Hi this is my first child and i am 20weeks and 2 days preggnant, and my husband I live 3 hours away from a hospital that is equipted to deliver babies, I travel 3 hours every 4 weeks to see my doctor and get my check ups. I have been advised that i move to where my doctor is about 4-5 weeks before my due date just in case, I am 22 and am affraid that i will do this and my husband will be home working and i will go into labour and my husband wont be there, and with getting hoe from work cleaning up packing and getting on the road he would be a good 4 hours away and this scares the crap out of me....

I have been looking and reading about being induced being so far away from my doctor i am begining to think that this would be a wise move for myself bubs and hubby (so that we know he will be there)but we are yet to talk to our doctor and mid wife to see what they have to say!

what do people think? have you been induced how was it?

thanks

Induction has been known to make your labor more painful, but it may be the best choice for you.

Really, though, it isn't likely that your first child will be born before your hubs gets there. You can labor mildly all day. My sister called me at 10am saying she was having contractions. I went down to hang out with her and help keep an eye on her. I was there all day, all eve, and finally at 2am she decided to nap. At 4am, she woke and the contractions were 2 mins apart and 1½ minutes long. It was time to go to the hospital. We get there, she gets the epidurral and has the baby by emergency c section AT 8AM!!! She was in labor for 22 hours, and it was her 3 baby! Her first took 26 hours, her second was induced, third was 22 hours, and her fourth was a repeat c section.

Baby's take a lot of time.

I've only had one baby, and I was induced because of health problems. It took a long time for me to get into labour ( 36 hours ), but once I got into hard labour, it was only 3 1/2 hours until she arrived. It was too fast to even get an epidural. I don't have anything to compare it to, but it was a fast, easy delivery ( comparatively speaking ).

I was induced with my first (and only) baby. I went to the hospital at 5am on Thursday. They started Cytotec, which is a small pill like thing that is inserted and placed on your cervix. I had that every 4 hours all day and only dialated to 5. I had no pain or contractions all day. At 5am on Friday they started Pitocin. At 5:30 I felt my first contraction. It was mild and totally manageable. Around 6:45am I started feeling pretty strong contractions so the nurse checked me and I was ready to push. My daughter was born at 7:25am. I had no pain medicine and honestly the stitches I had to get afterwards hurt worse than the actual birth. I would defintely be induced again. I felt prepared and ready because I had a date and a time to go to the hospital. I wasn't surprised or caught off guard. There are pros and cons to everything so talk it over with your doctor first but, it was great in my opinion!

I'm a fan of scheduled inductions; have had 2 myself for non-medical reasons. I know that many people advise against them but my thought is this:

If it wasn't safe, my doctor wouldn't consent to it-she has a spotless record, makes highest ratings in the state and I, most importantly, trust her.

For the argument that labor is more difficult than with a natural progression, I say "With an epidural: all things are equal." You dont feel the hard contractions, you dont feel the soft contractions...

Also worth noting: I would dislike more to be away from my husband during the last few weeks of pregnancy (when everything is a little harder both physically and emotionally) than I would dislike enduring a few extra minutes of "hard labor" while they prepare the epidural.

Whatever you decide to do, I hope that you have an easy and safe delivery!

Excellent point about the eppi. I know there are some women that want to do it "natural" but I was not born to be a trouper. If there is a medicine that will make it painless, I am all for hopping on THAT bandwagon.