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November 2014 Moms
bsquare4115
member
Cytotec?
bsquare4115
member
So tonight's the night. I'm going in this evening to get cytotec throughout the night because my cervix still hasn't dilated and fully softened. It's a vaginal suppository to help soften the cervix given every 4 hours. Has anybody had any experience with this drug? I hope it helps move things along. I'm 40w6d btw.
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Re: Cytotec?
They aren't even the same drug class or used for the same thing. Yes, they are both used in medical inductions, but it's comparing apples to oranges in how they work, what the end goal of using them is and what deems the use of the drug a success. Compare the safety of cytotec to cervidil if you want to actually look at things worth comparing to each other.
Personally, I would never consent to cytotec, but that's just me, who is also trained to analyze medical info and peer-reviewed articles and research and has read extensively on induction options.
So I took cytotec this time last year orally to complete a MMC - it worked the first time and it wasn't that horrible. I was induced on 11/1 this time around - my doctor went the cytotec route. It's a much smaller dose of course, inserted vaginally - had one dose at 10:30 am. I was only 2 cm (had two previous membrane sweeps). My doctor said she'd check in 4 hours to see if I need another dose. About 3.5 hours later, still not much of anything, they inserted a cath for mechanical dilation - so around 2:00 pm (hurt like a biotch). Probably a half hour after that I started having very strong contractions so I didn't need another dose - I took my epidural (the first one - the anesthesiologist was having an "off" day per the nurses) at about 3:45 or so when they started to get stronger. By about 4:30 I wasn't feeling them, but my doc said they were coming about every two minutes. The cath fell out at about 6:30 pm or so - so that's 4 or 5 cm? Like I said, she didn't give me another dose and couldn't give me Pitocin because of the strength of the contractions.
In any case, I delivered 12:59 am on November 2nd - only 5 minutes of pushing (because the 2nd epidural failed and it was push or die in my head). That was 14.5 or so hours total. My experience was fine, actually shorter labor than with DS2 - only 1 cm after about 2 days of contractions at home and Pitocin after admission with him. Now - had I wanted to go med-free - I don't think I could have done the cytotec. The contractions once my epidurals wore off were terrible and I started shaking and vomiting right before it was time to push from the pain. I imagine if I had an anesthesiologist that didn't have her head up her ass, it would have been a perfect delivery for me. Baby had no fetal distress/tachycardia, my son was in distress when I had Pitocin.
Good luck! Everyone has a different experience with inductions and the method, but it did go well for me with Cytotec - only needed the one dose (plus I had the catheter which I'm sure helped).
They got a huge settlement which they have used to build a park for disabled kids. So some good did come out of their awful situation.
The drug may have been improved since then, it just makes me very nervous.
Anyway....cytotec was a horrible experience for me! If I would have known then what I know now about it (even without my bad experience with it) I would have never allowed it to be used on me. I'm not for things being used that aren't FDA approved for that specific use. The majority of women that I know personally who have been induced with cytotec had a bad experience.
married bio
I was induced with Cytotec on the 4th and overall would say it was a good experience. I had 1/2 pill inserted vaginally at 5pm, and quickly had contractions 2 min apart with no progress on my cervix. The plan was another dose at 9 but I ended up having the 2 minute contractions on my own until about 2am when they slowed down and I was given another 1/2 pill. My cervix finally started to make some progress and began to thin out a bit so the pitocin was started at 7am. At 11am my body had taken over and I was in labor on my own so it was turned down. By 7:30pm I was pushing and by 8:30 I had my beautiful girl in my arms. They did have me sign a waiver stating that I understood that Cytotec was not approved by the fda which made me nervous but I forced myself to not Google and trust my doctor. All worked out in the end!