Positive induction birth story!

So I thought it was about time I actually sat down and wrote my birth story! Only took me 6 months lol.

So from 20 weeks onwards I had measured ahead, I’m a small girl, barely making 5 foot, but I honestly looked as though I was carrying twins, I didn’t put any weight on anywhere else, but the baby belly was HUGE! 28 weeks, and my son fractured my rib and that’s when I thought it would ease my mind a bit of I had a growth scan done..

32 weeks we had a growth scan and the little one was measuring in at 35 weeks, had another growth scan done at 35 weeks and he was measuring in at 38 weeks..

The day I had this scan was when I started having irregular contractions, they had told me I was in very very early labour, which can last days or weeks.

By this point I was in a decent amount of pain but trying to battle it out, I went to my 36 week appointment and they decided there that they wanted to induce me as they didn’t think I would get him out naturally if we waiting until 40 weeks, so at 38 weeks and 3 days, I went into the hospital at 5pm on a Friday night.

The plan was to check my cervix, have the balloon inserted at 6pm until 6am and go from there.

This is where the 3 weeks of inconsistent contractions come into play..

she checked my cervix to make sure it was favourable to the balloon, and once she checked me she advised me I was 2 cm dilated, my cervix was paper thin and the balloon would just fall out if we went down that route so she instead was just going to break my waters..

she said if I hadn’t have come in at 5pm for my induction, I would have been in before the weekend was out!

so 6pm on the dot she broke my waters, and 10 minutes after that I had my first contraction, followed by another 10 minutes after that, I had regular contractions for an hour and they decided they still wanted to put me on a hormone drip as I was technically booked in for an induction.

So we get the drip all set up and started and that is when it got real!

Now from someone who experienced natural contractions and hormone drip induced contractions, they are not lying when they say that it’s a different experience, however, I was so worried about it being so much more painful, and even tho it was more painful, i could feel the contractions working with my body 10 times quicker.

At about 10pm I asked for some gas, and used that for about 2 hours, I got checked again at 11 and I was 3cm dilated, I thought okay, 1cm in 5 hours, I’m gonna be here a while!

12am and I had decided I needed some sleep so I opted for the epidural, which I didn’t feel in the slightest and it was a god send!

I pushed it repeatedly for an hour and then decided to sleep, I woke up 20 minutes later and did not like how numb I was at all, I wish I had only pressed it once or twice!

But it started wearing off and I liked the level of numbness I was at, I sat chatting with my midwife, mum and partner and honestly my whole labour was just a room full of laughing, joking and mucking around it was great!

Came time to check me again at 3am and I thought I might be 4cm maybe 5cm at best, nope she checked me and I was 10cm!

She wanted to let me labour down for a bit so that’s what I did and at 3:55am we started pushing, it took me about 10 minutes to get the hang of it, we didn’t think I was going to get him out for a second there as I didn’t have any room either side I hadn’t even gotten past the eyebrows yet but after one big push my son was born at 4:26am, only 10 and a half hours after my water was broken! And to our surprise he was born completely average at 7 pound 7 ounces and 48cm long! I was all fluid haha.

I had a 3rd degree tear next to my clitoris, grazes on either side of my labia and a small graze inside but all in all, my labour was one of the best experiences I’ve had in a long time, I was so nervous about being induced and tried to find so many stories with positive outcomes in the lead up to being induced to I hope this helps someone that was in the same position I was :)

Ps. Remember to dab and not wipe when you take your first wee, dont make the same mistake I did!