I wrote most of this post this while having my labour induced at 39 weeks because the baby wasn’t growing enough. I was basically “on time” for my due date, and my body was mostly ready for birth.
A disclaimer, I have Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder and the induction process started working very quickly on me. My experience may not be typical. However, I spoke with a midwife about induction in general and she did feel my experience of the sensations involved was fairly normal, so hopefully this blog will still be useful.
Table of Contents
Induction hurts
I’m feeling a little cross that none of the info I have seen or read mentions what being induced feels like in itself. The discussion is all about what the labour is like once it starts, compared to a labour that is not induced. I assumed, therefore, that induction doesn’t feel like anything in particular until labour starts.
However I now understand that induction, when it’s working, gives you is all the “normal” sensations of pre-labor – but condensed into a shorter time period. This means it’s actually quite intense and uncomfortable and that might be distressing if you’re not expecting it.
[It doesn’t mean that your whole labour will be really painful though, so don’t worry – and read on for more info!]
This is what I felt
- I started feeling sensations within 30 mins
- I felt sciatica like shooting pains in my cervix
- I felt a very tight cramping that was constant, not intermittent, over my whole lower belly
- It was difficult to move because the sensation so intense that my abdominal muscles felt almost brittle under the strain
- That was difficult to deal with emotionally as I felt quite trapped.
- Having expected to be very “mobile”, it was frustrating and scary to be unable to move.
- The baby visibly dropped down quickly, visibly and by many inches.
- My tummy looked a different shape within just a few hours.
Name that sensation!
I quickly lost the ability to differentiate between things like being hungry, needing a wee and the baby kicking. I just felt a solid block of sensation from my bellybutton to my bottom that I couldn’t link to individual biological needs anymore. I did adapt to this eventually, after 8-9 hours (and the removal of the catheter I had initially needed) I started to be able to differentiate a little bit again. Then I was a bit distressed at needing a poo and not being able to go, so that was a double edged sword!
At this point I threw up and started having quickfire contractions, and stopped blogging!
I don’t think there’s much point me describing what I experienced from that point onward in detail, as I think it’s probably quite unique to my situation.
However, I wanted to to note that once labour started properly, personally, I was in much less pain than I had been during the induction. I found the various sensations more manageable because the surges/contractions had breaks between, during which I didn’t really feel anything other than sleepy. Most of my labour was a blissed out “hormone soup”. So at least for me, the painful induction didn’t mean my labour was terrible. Actually I really enjoyed it!
And look who I got to meet at the end of it!