I had this done recently. They inserted it the night before, and then I gave birth the next day. The worst part is them putting it in. It is like a really bad internal, but it is over pretty fast. Other than that, it doesn't really hurt, it's just uncomfortable. I felt it whenever I moved and I had to lay flat bc it was hard to bend at all. (This made going to the bathroom very difficult, thank goodness for all the rails in hospital bathrooms!) Also they taped it to my leg which was very itchy through the night. After midnight they finally gave me something to help me sleep. If I had it to do over, I would have asked for some medication earlier to make sure I had a good night's sleep. Taking it out didn't hurt at all. Good Luck to you!
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I had a catheter inserted to progress my dilation the night before I was induced. It's like a little balloon catheter they gradually fill with saline. As it fills, you dilate. Like I said, it's gradual. I was at a 2 1/2 cm when they inserted it and 6 cm when it was removed. The entire process took several hours.
I just had this done last week. I was almost 2 cm and went in to have the catheter placed with plans for pitocin in the am. The placement was pretty painful, but once it was in, it was fine though a little annoying. The catheter actually made my very irregular conractions regular (5-7 minutes) and about 4 hours after it was placed my water broke on it's own (10:30 pm). Then the contractions got really strong and regular (2minutes apart). The catheter is supposed to fall out when you get to ~5 cm, but the nurse had to pull mine out (not painful, actually very relieving). From there, labor progressed really quickly (without pitocin) and DS was born by 1:00 am. I wasn't able to get an epidural due to my platelet levels and I had a lot of back labor, but I don't know if that was related to the catheter or not. GL!
Re: Foley Catheter to induce labor?
I had one with my first child. I had the epi during it though so I didn't feel it.
I was about to get one with this son and when they check me I had dilated on my own.
They told me it feels like a really bad internal.
Hopefully you dilate on your own!!
**lurker here**
I had this done recently. They inserted it the night before, and then I gave birth the next day. The worst part is them putting it in. It is like a really bad internal, but it is over pretty fast. Other than that, it doesn't really hurt, it's just uncomfortable. I felt it whenever I moved and I had to lay flat bc it was hard to bend at all. (This made going to the bathroom very difficult, thank goodness for all the rails in hospital bathrooms!) Also they taped it to my leg which was very itchy through the night. After midnight they finally gave me something to help me sleep. If I had it to do over, I would have asked for some medication earlier to make sure I had a good night's sleep. Taking it out didn't hurt at all. Good Luck to you!