# cervidil induction?



## coco (Jan 29, 2003)

hi. i posted this over in Im pregnant but looks like this is the place....Im 40 weeks 5 days. A little nervous that labor will never begin. Doc wants to try cervidil after 41 weeks. Dh and I are comfortable waiting til 42 weeks.

has anyone done this?
what else could I be trying?
had sex but not a lot, had an orgasm, been eating spicy food, daily walk...
this is a first time delivery

I want natural, without the snowball of interventions, but Im not so gung ho that I accept the fact that death is a possible outcome- I mean I would far rather have a c-section then be of the natural can result in death and that is natural and ok. philosophy. does that make sense?

Im sure it will all be fine but Im getting nervous about being pressured, inducing unatural labor, not having the baby, and having a baby too!!

help!


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## AnaNicole (Jan 30, 2004)

Well, I can testify to the fact that it is okay to go well over dates and have everything turn out just fine. I birthed my third baby at home, under the fabulous care of a midwife (our very own pamamidwife!) 11 days after my due date. Had I been seeing an OB I would have probably gotten the whole nine yards of interventions! She weighed nearly 10 pounds and my labor was way longer than I had expected (my second baby was born after about 3 hours--Chiara took about 12+ hours).

As for helping things along: walking, sex, nipple stimulation... I also tried black cohosh, castor oil (I do NOT recommend that), evening primrose oil inserted vaginally, and a stretch and sweep. I doubt any of that helped though. Babies come when they're ready! And IMO, 41 weeks is too soon to start talking induction, unless there's something wrong. Ask for a non-stress test first, and stick to your plan if that turns out okay.

And you may already know this, but absolutely positively do not let them use Cytotec to get your contx. going!!! I don't know anything about Cervidil, personally, but Cytotec is scary, bad, and not even approved for use in labor induction. Hope this all helps and good luck!


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## Greaseball (Feb 1, 2002)

I guarantee you that labor will begin. There has never been a case of a pregnancy that never ended.

A normal pregnancy lasts from 37 to 43 weeks, with most babies arriving around 41 weeks. The 40-week due date is merely the center of the normal window, so a baby induced on that date could be 3 weeks too soon! So a doctor who is overly concerned with normality should be fine with waiting until 43 weeks.

Someone else posted that she went into labor naturally around 43 weeks and the baby was only 6 lbs. If it were induced at 40 weeks (or, god forbid, the 38 to 39 weeks that some practices routinely do) it would have been way too small. Some women cook at 250 degrees and some cook at 400!

Mainstream pregnancy books say that semen has more prostaglandins than those things they have you insert, so if sex hasn't worked, the other things probably won't either. (They also say that pregnant couples should use condoms in the last 8 weeks...who would do that?!)


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## AnaNicole (Jan 30, 2004)

CONDOMS?!? Good Lord. I had never heard that. I am delighted to say that after this baby...never again! Just say no to condoms, says I. I can't fathom using them for anything but bc (diseases are not a concern of mine) and since you're pg you don't have to worry about bc, ya know?? How silly....

BTW, I love the idea of cooking at different temperatures!!!

:LOL


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## Defenestrator (Oct 10, 2002)

If you do choose to do the induction, will it be at home or in the hospital? In my area, moms who choose cervidil will often be admitted in the evening and given a dose before bed. I have heard of docs who will insert it and then let you go home, though.

What you have to ask yourself (and your doctor) is what happens if it doesn't work. Do you pack up and go home or do you up the intervention ante? To be honest, I have seen a very poor success rate with cervadil alone. If you were in one of the hospitals I work in a lot, what you would really be signing up for with a cervadil induction is a cervadil/pitocin induction, or a cervadil/cytotec/pitocin induction. Are you comfortable with that? If not, and if you are being induced in the hospital, do you think you will have the presence of mind to listen to a doctor say, "Well, it looks like the cervadil ripened your cervix, making the rest of this process quite easy. . . . All you should need is a little pitocin and we should see this baby soon." and then choose to leave and go home and wait for your baby to come on its own?

Medical evidence does not support routine 41 week inductions. If your doctor is seeing something out of the ordinary with you or your baby, that can be a factor in your decision, but otherwise, a recommendation to induce so early has got to be motivated by fear of lawsuits, not by science.

Good luck!


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## Fisherb (Mar 25, 2004)

I agree with the stuff everyone is saying about waiting on the induction... Also, you're less likely to have colicy issues, etc, because baby will simply be more developed. For all the waiting and anxiety you have now, you will be rewarded later!

About cervidil -- I had this. It is the least invasive of the cervix ripening induction methods. I'm assuming your OB talked you through this, but I'll review the basics as I remember / experienced them.

It inserts like a tampon, but right up to the cervix -- so of course that's uncomfortable, but no worse than when they check to see if you're dialated. After that you won't feel the little thing. For me, it induced labor (it is ripening the cervix, so it should)... We didn't understand this clearly, so we started at 7pm... I would recommend starting this drug RESTED! If you get really far through labor, they can pull it out. I never did, so it was in for the full 12 hours. Once this drug is pulled out of you, they have to wait 2ish hours before the next induction method can happen. For me, that was pitocin. I would not recommend pitocin for all the reasons you can read about anywhere.

Once pitocin didn't work, we were at c-section. That stunk for all the reasons stomach surgery would be awful. BUT... The really good news -- your baby comes out looking like a gerber commercial, because there was no path through the birth canal. AND, you are stuck in the hospital longer, so someone else is cooking. (ok, I can have a sick sense of humor, but it's all true!)


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## coco (Jan 29, 2003)

thanks everone









what if your cervix is already ripe ( what exactly does that mean??- soft?)I am 70 %effaced in the front but not so much in the back.

what does cytotec do?

I am going to wait until 42 weeks and a couple of days- that will put me on a monday to take any action. What about sweeting the membranes? how long do you give that to work? maybe I should do that on friday of 42 weeks and wait for the drugs til monday if that hasnt worked...

Ive been taking evening primrose oil orally 2x/day.

I feel more comfortable waiting til 42 weeks- I was 2 weeks past due date( my mom knew exact conception) and was 7 lbs, 3 ounces... so it will be fine for me.

Doc did say that between 41 and 42 weeks a much higher percentage of babies end up in the NICU because of respiratory issues bc. of meconium.

that was the scare factor.


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