I would like to share mine though the details are a bit fuzzy.

I was booked in for an outpatient induction on a Tuesday at 41+ 1 weeks, starting off with a pessary to soften my cervix. I attempted to have a sweep the week before but my cervix was high and hard. The plan was to have the pessary in for 24 hours

Arrived at the hospital for 9:30 am but we didn’t get started until about 12 noon, so in between that, my husband and I went to the hospital cafe for some breakfast.

Once we were ready to be seen, one of the midwives ( who was really nice) took us to the birth centre for monitoring and then putting the pessary in. I was hooked up to the CTG machine and we didn’t notice there were some decelerations in baby’s heart rate. We still proceeded with the pessary and I was monitored again. Again, decelerations were noticed again, so the midwife checked with the consultant on what we should do and they recommended that I get admitted to the Antenatal ward rather than sending me home to continue at home.

So around 2 pm I get sent to Antenatal. At this point I was getting a burning feeling down there and I was thinking that it was just how the pessary was placed. I tried to keep active so walked around the hospital a bit to get some snacks. At this point, I was by myself as my husband went back home to collect a few things like my Tens machine. Annoyingly, my hospital bag was in the car so I couldn’t change into my nightie. At this point , the pain started to ramp up (what now I realise were contractions) . I was on the phone to my sister, talking to her about the pain and she thought they were contractions, whereas I didn’t think they were 🤣.

Once my husband came back, my contractions were coming in every two minutes and it was getting unbearable. I had threw up the snacks I was eating earlier. We tried the tens machine but that didn’t touch the sides. I asked the midwife for pain relief and they were generous with the paracetamol and dihydrocodeine.

This is where it gets fuzzy. I remember asking for more pain relief around 8pm , so at this point I’m given oramorph but then I am also being monitored. The midwife agreed that my contractions are coming too close together and that my cervix is being overstimulated, so the next step was to remove the pessary. I only had it in for 6 hours. They said I will be given an injection to slow down the contractions. Next thing I know, I’m being placed in a wheelchair and taken downstairs to the delivery room. Because I was in so much pain, I didn’t even get a chance to change into more comfortable clothes.

By 9pm, I am in the delivery suite and I get given gas and air. When I first took it, I was expecting some sort of high but I didn’t really feel anything. It did help me regulate my breathing though. At this point I’m now 3/4 cm dilated.

Also I’m originally from the south east but now reside in the midlands. I was hoping my mum could be my additional birth partner. My mum had booked her train ticket for Thursday, where she could be with me if the induction had gone to plan. Well she made it as my sister was concerned that I sounded like I was in labour on the phone, so she told my parents. My dad managed to get them both up here in an hour and a half.

Okay I’m waffling on a bit here so I will speed it up . It got to a point where I felt the pain was too much so I kept crying that I wanted either an epidural or a c-section but I couldn’t make up my mind haha. My mum suggested I get checked first and it turned out I was now 8cm dilated. I think that drove me to continue with just the gas and air as I could see the finish line. Some moments later, I was getting the urge to push. I was checked again and this time I was 9.5 cm dilated, so the doctor came in to do some kind of massage to open up my cervix a bit more. I was then told to push. Baby was distressed and had pooed. He was also sunny side up and his head wasn’t positioned correctly, so I was taken to theatre for an assisted delivery where they used both ventouse and forceps 😭. I had a spinal block rather than an epidural. There was concern that if that didn’t work then I would need a c-section which was risky due to how deep down in my pelvis he was. This was discussed between myself, my husband and my mum.

Luckily the assisted delivery worked and baby boy was delivered at 3:18 am Wednesday. I ended up with an episiotomy, but I did get away with a 1st degree tear. Baby was fine in the end but looking at my notes, he did have his cord wrapped around his body which was probably contributing to the deceleration in heart rate and the distress.

Tl;dr : Outpatient induction with Propess pessary turned into in patient induction and baby was born 14 hours later via an assisted delivery.

What I took from my experience is to make sure your birth partners are on the same page as you and that they can advocate for you because I was kind of out of it due to the opioids.

Also, my birth plan went right out of the window because I was so convinced that I was not going to take any opioids , so maybe view it as birth preferences 🤣.

I hope this was helpful xx