Right from the beginning, you have known when your baby is due and you have looked forward to the day you will meet them. You hoped and prayed you would be early or at least on time, however the alloted day has long come and gone.  You are still here, getting bigger, more tired and very fed up with every well meaning phone call or text from friends and family to see if there is any news.

Around 42 weeks if you still haven't gone into labour you will probably be referred back to the hospital for a discussion about induction of labour.  The Consultant will probably offer you a 'stretch and sweep' which involves and internal examination to slightly stretch the cervix and sweep over the membranes covering your baby which is known to help labour start providing your body is ready.  You will then probably been sent away with a date, a few days away, to come into the hospital for induction if you haven't already gone into labour.

You might feel like this is the end of the world. You can't wait to meet your baby but you really didn't want to be induced as you feel like this is just the start of everything going wrong.  Firstly, just because induction has been offered does not mean you have to accept it. Providing you and baby are ok and there are no complications, you can request expectant managment which involves daily monitoring of baby as an out patient with the proviso that you will agree to intervention if baby shows any sign of distress or other complication. You can carry on like this until you go into labour naturally.

If you do opt for induction this can happen in a number of ways. Depending in how favourable your body is for induction when you are admited will determind whether you are given hormone gel or pessary to the cervix, have your waters broken and or have a hormone drip put up. All of this will be discussed with you by the Midwife and Obstetrician caring for you and you will be advised re how things will progress at all stages. 

If you are induced you may be particularly worried that you will not be able to remain mobile and use the active birthing techniques you have learnt in pregnancy. This is not necessarily the case at all and you can ask the Midwife to help you achieve a natural birth in much the same way as if you had gone into spontaneous labour. Drips and monitors may reduce mobility but will not necessarily 'tie' you to the bed so get up, move, use gravity and keep your mind on meeting your baby.  One of the ladies from my classes recently had to be induced as her waters had gone but she had still not gone into labour after 24 hours. After this time, there is an increased risk of infection reaching baby so induction of labour is innitiated. She was so worried this would result in a 'bad' outcome for her but her testimonial here tells a very different story!