Positive Induction Experience

My first came out within 3 hours of my first good contraction so I was expecting and hoping for the same thing this time around. I had to go natural on the first time because there wasn’t time for an epidural so I got it in my mind that I could do it again. I read Childbirth without Fear and tried to mentally prepare.

Then some protein showed up in my urine, indicating pre-eclampsia, and they told me I had to be induced the next day. I’d heard induced labors were long and painful so that fear started creeping back in.

Well, now on to my nice positive induced birth story. Honestly, I completely preferred this experience to the shotgun birth of my first and wanted to share it with others who have heard horror stories about inductions. I was told to arrive at the hospital at 8pm on 6/11/19. I arrived and was taken to a room, put on my labor gown (from Motherhood Maternity and would highly recommend) and told to just hang out until the nurse arrived. The nurse came in and got my IV put in and the monitors attached and the doctor arrived shortly after. Since I was 2cm dilated at my last OB appointment, they were just going to start the Pitocin slowly and see how it went.

The next 4 hours were nice and relaxed. The contractions almost immediately started coming about every 2 minutes but were painless. I just hung out and watched HGTV with my husband. At 1:15, the doctor came back to check and I’d progressed to 4cm so she asked if I wanted to break my water and move it along. We did and the contractions immediate got stronger. This is the stage that “Childbirth without Fear” came in handy. The contractions were strong but I wouldn’t say painful. I was just concentrating on letting my uterus relax and progress. I had this.

About 1 1/2 hours later, the pain hit. I felt pressure down there and thought “it’s go time”. The nurse checked and said I was a stretchy 6cm. Whaaaa? With the last, I had another hour and a half to get to 10 cm so I asked for those pain meds. We decided to do Stadol in the IV to take the edge off. She put it in the IV and on the next contraction I said that there is definitely something happening down there and I needed to push, or pee, or poop, or something. The nurse said that sometimes just checking can make things progress so she decided to check again. In the THREE MINUTES, since last check I had progressed to 10cm and was ready to push. The doctor got there as fast as she could (there were about 4 contractions that they told be not to push and, let me tell you, it was horrible) but then the doctor got into place and I pushed through two contractions for about 30-45 seconds total and had my baby girl out. It was almost 6 hours exactly from my first drop of Pitocin.

The drugs kicked in about 2 minutes later haha.

I wanted to read that book and say that I had a pain-free childbirth but I honestly don’t know how that can happen in that last stage of labor. However the book helped me have so much control over what my body was doing. There was no screaming, no ring of fire, and once the pushing started the pain did turn into the feeling of a good workout.

I just wanted to put this out there for the mommas that are scared or hear horror stories about inductions. This was my second kid and I’ve had good birthing hips since the fourth grade so I know that helped but it truly was a great experience (except for those 5 minutes where I thought I would die at the end). We were back home 40 hours after we first went in for the induction.

Quinn Daniella

Born 6/12/19 at 3:32am

8 lbs 4 oz

20.5 inches