What an induction actually involves
Usually longer than people expect, especially for a first baby.
Induction is not one thing. Depending on how ready your cervix is, it can involve a medication placed in the vagina, a balloon catheter passed through the cervix and inflated, breaking the waters, an oxytocin drip, or several of these in sequence over one to three days.
Things worth asking before you agree to a date:
- "How ripe is my cervix, and what score does that give me?"
- "Which methods will you use, and in what order?"
- "How long is this likely to take, realistically, for a first baby?"
- "Will I be able to move around, eat, and use the bath?"
- "At what point would we call it a failed induction, and what happens then?"
The unglamorous partThe early phase of an induction often involves long hours with little happening, frequently on a monitor, sometimes without much food. Knowing this in advance makes it much easier to sit through.
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This page is educational. It supports the conversation with your own clinicians. It is not consent to any treatment, and it cannot assess you. If you are worried about a symptom now, see urgent warning signs.