Contraction timing

[little_O]

Refresh my memory.

How long do you have to have contractions for them to be regular? As in getting contractions 10 min apart for how long ( as in an hour?)

[Jennifer13]

Excuse the copy from the other thread...

Depends on you, LittleO. My cx never really got closer than that before this bub was born!

But the general rule is lasting longer than a minute and regular, usually less than five mins apart. (A rule I will ignore if there's ever a fourth!)

You know your body. When you feel it's time and you need to go, then go. I know it's time to call the m/w and active labour has started when I lose interest in timing.

[little_O]

Did yours get stronger Jen? Or did they stay mildish?

[CoNNiE_Melb]

Mine were 1.5-2mins long and completely irregular when I decided to go to the hospital... When I got there, they were still long and irregular and I was 9cms.

They did get more intense as time went on.

[Jennifer13]

For DD3, my cx seemed effective for a while and for about 20 mins (right before her head was emerging) I needed to vocalise through them. Also felt the need to be on the fit ball. I couldn't lie down through them. They were painful enough, but I expected stronger considering it was active labour.

With DD2 I was in the water and the cx 'bit' a lot less, but followed the normal pattern - lasting longer, closer together.

[Arcadia]

With my second my contractions were sporadic until transition: ten seconds or thirty seconds long and 5 or 7 or 12 mins apart. This pattern though went on for a few (maybe 3) hours. Then my waters broke and I was pushing. But I had prelabour for a week leading up to it.

[PumpkinZulu]

I think it's a big mistake to try and follow any of the 'rules' on contractions etc. Every experience is so different. For me, they started off mild and around 7 minutes apart. After an hour or so of that, they jumped to two minutes apart and extremely intense/painful, and stayed at the same high intensity until transition, where I got 10 minute, snoozy breaks between them they've always been 60-90 secs in length for me.

[jellybean88]

With my second My contractions never it closer than 8mins and didn't get painful until 30mims before she was born so if is followed the rials I would have had her in the car I headed in when they were 8-10mins apart and not hurting because I felt my mood shift I was all of a sudden pacing and anxious so I knew something was up , better to listen to your body than follow rules