the way out. I pushed for 30 minutes total. I had mostly internal tears that were first degree. It took her longer to stitch me up than to push out my baby. I kept bleeding and she couldn't see where she needed to stitch me internally and had to do it all by feel. It was more uncomfortable being stitched and probed all over down there by her and 3 nurses than laboring was. Afterward my husband told me he felt sick and almost passed out from all of the blood there was that had spilled all over the floor. But I had a healthy baby girl at 8lb 9oz and 20.5" long. Isla Juniper was born on the day of my induction without any medication.