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QUESTION: I’m Terrified of Being Induced: Is It As Terrible As Everyone Says It Is?
“I’m 38+4 weeks pregnant with my second baby. I might need to be induced this week once I reach the 39 marks, but I’m terrified.
I do not want an epidural for so many reasons. I keep hearing people say you can’t get induced and not get an epidural due to the pain. I really don’t want to do an epidural.
Is it as bad as people say it is to be induced? Is it really not manageable? I have pretty high pain tolerance, and I had my first with no epidural or pain meds. Also, do they typically allow you to be in a tub if you’re induced?”
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Community Answers
The following top answers have been selected by a moderator from hundreds of responses to the original question.
“I was induced with my first and will be with my second tomorrow. It’s not bad at all. And it’s up to you if you want an epidural. I never got one.”
“I have 7 kids and I’m pregnant with my 8th. All but two I have had to be induced and I have had all of my kids with no epidural and no pain meds. It sucks and being induced does hurt worse, but it’s completely do-able! My longest labors have been 23 hours each. So if I can survive that, it’s definitely doable!”
“I have been induced 3 times and never had an epidural. It does hurt more than going into labour naturally but there are other methods of pain relief to choose from. It’s also more tiring.”
“My induction was my easiest labor! They spent 4 hours slowly getting contractions going. I was in active labor for an hour and a half. I used a ball after they broke my water which was amazing! I pushed twice. The doctor literally caught my little guy. Everyone is different but my induction was my least painful and I never had an epidural with any of them (3 babies).”
“My sister got induced and did not have an epidural. If you’re stubborn enough you won’t give in and get the epidural. Practice breathing all the way in until you can’t anymore and then all the way out until you can’t anymore. Get a rhythm and focus on that rhythm instead of the pain.”
“It depends on how far they go to induce you. It may be that the first stage when they help you to start might be enough and when you go round to delivery if your contractions come naturally then you should be fine. If you need the next bit which helps move labour forward for me it was 10x worse as contractions measure as if I was already 10cm but not and there was no build up with my second it wasn’t as bad pain wise however that was a horrendous birth.”
“No epidural and being induced? You go right on that fairy train girlfriend lol. I was induced and my epidural never kicked in. I wanted to die from the pitocin. It’s the devil.”
“I was induced and nothing was happening so they kept turning up the machine. Finally when I did start to get contractions, they were coming every 2 mins at first and then every 50 sec or so. The pain was beyond overbearing so I asked for an epidural. It didn’t even work at first and took like 10-15 mins to kick in. After that they checked to see how dilated I was and I was 9 cm lol. I went from no pain whatsoever, to full blown very full on contractions. Everyone’s body works differently. You’ll know what you need when the time comes.”
“I was induced and didn’t have an epidural. The pain was manageable for me. Idk if there is any difference in the pain between being induced or naturally going into labor I’ve only had one child.”
“I was induced twice and had two natural births with no drugs of any kind. And I will tell you that birth is birth induction or not the pain is pretty equal. The only real difference for me was my induction births were 4 hours start to finish each. My two natural labors were longer one was 12 hours and one was about 6 to 7 hours.”
“I got induced with my second child, I had to take the epidural earlier then I wanted, the contractions were much stronger then what I had with my first child. It really depends on you and your pain tolerance. I was not able to handle it.”
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