A Successful Primip Induction – “An Amazing Experience”

I thought I’d share my story as a successful primip induction!

I had been declining an induction since 39 weeks for static fundal height, as my baby was active and the pregnancy had been otherwise low risk. I desperately wanted to wait for spontaneous labour, but by 41 weeks I had barely had a tightening and two stretch and sweeps had done nothing. At that point I was so tired, my hips were killing me, and just wanted to meet my baby already!

I was very emotional about giving up on spontaneous labour, but after plenty of conversations with my partner and midwife, and a big cry, I was ready for the balloon. It was more painful than I thought it would be, and I needed endone overnight as I was cramping so much!

In the morning my waters were broken, and considering I’d had strong tightenings all night and the balloon had worked quite well, my midwife offered to get the breast pump out and hopefully avoid syntocin! We tried pumping for 10 minutes every half hour, and it worked!! My body went into labour without the syntocin! I was over the moon about this as it meant I could avoid the CTG!

My partner and sister were my supports, and they were incredible. My partner was really great at reminding me to focus on my breathing and relax between contractions, using lots of Calmbirth techniques! The TENS machine was also an absolute life saver, I highly recommend trying it!

I started to progress quite quickly once I was 4cm dilated, and there was a clear transition stage. I suddenly felt like I couldn’t do it anymore and started insisting that I needed an epidural. My amazing MGP midwife suggested the gas at this point, which was incredible. For me, I found that the gas didn’t help much with the pain, but it gave me a way to focus my breathing and took me back to some of the lessons I learnt in the Calmbirth course. This made all the difference, and got me through to the end!

I started involuntarily pushing, and with lots of encouragement and support from my amazing team, I was able to birth my gorgeous little Genevieve. My partner even had the opportunity to help deliver her and place her onto my chest! It was such an amazing moment!

My labour ended up being precip (not that it felt like that at the time), and although it was incredibly intense, I look back on it in awe! I can’t believe my body was capable of something so incredible!

I had been so scared to be induced as a first time mum, but I ended up having an amazing experience, with minimal further intervention, normal blood loss, and only a first degree tear and some labial grazing!

I wanted to share this because I know so many women (especially first time mums) fear induction, or feel like they have failed if they don’t labour spontaneously. I also know there are so many scary stories out there of intervention going wrong, so I just wanted to share that even if your labour isn’t the one you imagined, it can still be an amazing and empowering experience with fantastic outcomes!!