Inducing Labor - Kyle,TX

Inductions are linked to a higher c-section rate. Short of a serious medical reason I would never go for an induction.

With my third I was induced twice-the first time on my due date. I sat there hooked up to the pitocin from 8am until 5pm with nary a blip on the contraction screen. I went back a week later-same thing. Only at 1pm the doctor came in and broke my water. Twenty minutes late I had my baby-the doctor RAN into the room to catch her! I went from NO contractions to delivery in that 20 minutes. I wasn't even really dilated beyond 3 or 4 centimeters when he broke my water. But I was a week late at that point and, at age 42, considered "advanced maternal age".
The point being: induction doesn't always work either.
I'm with the other posters. Unless your first labor was VERY speedy then you probably will have time to get to the hospital, get your mom there and have all your bases covered. Your daughter could be in the hospital waiting area with your husband-or even in the room with you as long as you are comfortable with that. Then when Grandma arrives , she can take over.
Good luck! (I'm a big believer that babies should choose their own birthdays.)

Well, induction carries a lot of risk, such as fetal distress and cesarean section. http://pregnancy.about.com/od/laborbirth/a/avoidcesarean.htm

If your body isn't ready to deliver, induction won't work anyway.

I've had five sections and an ectopic pregnancy and wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy.

I understand your concern. Do you have a friend who can be with you? A doula? I can try to help you find a doula. I'm three hours away too, so I'm afraid I couldn't be much help otherwise.

Please let me know if I can help find a doula for you. You can email me
doula at birthspring dot com

Wish you the best,
S.

I was induced with all 3 of my children and had no problems and would do it again in a second. However if you would prefer not to do it that way here are a few suggestions:

Bring your daughter to the hospital with you. Unless you have extremely quick labors, if you call your mom as soon as you know "this is it" she would more than likely make it to the hospital before you deliver and she can take your daughter to the waiting room or home if you prefer she not be there during the delivery. And if she doesn't make it and you prefer your daughter not be in the room for the actual delivery, I'm sure there'd be a nurse or a hospital volunteer who could watch your daughter during the actual delivery (you might want to call the hospital to see).

Does your mom work or would she be able to come stay for an extended period of time? Have her plan on coming to stay with you around 39 or 40 weeks and just have her stay until the baby is born. She might have a good week or two to just spend some quality time with your older child.

Good luck,
K.

There are things you can do that will bring on labor IF you are ready..but won't have a negative effect if you aren't. When I was pregnant with my 2nd daughter...and almost to my due date...I was worried because my husband was out of town all week long and only home on weekends...he was attending a military school and we had been told that if I went into labor while he was in class he would NOT be dismissed to come home.
A friend told me ( and I checked with a doctor before doing this!!) that a warm water enema would bring on labor if you were ready. My doctors response was "sure go ahead, if you are ready it will start labor, if you aren't it will just clean you out!!". SO...2 warm water enemas later and I was in labor!! This might be an alternative that you would want to discuss with your OB.
I can understand why you would want to schedule an induction so that you can get family together to care for your daughter, etc...so don't feel badly about this....Mom's have scheduled inductions and c sections for much less important reasons !!!

I would definitely recommend letting things go on its own. If you start going into labor, most likely you will have time to coordinate everyone or worse case your daughter is there too! Induction is no picnic, sometimes it doesn't work, the contractions are so much more painful, the baby could be stressed out and then there is always other interventions that could happen. I had one by induction and one natural and I can say that everything went soooo much better when it was natural. My body recovered, my baby was so much more alert, and my healing was so much faster. Labor shouldn't be scheduled to be convenient, and doctors sometimes feel that they have control over everything. They are also covering their own you know what! If there is no medical reason for it, then why do it and risk everything? It just doesn't seem to make sense. The worst thing that would happen is that your husband and 4 year old have to be there together....is that really such a bad thing though? Don't let your doctor pressure you either---if your body isn't ready to have a baby why force it to fit your doctor's schedule or yours?

I would encourage you to wait it out. While most people do not have difficulties with an induction, some do.

With my first I was induced 2 times (5 days apart). Neither worked because my body was not ready. I ended up with a c-section which altered the course of things for my 2nd pregnancy.

With my 1st he stayed in the hospital for 6 days due to everything that happened with the inductions.

