The Truth About Induction
As the weeks built up to our induction day I grew bigger in the hospital and my anxiety got worse. My delivery experience with my daughter was hell and I kept thinking history would surely repeat itself. After all, I had spent months in the hospital and I felt as though my pregnancy was a disaster anyway. Why wouldn't it have been?
I clung onto every little sign that labor was going to just spontaneously start on its own. The whole reason I was there was because bleeding supposedly meant I had a high risk of delivering early. Hospitalized, strict bed rest was supposed to keep me from going into labor. So every little detail was a new sign for me to cling onto. I was absolutely terrified of being induced and had heard horror stories about Pitocin. Most women I knew that had ever been induced with Pitocin said it made their contractions awfully painful among other scary things like losing the baby's heartrate and increased blood pressure.
I lost my mucus plug and thought "okay any minute now I will go into labor!" Nope! That was nearly a month before induction and it didn't make a difference. Baby dropped: Surely this meant my water would break soon. It didn't! I was just highly uncomfortable trying to sit in a hospital bed with a baby on my bladder. I started having panic attacks which I attributed to hormones...I was even randomly crying for absolutely no reason and I swore it meant I would go into labor that day. Hell even my nurse did. But it didn't happen. The week of my scheduled induction I finally accepted that this baby wasn't coming any earlier and that was probably a good thing. However, I had a torn ab muscle from sneezing and it was stupid painful. All I could think is "Once this baby gets here all this pain will subside!" I couldn't wait. But since I was laid up in the hospital I had a huge honey do list for my sweet boyfriend in order to prepare for our induction.
I didn't make it to my induction day with my daughter so I had no clue what to expect with this. I was absolutely terrified by the very thought of inducing labor but I didn't have any choice. This kid required an eviction notice. (I had been on bed rest for almost 3 months so although medically he could have stayed to 40 weeks we decided with my doctor's approval that 38 weeks was sufficient to prevent me from losing my job and to get me back on my feet a little sooner as I would require physical therapy).
At 4:00 AM on July 20th I woke up and washed my face, brushed my teeth, fixed my hair, put on some makeup just to feel more like a lady and woke up my boyfriend who had stayed the night at the hospital with me. He got himself ready and packed up a hospital cart with 10 weeks worth of crap I had accumulated in my room so he could take some to the car. The rest got loaded up on another cart and wheeled to labor and delivery with us. We got into L&D (which was literally down the hall) at 5:00 AM where I changed into the not so glamorous hospital gown and the nurse got me hooked up to a monitor. She said they needed a 30 minute NST before starting the IV and the Pitocin. She answered all my questions and my boyfriend's questions and checked my cervix. No big deal we were just chillin.
Cervidil
We were originally supposed to go to L&D the night before induction for Cervidil which is an ovule of prostaglandins used to "ripen" the cervix. However, the morning before induction my doctor checked my cervix and we did not require the dose of Cervidil so I was excited to be able to relax and rest the night before since we had to be up so early. Plus it was one more hormone or medicine I didn't have to put in my body that I was unfamiliar with. From what I have heard it causes very uncomfortable cramps and is something that wouldn't have allowed me to get much rest. So if you have to get a dose of this, I apologize for not having a personal experience with it to share with you.
Pitocin
We started the Pitocin at 6:00 AM. I was having absolutely no contractions before it was started and about 20 minutes after the IV drip was started I started having contractions. My bonus mother (I don't like the term "step") showed up with my father and my 15 year old brother. I was happy to have her there to hold my hand through contractions as my boyfriend was quite excited and kind of all over the place. The nurse had the Pitocin on the lowest level and I was having contractions about 6 minutes apart. They weren't terrible so I was muscling through them. I remember thinking "Pitocin isn't that bad! What were all these women talking about?" Then the nurse said she was going to crank it up a bit so she set it to about 3 (whatever those numbers meant!). By this time those contractions were really close together and I was having to breath a bit to get through them but I wasn't dying like so many said I would. However, she had to turn it back down to 1 because apparently I'm really sensitive to Pitocin and my contractions were too close together that they weren't giving my baby enough time to recover.
