Successful (almost) pain med free induction

Iain Connor was born on 11/15, one day after his EDD. He is 20 in long and he weighs 7 lbs and 11.4 ozs. He is absolutely perfect.

I decided I would share my story of a successful almost pain med free induction because it doesn't seem like there a many if them out there.  The three things I wish some one had told me about induction and delivery are pitocin isn't as bad as you think it is, it doesn't hurt as much as you expect it to and the hardest part is not pushing(why I ended up w/ pain meds).

On Monday 11/15 went in at 5:30 am for a scheduled induction. When we started out I regretted caving and scheduling the induction but because of his size I'm glad I didn't weight an extra week. I was dilated to a 3 and 75% effaced at the beginning. At 7 am we started with half a cytotec, lots of walking and nipple stim but by 11 the contrax hadn't gotten strong enough and I had only increased to 3.5 and 85%. The MW and I agreed to start pit on the lowest setting but they quickly had to up the dosage because the contrax had decreased in intensity and lost their pattern.

 I labored for a while on the ball but the pit contractions never got above a 4 on the pain scale. At around 5 my water broke on its own, I wasn't expecting it and I panicked because the pain immediately jumped from a 4 to a 6. I was dilated to a 5 and 90% effaced. My mw took me off of the pit immediately as promised and I begged to get in the shower. I labored in the shower until I had the urge to push.

Things moved so fast once my water broke, within an hour after rupture I was pulling my son onto my chest. I almost went entirely pain med free but I had the urge to push way too soon (at 7 cm) so my mw gave me 1/2 cc of Stadol to help me focus on resisting the urge to push. It did not relieve the pain but what hurt the most was fighting the urge to push. I went from a 7 to a 10 in 3 contractions and she had me lay on my side to slow his descent because he was coming so fast and she didn't want me to tear.

Although his head was 13 cm I didn't tear when he crowned, his shoulder and arm caused a small tear that needed 3 stitches on the inside and 3 on the outside. Once his head and shoulders were out my mw said "reach down and catch your baby." It was the most amazing moment if my life and I'm very happy with my birth experience.

Of all the pain coping measures we had planned the shower and music/ focal point helped the most. Dh and I sang to each other to help me focus on not pushing and letting go of the pain between contrax. He put on David Gilmore's On an Island and I focused on his eyes while we sang to one another.