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Pregnant after 35
SherryAE
member
Being induced tomorrow :(
SherryAE
member
At 7pm tomorrow I will go into the hospital to get Cervidil placed in my cervix. At 7am the next morning they plan on starting Pitocin. I am 9 days overdue, with slightly high blood pressure.
I don't want an epidural. I still want to try and salvage what is left of my birth plan.
Is it possible to go through this induction without an epidural?
Are there any women that have gone into labor with just the Cervidil alone?
Can someone tell me what the contractions will be like if I have to have Pitocin? Compared to natural contractions? This is my first time having a baby, and I don't know what to expect, or how to mentally prepare.
All I keep hearing is how unbearable the pain is with Pitocin, and how women seem to always get an epidural with Pitocin. I'm scared. I keep thinking that once these interventions begin, it will inevitably end in a c-section.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Being induced tomorrow :(
I am sorry to hear that you have to be induced. I have to admit, this is a huge fear of mine as well. I think I am going to go late. Luckily, my BP and other things are not concerning, so I get to go as long as 42 weeks.
I am also a FTM, but I asked my OB already if it is possible to stop pitocin if labor is kick started well with it, and she said it is possible. You may discuss this possibility with your OB before proceeding. Seems to be that the medical staff likes to really push the dose up and up once started, but it doesn't necessarily have to be done this way, but your labor might end up going longer if you turn it down or off. In any case, this may be preferable to you.
Also, once they start cervidil, try to do all the natural means of labor augmentation you can, if you can get it going on your own, you can of course avoid pitocin that way too if you can get labor going with just the cervidil and your own oxytocin.
In any case, you are in a much better position to negotiate on the pitocin if you talk about it with your OB before you are hooked up to it.
IVF #1 ET 1 d3 embryo 10/30/11 BFP
3 Embryos frozen (1 d5, 2 d6)
DS born 07/29/12
FET #1 ET 1 d5 embryo 02/10/15 BFN
FET #2 1 d6 embryo didn't survive thaw, transferred last d6. CP
a friend/coworker of mine who is a nurse said the cerivdil will often kick start your body into labor with out needing further intervention. I also have read many birth stories about mom's on pitocin who have made it without an epideral, and many many who have had an epideral and never had to have a cs. try to relax as that is important for your BP and remember that n two days time you wil be holding your beautiful baby!
If it helps at all, I just had my third baby and I did it natural but we were planning to induce 3 days after the due date if she had not arrived, and as soon as we scheduled that it spurred labor to start! LOL. Also this is my 3rd birth,all have been med-free hospital births except I went ahead and asked for an epideral at the last minute this time. at 4 centimeters, after 24 hours awake and in labor I told the nurse to give me a shot of nubane(this doesn't ease the contractions but makes you feel relaxed) then an hour later I said I want my epideral NOW. and the doctor said its too late "you are 9 centimeters and this baby will be here any minute" so what I am trying to get at is even with the best laid out birth plan things always just happen the way they need to. I wish you lots of happy labor dust and hope that you will have the birth of your dreams. I can't wait to hear all about it and see pics! good luck :-)
I was induced by Cervidal as well. I was induced at 8pm at night and nothing happened by midnight. The next morning by 8am though I was a 1cm and then from 8am - 9am was the worst pain I had ever been in. I was having a contraction every minute. I was asking for an epidural, but they would not give me one because I was 1cm. It turns out I went from 1cm to 4cm in one hour (usually it's 1cm per hour), which explains why I was in such pain. Once they figured out I was at 4cm, they rushed to give me an epidural (they forgot to have me sign release papers).
Then I napped and gave birth around 3pm and didn't feel a thing. I pushed for 10 minutes and was done.
Best of luck to you. I say go natural if you can, but certainly get the help if you need it.
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I think it depends on a number of factors. I was induced at 37w 3d because of pre-e. I wanted all natural as well so was not pleased. Cervadil was placed the night before. I think I dilated one cm but other than that my body just wasn't ready. They started pit at 7-7:30am and broke my water a couple hours later. What sucked for me was they wouldn't let me out of bed - which if you want natural you need to be able to move. After my water broke, my contractions started coming and they actually turned off the pit. I lasted until almost 5pm and they performed a c/s because both of us were not tolerating labor well ( my BP and her heart rate). I was ready to ask for an epidural, but only because I was stuck in bed. I think if I was able to move around (and we didn't have problems) that I could have managed without an epi.
