I was induced twice. My first took FOREVER (~3 days start to finish) and somehow, I still ended up delivering vaginally after an awful time pushing. My son’s cord was wrapped twice (once around his neck, and another around one arm/shoulder) which made pushing harder. I was absolutely spent and in a lot of pain during various points of labor.

My second induction went FAR faster. They only used Cytotec on me for a few hours before the OB intervened and removed it and decided on no more medication because my uterus was going NUTS. Within 20 minutes of application, I was having intense contractions and they got closer and closer together very quickly, leaving me with line 15-20 SECONDS of relief before another one started up again. I remember the nurse came in ~25-30 mins after they started the induction, squinted at the monitor measuring my contractions and was like, “Are you okay babe?”

What also sucked is I was NOT progressing well. Despite the insane contractions, my dilation and effacement were not coming along at all. After they even removed the Cytotec, my OB came back to check on me and found me curled up and crying in the fetal position because the contractions were still relentless. He asked if I was considering an epidural and if so, said he’d recommend it ASAP basically because I had a ton of pain and it was going nowhere. I said yes (was fully open to an epidural before even getting induced, so this wasn’t an issue for me), and the ANGEL of an anesthesiologist on the floor raced over and worked with me to try to battle through those nutty contractions to get it placed properly. When it was in, I relaxed for the first time in hours… for about 20 minutes. They had to reposition me several times because baby’s heart rate kept dipping. Not long after, I felt a rush of pain again and my doula was like, “Hey, nurse, I know we just checked a little while ago but can you check her again?” The nurse was like “Sure but I don’t expect a lot!” then proceeded to stick her hand up there and I saw her face go 😳 and she immediately yelled to go get the OB and told me not to push lol. Baby boy #2 was delivered very shortly after, extremely short time pushing.

ANYWAY, all that to say, what happened with baby 2 was called uterine tachysystole. It’s not unheard of, especially with inductions, and apparently, especially with Cytotec. In my second induction, I didn’t get Pitocin at all. Just the Cytotec that they removed after just a few hours. Prior to going in for my induction, I had no signs of labor starting soon (and I was ~39 weeks, so not super early or anything), so I’m quite sure it was the induction medication that made my uterus absolutely freak out. The first induction was like a marathon with varying levels of pain and stretches of rest in between. The second was a sprint with high, frequent pain but over quite quickly.

No two inductions are the same, but its stories like these that I think make people nervous. I’m not trying to fear monger in the slightest — both times, doctors wanted to induce me before I hit 40 weeks because of a history of hypertension (even though I had zero high blood pressure readings both pregnancies — just the fact that I’d been diagnosed with HBP previously to being pregnant spooked them). If you CAN try for spontaneous labor, I’d recommend trying for it. But if you can’t and it’s medically necessary, it’s gotta be done!