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What does the real start of labour feel like?
Hi I am after a bit of advice....
For over a week now I have been having tightenings regularly throughout the day and evening some uncomfortable. I am just wondering what the start of actual labour should feel like as I dont know if I'll notice the difference if its the same as the tightenings Ive already been getting?? Or let me know what it felt like for you and maybe I will know what to look out for! I think I will really be in denial when things actually start as had this for so long now!
xxxxx
40+5
For over a week now I have been having tightenings regularly throughout the day and evening some uncomfortable. I am just wondering what the start of actual labour should feel like as I dont know if I'll notice the difference if its the same as the tightenings Ive already been getting?? Or let me know what it felt like for you and maybe I will know what to look out for! I think I will really be in denial when things actually start as had this for so long now!
xxxxx
40+5
0
Replies
Unless you have a pain theshold of steel you WILL know when the actual labour pains are coming. LOL
(That said I left it a bit too long until I went to hospital and was only there for 2 and half hrs before lo entered the world!!!)
30 mins of that I was in the WAITING room then about 1hr in a side room having contractions monitered, blood pressure etc and the very end the mw did an internal examination and said oh gosh we had better get you in a delivery room your fully dialated and going to have a baby very soon!!! (I could have told her that) One hour later our baby girl was born.
Sorry i have rambled a little bit.....
Good luck hope to see you join the Born in feb forum soon.
Holly
I think it is different for everyone hun. With my first I had regular mild period pain type contractions that became increasingly more regular although not really painful. When they got to less than 5 mins apart I called the hospital as I have a good 45 min drive to the hospital and didn't want to leave it too late! They said to go in for a check up but it would probably be nothing. I got there and I was already 3-4cm dilated so they said we could stay in. By the following day I hadn't progressed any and the contractions had stopped so I asked if we could go home as I was so fed up!
Nothing much happened again until 4 days later when I woke up in the early hours with more of an intense feeling, a bit like my uterus was being squeezed although still not really painful. I kept trying to go back to sleep until about 5am when I woke hubby and said we maybe needed to go in again. I got a shower and got the hospital about 6:30am, they checked me and I was 4-5cm dilated so they said it would probably be a long wait. My contractions got more intense to the point where I couldn't speak through them and needed to be up and walking around. By 10am they moved me into the delivery room as I was 7cm dilated and my lo was born at 1:20pm.
I think you just have to try and trust your intstincts, not everyone is in a lot of pain until towards the end. If worried I always think it is worth getting checked out just to be on the safe side.
Good luck! xx