Alex shares her positive induction.

A Positive induction birth story despite it being so far off our birth preferences (birth pool) and a 3day induction process.

Induction started Tuesday morn at 41+5 with Propess which fell out Wednesday morning. Tightenings/period like cramps were happening and cervix was good for Artificial Rupture of Membranes (ARM) but by Wed lunch everything had stopped. Cramps gone and by 6pm we weren't in labour and no delivery suite available to break waters as only 8 midwives on duty (should be 15, god bless those 8 as it was a busy night).

So we discharged ourselves Wed night (against medical advice of course) as I was exhausted and not getting the AMR until Thurs morn. Best decision for us as mummy and bump were healthy and safe with waters intact.

Showered and got some rest and then a call came at 6am to come in as a delivery suite was available. Gentlebirth tracks on in the car on route to hospital to get my head in the zone for what was about to come as much as a first time mum can.

In the Delivery Suite, after doing a trace on baby, they started by trying ARM but membrane was hard to pierce and baby moved up from -3 to -4 (higher in pelvis). We were told they'd need to hold head down while they forcibly broke the waters and if I couldn't get the head back down we would need a C-section.

While it was not nice to hear, the staff were always brilliant for having these conversations with us before we got to the point where a decision would need to be made so we could discuss and process.

A while later another doctor returned and broke the waters, all 2.5ltrs of it!!! We then started on the oxytocin drip about 8am and got back upright on the ball, turned on some music for the room and started the Tens machine. Throughout the morning I moved between the ball, the birthing stool and a forward leaning over the beanbag kneel position, always trying to stay upright, forward and use gravity.

As we increased the oxytocin strength, I put on my noise cancelling headphones with the Gentlebirth tracks and just focused on breathing and using the Tens. Around 11.30 the internal exam showed ~3cm dilation and head moving down again. By 3.45pm we had only used the tens machine, hypnobirthing tracks, ball and yoga to get to 7cm but the head was a little higher than preferred so as advised by midwife, we moved to side lying on the bed with the peanut ball between the legs and using gas and air & the tens, we rotated sides and got to 10 by 5.45pm when I was definitely feeling the urge to push.

With baby still a fraction too high we moved to all fours on the bed, resting the upper body on the headboard and started an hour of passive pushing with just the Tens and Gentlebirth tracks playing (allowing contractions to come and go but not push). Then we started actively pushing for another hour and had to lose the headphones. Unfortunately her head just wouldn't turn the final corner, and the staff were concerned by the amount of time passing. Mummy and baby were calm so we discussed and did another hour pushing, changing positions from side to side.

I then had to move to my back and although baby's head had made massive progress and I could rub the head of hair (daddy got a great photo) we were an hour over their preferred pushing time and after a discussion with the head midwife, we agreed that if after another 20 mins we had no baby, an episiotomy would be the only way to avoid instrumental delivery.

Episiotomy had to happen and 2 pushes later our beautiful baby girl's head entered the world and we paused to breathe her body out. We immediately knew the episiotomy was for the best as the cord was around the neck on delivery, not that this super chilled baby girl was phased by any of it and suddenly our daughter was in our arms 💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞

My chart reads:

Pain relief:

TENS, gas&air, aromatherapy diffuser & hypnobirthing 💞💞 

I'm so proud that despite it all going so far off our preferences we got back in the zone on Thursday and we still had an amazing experience and while it was labour/hardwork, my affirmations on the wall and Gentlebirth kept me in my headspace and it never felt too much or out of my control. Mindset is an amazing thing - thank you GentleBirth.

Read another GentleBirth positive induction for a first time mom here

Were you induced? Did you/would you consider going home to rest if the initial part of the induction wasn’t working?