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Positive Birth Story: Induction Edition

Positive Birth Story: Induction Edition

Throughout my pregnancy, giving birth never scared me. This was true until I was told I had to be induced. I went down a rabbit hole of tiktok induction stories that almost scared the baby right out of me right then and there lol.
I always had an, “it’s inevitable so why worry about it too much,” attitude when it came to giving birth, and quite honestly I was looking forward to it because I just found pregnancy to be quite uncomfortable.
I was considered a high risk pregnancy due to a combination of complications in my first trimester, (smooth sailing in the second), and then some complications in my third trimester. The last few months of appointments I was going to the doctor every week, sometimes twice a week to be monitored and almost every one of those appointments landed me in the hospital for “further monitoring.”
Ultimately, they decided my baby would be better off out of my womb, so they scheduled an induction for me at the 39 week mark. Secretly I was happy to not have to go through the guessing of impromptu water breaking and labor. It also worked out quite nicely since my husband was states away at a training and unsure if he would make it home for our daughter’s birth if I went naturally. The fact that the birth was now scheduled and planned, the odds of him being there in time went up exponentially.
Going back to the tiktoks…my goodness what you can find on the internet. Of course I looked up e v e r y possible induction story known to women on the internet and unfortunately the majority of them came with red flags waving of warnings and misery. What really got me was the Foley Balloon (shudder - but not really). The stories I heard of the Foley Balloon were terrible. I am here to tell you it was indeed NOT terrible. Turns out everything you see on the internet is NOT true. (lol)
Let’s get to the induction. I was scheduled for my induction at 6pm on Thursday, August 3rd. I went in with my mom and sister, (so thankful for an army of good women), because my husband was boarding his flight to get his booty to NY. I met my nurses and they could not have been nicer and more supportive. (i am a teacher and side note, one of my nurses was my former student's mom…what are the odds right?) I let them know, full disclosure that I have major emetophobia and they were understanding and ensured that they would do e v e r y t h i n g to help me avoid that (if you know what i’m saying).
To get started they inserted the (dreaded) Foley Balloon (no pain meds or anything) and to my absolute surprise it was FINE and not at all the horror the tiktoks chalked it up to be. With that, they also gave me cervix softener which was inserted and looked like an oblong pill.
They said it could take anywhere between hours to 3 days for me to progress enough to give me pitocin and break my water. Around hour 4 I started having intense contractions and asked for an epidural. When I asked the nurse she said they didn’t see any contractions on the monitor so I wouldn’t get approved if she put in for an epidural…(yikes).
She watched me through an intense contraction and realized I was leaning on my monitor in such a way that it was not picking up any (!!!!!). So the next few contractions, I did my best to keep my hands far away from my monitor. Low and behold, the nurse came back in and agreed that I was indeed having major contractions and finally I was approved for an epidural.
The process of getting an epidural was less scary than anticipated. The doctor explained what was going on step by step which I feel helped ease the anxiety of it all.
Once the epidural was in, slowly the pain began to ease. What no one told me, and I found to be a surprise (maybe this is common knowledge but I certainly did not know it), I began to get intense shakes. My mouth and body were trembling and I was absolutely freezing. However, after a bit that subsided and then the nausea kicked in. The nurses were amazing and gave me an IV of zofran and another anti-nausea medicine (I don't remember the name). Unfortunately, the anti-nausea did not work for me. Even though I got sick, to my surprise I powered through fine!
A short few hours later, the doctor came in to check me and I was dilated enough that my Foley Balloon fell out and they were ready to break my water. This was uncomfortable but not painful at all. More just uncomfortable because it was messy lol. It is incredible how much fluid your body retains during pregnancy!
A short 15 hours from the very start of my induction and I was dilated to a 10 and ready to push. The nurses and doctors were so happy for me that I progressed so quickly because they said usually first time births that are induced can last days.
I pushed for 55 minutes, pushing was not bad at all aside from the fact that I was nauseous. I joked with my doctor in between pushes, whose phone kept ringing on full volume playing " Help” by the Beatles. And exactly at 10:59am the next day, I had my beautiful daughter in my arms.
Luckily for me, it happened relatively fast, smoothly and we were all healthy. One of my true fears happened multiple times throughout the process but going through it with no control made me come out mentally stronger than when I went into it. I put trust in my family members, doctors, wonderful nurses around me, and my body and it was truly a positive experience.
Hot take: I actually would prefer labor and birth than the feelings of being pregnant a majority of the time.
I know you don’t know me, BUT trust me. If I can do it, you can do it.
What an empowering experience it is to give birth, no matter which way you do it.
-Anonymous