experiences with the foley bulb for induction?

JJ1973

It is pretty much set that I'll be induced this week due to my rising bp. I'm at 38 weeks on Saturday. My midwife discussed the methods of induction with me the other day, and indicated she would be very likely using the foley bulb on me, among other things. It sounds horrifying. Does anyone have any experiences with this? At last check, my cervix was cranky and closed. I'm hoping for a more progressed internal tomorrow. We'll see. This is not how I planned it...

Just_Lisa

My friend had this done and she did great with it. Her dr. Put it in at the office she went home and she said it came out sometime in the middle of the night. She got up and had to be at the hospital at 8 am to start the induction and had her baby around noon. If I end up with another induction I'm going to ask for this method. Oh and she was a week overdue and had zero progress. She said it wasn't painful at all either.

heatherglen814

I must be totally out of the loop... what is a foley bulb and how does it work?

MelbaCat

i had 2 during my induction (b/c the hosp OB didn't get the 1st one in far enough. The 2nnd one worked and got me to 4cm (though i never progressed any further).

i thought getting it put in hurt a fair amount, but not awful.

JJ1973

heatherglen814:

I must be totally out of the loop... what is a foley bulb and how does it work?

It is almost like a little water balloon that is inserted into your cervix. It expands and then falls out. My midwife said it can bring you to a 3 or 4 overnight. Again, it doesn't sound so pleasant to me:)

heatherglen814

JJ1973:

heatherglen814:

I must be totally out of the loop... what is a foley bulb and how does it work?

It is almost like a little water balloon that is inserted into your cervix. It expands and then falls out. My midwife said it can bring you to a 3 or 4 overnight. Again, it doesn't sound so pleasant to me:)

Ah, yeah it doesn't sound too pleasant. Hmmmm... if I'm not progressing after next week, I might ask for it as an alternate to pitocin or something.

kimmyt09

heatherglen814:

JJ1973:

heatherglen814:

I must be totally out of the loop... what is a foley bulb and how does it work?

It is almost like a little water balloon that is inserted into your cervix. It expands and then falls out. My midwife said it can bring you to a 3 or 4 overnight. Again, it doesn't sound so pleasant to me:)

Ah, yeah it doesn't sound too pleasant. Hmmmm... if I'm not progressing after next week, I might ask for it as an alternate to pitocin or something.

 This almost sounds better than trying to make cervadil work for me. I wonder if I should ask my ob about doing that instead.  

JJ1973

kimmyt09:

heatherglen814:

JJ1973:

heatherglen814:

I must be totally out of the loop... what is a foley bulb and how does it work?

It is almost like a little water balloon that is inserted into your cervix. It expands and then falls out. My midwife said it can bring you to a 3 or 4 overnight. Again, it doesn't sound so pleasant to me:)

Ah, yeah it doesn't sound too pleasant. Hmmmm... if I'm not progressing after next week, I might ask for it as an alternate to pitocin or something.

 This almost sounds better than trying to make cervadil work for me. I wonder if I should ask my ob about doing that instead.  

From my understanding, it is rarely used alone. It sounds like it is one piece of a process involving the cervadil and pitocin, but I could be wrong. She reviewed all of this kind of quickly and I was a little stunned that we were even having the discussion so soon.

Mrs.Rose

They spent 2 hours trying to put a foley bulb into me.  It was like having my membranes stripped over and over.  I was about to come out of my skin it hurt so much.  They had to give me a narcotic after that because all the messing with my cervix made me have contractions on top of each other. 

I don't know what it would be like if they had gotten it placed. 

I would rather have tons of cervadil and pitocin than ever try that again.

kimmyt09

Mrs.Rose:

They spent 2 hours trying to put a foley bulb into me.  It was like having my membranes stripped over and over.  I was about to come out of my skin it hurt so much.  They had to give me a narcotic after that because all the messing with my cervix made me have contractions on top of each other. 

I don't know what it would be like if they had gotten it placed. 

I would rather have tons of cervadil and pitocin than ever try that again.

yikes, then no thanks. The one post about it being inserted and overnight it could make you 3 or 4 cm made it sound so nice and simple- of course it isn't. I should know better than that! 

Mrs.Rose

kimmyt09:

Mrs.Rose:

They spent 2 hours trying to put a foley bulb into me.  It was like having my membranes stripped over and over.  I was about to come out of my skin it hurt so much.  They had to give me a narcotic after that because all the messing with my cervix made me have contractions on top of each other. 

I don't know what it would be like if they had gotten it placed. 

I would rather have tons of cervadil and pitocin than ever try that again.

yikes, then no thanks. The one post about it being inserted and overnight it could make you 3 or 4 cm made it sound so nice and simple- of course it isn't. I should know better than that! 

I probably just had really bad luck with it.  I was fingertip dilated when they tried to insert it.  Who knows, maybe it would have helped if they had gotten it in (I only got to 8cm in 48 hours)

luv2bemommy

I had this after two rounds of cervidil and lots of pitocin. It was the worst experience of my life! It hurt a lot and I started bleeding heavily as well. Then I started throwing up and needed an epidural stat! I ended up not progressing past the point that the foley bulb got me to and ended up with a c-section the next morning.

MrsB*s

I had one, and when I had it, I had never heard of it.  I was in the hospital with pre-e, 39 weeks pregnant with absolutely zero progress, and suddenly terrified.  Honestly, it was not as bad as it sounded.  And it did get me to 4cm overnight.  It was placed along with cervadil.  In fact, my water broke on its own overnight using the bulb.

For me, getting it placed wasn't fun, but if they are good, you'll be fine.  It did not take that long.  The anticipation was worse than the actual procedure.  

Either it or the cervadil made me very crampy very quickly, but I had a lot of other issues going on (pre-e, magnesium), so my nurse encouraged me to just get the epidural, which I did.  I knew I wanted one regardless, so why try and be brave and suffer overnight just to know I'd get one when it got to really active labor?  I probably could have slept if not for some of the side effects of the magnesium, so the epidural was great.

By morning I was nearly 5 cm, and I progressed nicely until I reached 7, where I stalled for hours.  Nothing to do with anything but my body.  I ended up with a c-section -- it just wasn't going to happen.  But the induction itself worked extremely well, especially considering I started from absolutely nothing.

It is my understanding that the foley is standard practice at my hospital.  I guess it does a nice job getting women to 4 pretty quickly.