here's a strange question i just thought of in the shower....

[Ginger]

ok, you need to realise that i'm home by myself on maternity leave and very bored....so i just thought of something really weird while i was just in the shower and wanted to run it past someone...has anyone had their waters break in the shower and not noticed that it had happened? is that possible at all or do you feel a 'full on' surge and you couldn't possibly miss it?? sorry for strange questions... i think i'm going crazy in this house by myself

[MamaPan]

ha ha gracie i asked someone a similar q as i was scared it would happen when i was swimming.. apparently you wouldnt miss it...ie een if you dont feel it start, it will just keep flowing so you would know...

[Liz]

I didnt' feel the 'pop' that other's feel, so mine could well have broken in the shower and I wouldnt' have known. But they don't just break and that's it.. you leak for a long time afterwards too So you'd probably be wondering why you cant' get your legs to stay dry once you got out! LOL.

[JordieC]

I thought the eact same thing last night! I guess it's different for everyone cause you do hear that some people;s break but then it really slows down. I guess you wold know at some stage!

[blue daisy]

Hey Gracie

cool Q!

some women feel their waters break before they get the gush...for some its like a little pop, others a change in the general tension in your vagina/cervix/uterus

if it is a hindwater leak, behind the baby's head, it can be a little harder to detect, as the baby blocks the leaking of amniotic fluid, and it may feel like just a dribble that can be mistaken for wee (if you have good pelvic floors this wont happen of course )

if its a forewater leak, in front of the baby's head, then everytime you cough, laugh, change position you will get a dribble or a gush...depending on how much water you have around the baby

keep in mind that when your waters do break, they should be clear, or slightly pink stained. Ring the hospital just to let them know. Labor can start within the next 24 hrs or so...and the body does continue to make the amniotic fluid until your beautiful baby is born, so the leaking is continuous

remember only about 10% of women actually break their waters before they go into labor

hope this helps

xx yogababy

[Ginger]

ok, thanks friends...told you it was a funny question!
yogababy- do you mean that if it's a forewater then i would be getting leakage now? or after the waters have broken? b/c everytime i sneeze right now i basically have to go and change my undies sorry TMI!
i've just found out i tested postive to strep b so apparantely i need to call hosp as soon as waters break- i guess that's why i thought of it in the shower before because i'm more conscious of it now.

[blue daisy]

yep if its a forewater leak you cant miss it

no probs about TMI...but I would work on those pelvic floors (which I know is hard in the last stages of pregnancy...focus on drawing your navel back to you spine and lifting the pelvic floor)

xx yogababy

[chon]

You'll know because it feels icky. Icky, Icky, Icky!

Uughh, I really didn't enjoy the feeling of the continuous leaking fluid or the smell.

But you'll only notice it once your out of the shower of course...


then you'll want to go back in.......well I would

[{sarah}]

You'd probably smell something similar to semen as well which would give it away.

[PinkPalace]

ive never sniffed semen lol
Mine broke it the ambulance (and i was told that amniotic fluid is corosive to the metals used in medivac plances and ambo's ooops), went everywhere, but no pop or ressure just felt warm water go down my legs for a couple of minutes and then again the next contraction.
so perhaps you could miss it? i was fully dilated at the time though and it was spontaneous

[Enchanted]

Isn't that amazing.... that amniotic fluid can be corrosive to metals! You would think if it could corrode metals that it surely would do something to us! Isn't it amazing how things work especially our bodies!!

Sorry, I am just amazed as I never knew that... there is my 2 cents worth!

Getting back to the original q... I never felt the pop that some people feel but when my waters broke it was just a trickle that lasted 2 days. (I was only in pre-labour so I was induced as it was deemed risky to let me go any longer) So there is an indication of how long they can leak for and I'd guarentee they can leak for even longer.... so I am sure you will know even if it happens in the shower!!

[Junglemum]

Gracie- you are not going to believe this................i was thinking EXACTLY the same thing in the shower this morning! LOL So if you are crazy, me too! ROFL

[aussienic]

I am 90% sure my waters broke when I was in the shower with my 1st pregnancy. I was in labour for a while and had 2 showers. when they went to break my waters later that night they said they had already broken.. now when my waters broke with my 2nd baby I definetly knew cus I was sitting in a cafe

so yes I think your waters can break in the shower and not know

[Emma27]

I couldn't believe the mess when my waters broke. I was in the kitchen and it just went woosh! I thought that was it. I changed my clothes and put on a maternity pad and then it went woosh again! I ended up changing my pad and clothes about four times as it kept coming out. When my dh got home he found me laying on the bed on top of a towel- I didn't have any more spare pairs of tracksuit pants!! It was really funny!

[Emma27]

I forgot to mention I also experienced another gush of fluid whilst in the hospital lift ..it felt like I had wet my pants!

[Ginger]

thanks Ange- glad i'm not the only crazy person!! sounds like i'm gonna know for sure when it happens- especially if it's so bad that i run out of trakkie daks!! ha ha too funny

i've got a lot to look forward to!

[~Raven~]

I did think of that one too and the swimming one! So you're not nuts

I definatley felt the pop of my waters breaking. I was in the bath for Angus and sitting on a fitball for Caleb. Both times it was in the middle of a contraction and I could feel the relief of pressure for a sec or 3 while the fluids poured out, then with the next contraction it was like someone had cranked up the intensity.

[CatherineL]

I always wonder that when I'm in the bath...

I have another question... Yonks ago I was told by this bloke I used to work with that him and his wife knew this lady and her water's broke and nothing was happening so they sent her home and told her to come back when things were actually happening. Anyway this lady and her husband went down the beach for a swim and apparently since her water's were broken 'she filled' up with sea water and he reckons it drowned the baby! I don't understand how the baby could drown when it's spent 9 months in amiotic fluid... and when women birth in water? I mean I personally wouldn't go swimming at the beach or in a pool after my waters had broken at risk of infection I would think... But otherwise is this just a story?