Please give some thought to an induction.

I have rarely heard of an easy labor that was induced, babies come much easier when they are ready. It sounds like you are stressed and worried about some of the same things I was for my 2nd and 3rd. As for traffic, how long was your first labor? On average 2nd babies take half the labor time - mine did and the 3rd was 1/2 the second. If your first labor was greater than 6 hours (meaning probable 3 hourish 2nd labor) don't stress about the traffic time, you'll have time to get to the hospital. If you had a fast first labor then I understand your concern.

As for the 4 year old, my parents couldn't come until the big event either. How far away are your nearest relatives? Could they be ready to go as soon as you went into labor? If so, could you not ask one of your daughter's friends mom to watch her for a few hours just until your parents get there? She's 4 and I doubt much could go wrong in just a few hours. If not, consider this, your daughter is 4, many parents have had children that age present in the room during the birth of a younger sibling. They are old enough to be told what is going on and usually more amazed (or bored) then concerned or worried. It would be appropriate for her to be present. Also, if its a slow night some of the hospital nurses would probably help out, its not the first time its happened.

Just some more things to think about when making your decision...Congratulations!

My son was induced at 39 weeks 2 days, because my mom was flying in from out of state and I wanted her to be there and not spend her 2 weeks waiting for my sons arrival....

I never gave it to much thought, but we had ultrasounds from 31 weeks on, so I knew he was ready.
Induced labor is more concetrated, quicker and the say it seems more painful. I was definetly in alot of pain! and I have a high pain tolerance.

I just found out I am pregnant again :) and this time I was NOT be induced, unless medically necessary. I do kinda feel like I missed out on the surprise effect, the 'oh my gosh! it's time hunny!!'

But since you have little ones already (i am assuming they weren't induced) I guess you wouldn't feel that.
Best of luck in your decision, but I think your little one will be fine. :)

If I were in your situation with family so far away and the hospital 45 minutes on a good day, I would certainly consider inducing. Lucky you to have a doctor that would accomodate you. Good luck.

L.

In certain cases inducing is fine and it sounds like you have one of those cases. I would trust in what your doctor says and go with that. After all, if you didn't trust your doctor you should have changed a while ago. Congratulations on your upcoming new member.

deliver your baby in a natural method, wait for the right time, she will come out soon. don't worry so much that will affect ur little angel.. Pray also for a strong body and that u can be able to tolerate the pain when your baby is due to come out to this world. Good luck to you. I pray for a safe delivery.

I could have written your post 2 years ago. :) This was the biggest worry I had the entire pregnancy, I was really stressed out over it! Had a 3 yr old with the closest family 4 hours away, 45 min drive to the hospital as well. I did consider induction, but like so many people mentioned - it's really not the best option. Things WILL work out. What happened in my case - I started having serious contractions around 6 PM and immediately called my dad (who lives 4 hrs away). He started driving out and I waited as long as I could at home. Around 9 PM, we decided to go to the hospital - we asked a next door neighbor if she could watch our son for 1 hr until my dad arrived (DS was already in bed), we knew her ok but she had a daughter who had babysit for us once before and she was happy to help us out and watch him in our home. My dad called to let us know he arrived not too long after we got to the hospital. DS #2 was born at 6 AM the next morning, at which time DH went home to wake up DS #1 - who didn't even know we were gone! So all in all, it worked out perfectly.

One other option we did look at - short-term nannies. There are a few services out there that you can hire for the time around your due date, like for 2 weeks or so. Not cheap, but at least you'll have peace of mind of someone being there. Good luck with your decision!

I would take two more things into account when making your decision: when did you give birth with your first, and how long did that labor last? Not that the second is going to be exactly the same, but more often than not the births will be similar. In other words, if last time you had a pretty long labor and delivered at or past your due date, then maybe you can hold off and schedule an induction closer for 40 weeks. If you did have a very short or early labor last time then aiming for 39 weeks makes more sense. I had an induction with my second child at 41 weeks, and it was wonderful. Sounds strange to say it that way, but it was SOOO much easier than my first birth (because it was much, much, much shorter), plus I really liked having it scheduled, so that we had someone to stay with our first child and there was no stress or frantic midnight phone calls to find someone. Good luck with your decision and your birth!

