Just thought I would add my 2c here - waters left to break normally will usually happen at second stage (pushing), but these days, it's almost the norm in hospitals that if your waters haven't broken, they will break it for you - telling you it will speed it up! But do you know that there is actually no evidence that it will?

I ran a poll on bellybelly to see how everyone's labour began and the majority was an induction or contractions - while some had their waters break as the start of labour, it's not very common.

It's best to leave the water alone - not just to lessen the risk of infection (hence being put on the clock and if baby isn't born we'll have to augment (hurry it up) because of infection risk) but it's actually quite common for baby to have a cord around the neck due to all the twirling and ballet they do in utero! Can you imagine, once those waters break, that the cord no longer has that water to float about in and be loose?

Off my soapbox LOL