timing contractions- 1st time mum

[cathy]

Hi everybody,

On Saturday i felt mild contractions all day first they were coming every 20 minutes for quite a few hours then every 10 minutes!! talk about getting excited! but then the fizzled out ( BH????? ) I thought it could have been first stage labour but they stopped!

In true labour, how long are the contractions meant to last i had a painful one this morning which i swear lasted at least 5 minutes!! The ones on Saturday i had pain for about 1-2 minutes long..

I called the midwife at the hospital on Saturday for some guidance and she said truelabour would last about 1 minute long ( the contractions ) i am so confused???


Also had a cup of rasberry leaf tea on saturday morning im thinking that may have started those contractions or BH whatever they were!

:smt102

[Lucy]

Hi Cathy,

You poor thing.........it is so confusing, isn't it!

Have your waters broken at all? A little leaking? Or do you think you have had a "show" yet?

If either of those things have happened, I would call the hospital back.

In terms of the contactions, when I had Olivia mine started at about 9pm on the Friday night, for 3 hours, then stopped totally.

On the Saturday morning they started again. The actual contaction was about 20 secs moving along to about 3 mins.........(I went to the hospital when they were about 1 min long).

Hope this helps....best of luck........

[cathy]

Have your waters broken at all? A little leaking? Or do you think you have had a "show" yet?

Last thursday i had a trickle in my underwear and called the hospital who said to place a pad and see if anything else comes out and nothing did for that day so they said it wasnt my waters but on Saturday night i had another trickle.... placed another pad and nothing so how do you know if it is amniotic fluid or just urine???? Can the waters trickle this slowly over a period of days or once it trickles it should trickle a bit all day????

[Trish]

Your waters can leak out gradually or come all at once. If your baby is down quite low it is possible that bub will block the leakage, this is ok as fas as I know. The best way to tell if they are true contractions or just bh contracions is to have a bath, if they stop then its likely they are just bh if not then congratulations. Oh and have a few more cups or raspberry tea, it won't do any harm. It doesn't actually cause contractions it just makes them more effective.
HTH

Take care
Trish