Breaking Your Waters
Around 7:00 my doctor came in and said he was going to check my cervix and I remember being in a bit of pain and just thinking "Okay lets get this shit done so I can rest!" He told the nurse to get a bunch of towels in case my water broke and I remember thinking "Oh crap! I heard contractions get worse after your water breaks!" I didn't want my water to break yet. I was doing so good. I hadn't screamed for that epidural yet but I could feel an immense amount of pressure. Low and behold the doctor played me because he knew I was anxious about it all. He intentionally broke my water with an amnio hook while he was checking my cervix and my naïve self was like "Ope! Yup! My water just broke...I think!" The doctor laughed and said, "Yes it did! Now lets have a baby! I have to go into surgery for a C-section, I'll be back in a few hours to check on you." A FEW HOURS???? LET'S AIM FOR A FEW MINUTES! haha yeah right! I'm not one of those quick labor women as I have learned after a 36 hour labor and delivery and now a 12 hour labor and delivery. Nonetheless, breaking my water seemed to really get things moving.
Epidural
This was about the time I decided to get that good ole epidural everyone raves about. I was terrified that it would paralyze me or something crazy but I was in enough pain to care less. They called in the anesthesiologist who was a really fun woman. She was from Bulgaria I believe. She saw my dolphin tattoo on my back and informed me that dolphins are the only other mammals that have sex just for fun (there is your useless fun fact for the day). She got me into position and I had to breath through a nasty contraction. Then she informed me not to move or my face would fall off...surely she was joking right? One quick injection of lidocaine in my back then she started working that catheter into my spine. It felt a little funky but nothing crazy then she hit a nerve and I did everything in my power not to jump on account of "I didn't want my face to fall off!" So I simply said "OOOOOHHHH!" and she asked which side. I told her the left, she made an adjustment and then all was okay again. She stuck around and we chatted with the nurse and her for about 15 minutes to ensure I didn't have any adverse reactions and I started to feel some numbness and tingling. Once it took affect it was nice! I couldn't feel my contractions at all. I used this time to get some extra rest in as my boyfriends parents showed up and everyone was conversing I was snoring. I didn't mind at all. WHY WAS I SO AFRAID OF THIS? It literally made labor a breeze.
The nurse kept tweaking the Pitocin and before we knew it, it was time to push. My epidural ran out right before push time. The nurse called in a refill but the nurse that brought it took forever and how no clue how to change out the cartridge. Oh well, I had done it med free before so I knew I could live through it. It was painful but I pushed and pushed for a good hour and my baby boy made it into this world wide awake and screaming.
Summary
I did end up needing an episiotomy because my baby was what they call "sunny side up" and he was stuck in the birth canal. I didn't care too much. I had a 3rd degree tear with my first so I was actually happy the doc cut me instead of letting me rip that bad again. I will say the healing this time seems to be worse though but I think it's really because I'm older and I was on bed rest for so long.
As for my take on the Pitocin: I'm super sensitive to it so it didn't require much at all for me but it really wasn't that bad at all. The baby responded just fine to it and my body did okay with it so no issues there at all. I think if you are scared you should stay off google and just wait out your own experience. My research had me unnecessarily terrified and it was just fine.
As for the epidural: I loved it! During labor anyway. The worst part was the shot they give you to numb the area of your back where they insert it. You don't feel much of anything else. I nearly jumped off the table when she struck that nerve but I controlled myself and all was fine. It took about 15 to 20 minutes to kick in and I was able to rest rest rest!!! After delivery I was walking about 2 hours later. I went to the restroom 2 hours after and although my legs were still pretty numb they were live enough for me to walk. I had some residual effects that I believe are pretty standard that weren't that bad at all. My back in the injection site felt sore like a bruise. That pain went away in about a week. My back is still a little weak if I stand too long but other than that I was all good. I have developed some numbness and tingling in both my hands since delivery that may or may not be from the epidural. I'm not sure yet but all in all I would totally recommend it for pain management!
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DISCLAIMER: All women and all pregnancies are different! These are just my experiences and impressions on induction and are meant to help ease or calm your nerves. This is not medical advice and I am not a medical professional. If you have genuine concerns you should seek medical advice from a licensed/certified medical professional.
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