Induction

You got this mama! The worst part of my induction was the foley ballon. I kept telling myself I couldn’t do it anymore, but our bodies are amazing and are meant for this!!! Once I got the epidural around 6 cm I took a nap. I was terrified of giving birth and only pushed for an hour when he was ready. Get ready to meet your new best friend and good luck!

Thank you! I’m supposed to have the foley balloon too! Was it just the insertion/inflating that was awful or was it bad the whole time? Were you able to have any pain relief before the foley?

It wasn’t horrible when they placed it and almost just felt like cramps for a few hours but as the night when on the pain did get worse as my body was trying to dilate. If you aren’t against pain medication that’s what got me through it. They would give me pain meds through my IV and I was able to get some sleep. The next morning when I woke up to go pee the nurse checked it and it was ready to come out.

Got it, thank you so much for sharing your experience!

I was induced Thursday and it was amazing! I was dilated 2 cm so I got the double Foley balloon which I won't lie was awful being put it but after they'll probably give you Benadryl and Dilaudid to sleep so you can't feel it much after that. Then when that fell out they started pitocin which wasn't as bad as people said it was, I was up walking and messing around. I wanted to go drug free but I ended up getting the epidural. I got to 6 cm before they broke my water and I won't lie the 2 hours between the water breaking and finally getting the epidural were quite literally hell. I thought I was dying, It hurt worse than I could every even attempt to explain. But after getting the epidural I didn't feel anything else, I got a nice nap and when it was time to push I got him out in 40 minutes. His heart rate dropped right before he came out and he was purple but idk how much of that was from the epidural/induction and how much of that was just what was gonna happen anyway. Overall it was pretty easy!

You got this!! I got induced a little over two weeks ago and couldn’t have had a better birth! They used the foley balloon on me as well, and inserting it and blowing it up didn’t hurt one bit (I know I might be the outlier here). But the balloon broke my water, bringing on contractions pretty fast. I held my son in my arms in under 11 hours from the time they started interventions and pushed for 15 minutes. Focus on breathing and positive thoughts and there’s absolutely no shame in asking for pain meds, including the epidural!

Thank you everyone, it really helps to hear positive stories!