Good luck!
Just curious if your ob had any issue with you being 9 days ovrdue. Mine wont let women over 35 go that far past due date due to placental failure in, ahem, older women.
GL to you!
Really? That seems like an arbitrary cut off of age and time past your EDD. I was 38 when I delivered DS and my OB won't let any patient, regardless of age, go more than 10d overdue.
I am pretty sure that mine will let me go to 42 weeks-- the standard for any normal pregnant lady she sees, regardless of age.
I had a discussion with my OB about 40 weeks being the average due date with there being a bell-shaped distribution around that date, some are earlier, and some are later, but 40 weeks is far from a cut-off. Maybe she is more generous than most to allow for 42 weeks, but I will be subject to NSTs and other stuff at 41 weeks.
IVF #1 ET 1 d3 embryo 10/30/11 BFP
3 Embryos frozen (1 d5, 2 d6)
DS born 07/29/12
FET #1 ET 1 d5 embryo 02/10/15 BFN
FET #2 1 d6 embryo didn't survive thaw, transferred last d6. CP
I went 2 days early with my first and on my due date with my second so this was never an issue for me, but I know my OB has concerns with failing placenta in older women beyond 40 weeks.
My sister was induced with Pitocin her second time and she delivered WITHOUT an epidural. Both times she delivered without the pain meds...and vaginally.
Sure she said the labor was pretty intense...but it went quickly on the upside.
Good luck!
Sherry -I went into labor with the cervadil. similar scenario, I was induced at 39wks due to HBP. So at 7pm I got my cervadil, and by 7am I was in labor and 3cm dialated. by 10 am I was 6cm... with no pitocin. My OB was excited that I responded so well to it, and it looked as though the rest of my birth would be the au natural I most dearly wanted...
(unfortunately that's about where the excitement ended, they had to slow down my progress because DS's heart rate was not recovering from contractions favorably, then they broke my water to try to start things back up again, and eventually gave me pitocin, but DS's heart rate was looking so unfavorable I got a csect...)
FX for you to not need the pitocin. since I've only have 1 baby, I can't tell you for sure if the pitocin made matters worse or not, I've heard both ways, I think every delivery is different, just like every pregnancy. It will all boil down to how well you react to the pain.
I'm a FTM so I have no insight. But I'm sending you T&P that you and baby are well.
What have you tried to bring on your contractions on your own? Speaking from experience they are like night and day. I won't say that you *can't* take the pain it just means you need to work a little harder to deal with it. I was 9.5 inches and doing a natural birth but my water hadn't broken. When they broke my water I shrunk to 6cm. DD decided to go to sleep and my contractions stopped for about 6 hours. They gave me the pitocin and about a half an hr to 45mins.. I could tell the difference in the contractions. Since pitocin is not a natural hormone the contractions weren't natural. If I had to explain it it was like the contractions were being forced on me which made my body work harder to do it. I had to get the epidural after that.
You have time on your side. I was exhausted after trying for 8 hours to dilate. Make sure you have your paperwork signed before you go the hospital to get all the BS out of the way.. and keep the option open to get the epidural. I wills ay this.. once we had the epidural time was of the essence because DD's heart rate changed after sometime and they had to put an internal monitor on me to check her heart rate. Good luck!
It's nerve wracking I know... I had my first two w/o induction and my dd was induced at 10 days late. I was absolutely expecting the worse, but it was not nearly as bad as I had imagined. I was sure the medically induced contractions would be worse than natural ones, but really once the pitocin gets you started, nature kinda takes over and they end up lowering the drip. I didn't have an epidural with her or the first two, so it's totally doable!! I got to the hospital at 8:30 am started the pitocin at about 10am, started really feeling contractions about 12 noon (about when they broke my water) and I had her at 4pm... I considered it a 4 hour labor, which is my shortest so far!
Try to relax and find joy in the fact that you will have your baby in your arms in hours!!! Good luck!!!