6cm and no active labor...induce?

PhxMama

Hi ladies...I am looking for some insight into my situation. I had an appt. today and I am at 6cm dilated and almost completely effaced. My OB wants to induce me tomorrow. I am Group B pos so the plan is to go into the office, get my membranes stripped and head to the hospital to start the antibiotics and Pitocin if the membrane strip doesn't bring them on. Her concern is that if we keep waiting it out I could go very fast if my water breaks. We are 20-30 min from the hospital and my husband works about 45 minutes from home. I also have 2  children to arrange care for so the idea of a really fast labor scares me. Another factor is that I went from 5cm to birth in an hour with my second once they broke my water. Considering all the factors does this seem like a good reason to induce or am I blowing the risks out of proportion? My OB really prefers we induce but is supportive of letting me wait too. She just said we might have a baby in the car. I was really hoping for a med-free birth but I also want my baby to be safe. I would appreciate any thoughts or insight!

barista411

I had the a similar situation with DS. I was 6cm and fully effaced at my 40 week apt. My MW did a membrane sweep and I went into labor an hour later. I would reccomend trying the membrane sweep and go from there. I also was in labor for 7 hours so it was a shorter labor but I had plenty of time to make it to the hospital.

barnwife

Would  I induce? No. 

But, we plan HB. And I was GBS+ with J. We declined antibiotics after much research and discussion with my MW. 

With S. I was GBS-, but my water broke and contractions didn't follow. My MW said we could go to the hospital and induce at any point I was no longer comfortable. I wanted to wait it out. (The big risk is infection. But, with no vaginal exams, the risk is low.) And so we waited...and waited...and waited. 2 days after my water broke, I finally started contractions. 

I guess what I am saying is that I am obviously pretty against any interventions unless medically necessary. And my definition of medically necessary is clearly different from many doctors. 

Only you can decide if induction is the right path for you.

DebateThis

I went into PTL at got to 7cm/100% effaced/bulging bag and contractions every 2-5 min before labor stalled and I stayed at 6cm/ctx every 10 min for three weeks. My MW's chose not to induce due to prematurity, and my water broke at 9:30am 38w4d. I didn't go back to the hospital til 11pm that night; pit was started (no contraction progress) at 12:30ish, and I didn't feel a thing til real labor hit at 8:30 am and LO was out at 9:11am, med free except the pit.

With your GBS+ status I'd guess you need to be a little more cautious, but my MW's were comfortable sending me home both times I went into labor - and I live an hour away w/o traffic. They said that if my water broke with a huge gush or if I'd started having regular painful/increased contractions to get my rear to the hospital, but they never seemed concerned about a car baby or anything.

I'm really really glad my MW's didn't induce - at 38w5d, LO was a 6lb,9oz peanut - even in "active labor" he clearly needed those extra weeks to bake.

momof2buggs

I think with your situation, the sweep will put you into labor without the need for pitocin. If you do end up needing it, I'm almost positive a very small amount will do the trick. I normally wouldn't advocate for induction, but you do have some risks, so I say do it. 

iris427

I would do it. It looks like this is your third kid, so an induction is very unlikely to fail, especially since you are already 6 cm. I would be worried that once you go into active labor, you will go FAST and might have a precipitous, unassisted birth. With an induction you wont have to worry about making it to the hospital on time or having to wait around for child care to arrive which could further delay you getting to the hospital. They could probably get things moving easily, even a hint of Pit and then turning it off to let your body take over could do the trick.

PhxMama

Thank you for your feedback ladies. My intuition was strongly telling me to be at the hospital early for this birth. On weds. morning my OB swept my membranes in the office and sent me over to the hospital for the group B antibiotics. After the 4 hours she broke my water which sent me right into transition, no pit was needed. Baby was posterior so I had a very intense and painful three hours until he was born in three pushes. I was very lucky to have a friend end up as my nurse and an OB that was there the entire time helping try different tactics to get baby to move. It was like having two doulas . All in all I am happy I wasn't home when this went down because the pain was so different this time around with the back labor. I was really panicky for the entire time and I think my kids would have been really freaked out. I feel like this experience really taught me to trust my gut.