I had it with my first baby. It was a little uncomfortable going in but not too bad. I went from 0 to 3 centimeters in 5 hours.
I did! It's called a foley bulb (not sure the spelling). My midwife thought the baby's head wasn't positioned right to put enough pressure to dilate.
I went to the birth center at 11PM when contractions seemed to be fitting the "5-1-1" rule. I was only 1cm dilated (bummer). It was uncomfortable but not painful when she inserted and filled it. Within 5 minutes, labor/contractions kicked up to a whole new level. Wow.
She said it would fall out when I was dilated to 4cm. By 6 the next morning I went back to the birth center and they were easily able to remove it, though it hadn't actually fallen out. So it took about 7hrs to dilate from 1 to 4cm.
The only thing that hurt was how fast active labor started without much early labor to prepare.
Bump. Just wanna hear many stories.