29/11/2025
Induction is often sold as an easy, straightforward process for first time parents who have reached a certain date in their pregnancies.
That is not how it plays out for many of the families I support.
I am a doula. I spend my time in real birth rooms with real people going through inductions and there is a pattern I see again and again in first labours:
Induction booked because you reached a date.
Days of pessaries, checks, drip and monitoring.
Very strong contractions on a body that is running on no sleep.
Epidurals that don’t bring sleep, only immobility and further monitoring.
Then an emergency caesarean at the end of it all.
You begin parenthood recovering from major surgery, on top of the impact of a long, medicalised process.
Induction and caesarean are both big interventions.
Neither is automatically ‘better’.
But they are very different experiences, and they are not explained that way often enough.
I am not here to tell you what to choose.
I am here to say that if you are being offered induction as a first time mum, you deserve:
A realistic description of how long it might take.
Clear odds of needing instruments or emergency surgery.
A proper explanation of what a planned caesarean would involve, so you can compare.
If you have a 40 week appointment coming up, save this and take these questions with you.
You need all the details and all the options before you decide.