both my kids were induced. my first a day after his due date the second was a week after. her little face was all crooked and i asked the nurse why her nose was smooshed to one side. she said because she had sat on my pelvic bone for too long. she also said her face would stay like that. which i had no problem with she could always have it fixed if she wanted. but her nose is straighting out and is looking very normal. my daughter also had the cord around her neck and there was a moment of is she ok? she is fine but i wonder if she hadnt been induced on time if that would not have happened??? i know its crazy but i do wonder. both my babies were ready the doctors can tell. there are down falls to keeping a baby in your belly too long. congrats on your new baby. many blessings.

i would go natural I just had a baby in April and was induced, my labor did not go easy by any means, there are a lot of medical intervention that can cause harm to you and baby, I have three children the first two came on their own and the deliver experience was as expected, but with my last I had complications she had complications and it was not a good experience for me now that does not mean you will have a bad expereince it just means you are opening yourself up to a lot of interventions that I wish I had not done, my blood pressure dropped dangerously low twice which almost caused a c-section then my daughter experienced what the doctors simply call a tramatic birth! Let nature take its course and I'm 100% sure everything with your family situation will work out, when we are pregnant we often worry about life situations and want to control them because for the last year we had no control of our own bodies! relax and make 2-3 contengency plans and let the cards fall where they may the important goal is to have a healthy baby and you be healthy enough to take care of the baby! take care and good luck

I would schedule an induction only closer to your due date. The longer you can carry her, the better. Both of my pregnancies were induced--the first only because I was 2 weeks overdue w/ no sign of going on my own. The 2nd was because we were having twins and the smaller of the 2 was showing signs of distress. They were born at 40 weeks being very healthy with nothing more than a slight case of jaundice to deal with...and that can happen with babies at any term.

I have been induced twice and do not want to be induced again, but I will say I did deliver two beautiful babies vaginally, so it can be done!!:) But you know, as much as it is crazy to figure out, what if you are planning to be induced on one day and go into labor two days before, somehow you would just have to make it work, life has a funny way of working out. I think you can probably get mama there in time for hubby to be with you. Like when you are having those good old contractions and getting ready to go, call your mom and tell her to come on. Then you, hubs and baby girl just make your way to the hospital. I mean it is unlikely that you will just pop the baby out immediately. Could happen but not likely. Then your mom can meet you there and take your daughter home. I haven't heard of a hospital that didn't allow the siblings come up. If things get too intense and you didn't want her in the room, your hubby could just take her to the waiting area with toys, books etc until your mom got there to take her home. Of course if it is late at night, she might just be sleeping anyway. By the time you get to the hospital you just have a couple hours before your mom gets there. I mean literally your mom could just have a bag packed that she grabs and comes immediately. Another option is to research a professional babysitting service now. Here in Houston we can get a babysitter for like $60 or so. I think if you called a service and let them know what you were needing they could arrange for someone to be on call for you at that time. You could interview people and maybe even do a trial run of going out for the evening while the care giver was with your daughter. Even it is like $100 or so to have someone on call, maybe it could just be factored in as one of the expenses related to having your baby, and again it would only be a couple hours while waiting for your mom. Or, if worst came to worst you could have hubby take you to the hospital, drive back home, wait the hour or so for your mom to show up and then drive back to be with you. You have a few hours alone and hopefully he makes it in time, but you will have the nursing staff there and he will be there asap. Also, I have heard of birthing doulas, maybe look into that and see if having someone there with you will help while hubby is waiting on your mom. In that case, she would probably even be there to take you to the hospital. Anyway, sorry for this being so long but I just think if you want to just relax and let baby lead the way, there are alternatives to induction. I think all of us, myself included are so used to calling the shots in life and birth is one of those rare things that is just bigger than us. I think you are not wrong if you go for induction, but I do think you can work it out if you would rather let you body and your baby do their thing. Good luck and congrats!!

I recently had a baby and my doctor says you can not induce unless your body is ready or you are going to end up in a c section anyway. Your cervic has to be soft and at least 1cm or so dialted. Believe me I was ready too. My last and third baby came 2 days past his due date. I would not do it believe me myself and my doctor were both ready. I went to the doctor almost daily that last week. I lived the same distance from my hospital. Good luck.