This birth story was written 3 years after Dominic was born, and edited again 3 years later.  So some of the details are rather hazy.  But I do the best I can.

  My EDD based on LMP was supposed to be 17 Feb 2001 but after the 5th month US scan, the doctor pushed the EDD forward to 11 Feb.

8 Feb 2001
I was scheduled to be induced on 16 Feb (which was a Friday). By that time, I was so tired of being pregnant that I was happy to be induced. Like most people, we didn't bother to find out much and basically just relied on the doctor's judgement.

We woke up late. I was supposed to be admitted into the hospital at 7am and we only woke up at 7am. Richard made a quick call to the hospital to tell them that we were only our way. I quickly showered and we made it to the hospital at about 7:30am. I was induced at a ward where all the women came in to be induced. So you have this big ward, with curtains making partitions of cubicles. Quite a number of women all came in at the same time for the same thing, each occupying a cubicle. The nurses made their rounds and checked everyone of us. I was found to be 0cm dilated and the baby was not engaged. 

After the nurses have done a round of vaginal examinations (VE), they went round insert prostin for all the women in the ward. The worse thing was that there were student nurses around so each of us was probably checked 3 times - once by the head nurse, and then by the students. The only saving grace was that the student nurses asked permission first and were rather apologetic about the 'inconvenience' they were causing.

We were all strapped down by CTG monitors and basically waited and waited and waited. In the meantime, the nurses went about their chores. The head nurse was teaching the student nurses in the ward.  Richard was waiting outside the ward and it must have been very boring for him.

At about noon, the nurses went through all the women there and did another VE to check progress. Those who have successfuly dilated to at least 4cm were sent straight to the labour ward. The rest of us were told to go and have our lunch and return at a certain time. I was hardly dilated at that point in time, felt nothing, and was extremely bored. At that point, I was also wondering if this was all a big mistake. Surely the fact that I was 0cm dilated and baby not engaged meant that it was not even the right time for the baby to come out yet, right?  But it did not occur to us that we had options and I could possibly choose not to continue with it, or at least talk to the doctor again.