Having my waters broken saved me from emergency C/S! I was 5 cm dilated and exhaused in labour with Em. the MW checked me when i was asking for an epi (told u i was exhausted!) and broke my waters to see if that would help. My waters were menconum stained and within 5 minutes of my waters being broken, Em was out. so 5cm to born in 5 minutes. and just missed out on emergency C/S as Em was distressed. She took a bit of work to get breathing properly. With Sarah I was pushing and the waters were bulging out, and they feel strange! so they were broken so that her head could descend to where the water was blocking her. She too was in distress, with menconium staining but was fine. I dont know whether my third will have waters broken or not but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. I hope that they can be left intact, but it depends on the colour of the waters.