To fear my waters breaking in front of class?

[Lemonsqueasy]

I'm a teacher (English as a foreign language) and because I'm not entitled to maternity leave / pay I'll be working til at least 38 weeks.. if I can.
I'm scared about 1) peeing if I laugh/cough and 2) my waters breaking while I'm teaching.. any advice? Start wearing pads every day?
First baby btw in case it wasn't obvious!

And yes mines went movie style too so it does happen! Bloody wish I'd taken a pic of my trousers. I do remember my husbands face and him looking quizzically at me because he couldn't worked out what had happened.

Wow ok..

@ItsABubbleParty that's good to know, I'd definitely like to think my body would take my environment into consideration!

@ChildminderMum @M0RVEN

I'm not entitled to maternity pay because I've not been living in the UK consistently.. British citizen but been living abroad for most of the past 2 years. And the job I'm currently in I only started at 30 weeks (before that I was at a company abroad) so not entitled to maternity leave. Gutted for me!

Surely you will be entitled to maternity leave so long as you're employed? Even if you won't be paid.

I see what you mean. Yes, I'm going to have time off because my contract finishes before the baby arrives, so I'll actually be unemployed.. might call it maternity leave to make myself feel better

With my first mine popped in the cinema and when I say 'popped', you could hear the popping noise. It was bizarre. To be honest though I didn't care. I'm not sure when it happens that you care what it looks like you're too concerned with (perhaps) imminent motherhood. After the initial flood though my baby's head obviously covered my cervix and it slowed to a trickle.

I wouldn't worry too much, but just wear a pad. It's very unlikely to happen.

@Lemonsqueasy

Have you checked if you are entitled to maternity allowance? Here’s the calculator

www.gov.uk/pay-leave-for-parents

And you are being a bit disingenuous to say that you don’t get maternity leave. You would get some if you were still employed but now you say your job ends before them, so you will be unemployed.

There are no jobs in the Uk that have no maternity leave - that would be illegal.

My waters broke as a first sign of labour, so I would look at some very thick pads and a loose skirt or dress while you are with the class. I would have been horrified if it had happened in public, even though I know it's silly.

@M0RVEN I found out I was 3 months pregnant when I was living abroad - that contract finished when I was 7 months pregnant and there would have been no chance of renewing it since i didn't want to live abroad while having my first baby. The job I do is extremely seasonal if you want to do it in the UK so I couldn't have moved back as soon as I found out. I had to get a summer job when I came back, hence why it finishes just before my baby arrives. Hence why I have not been eligible for maternity leave. And yes obviously I checked that website the moment I found out I was pregnant, thanks a lot and cheers for calling me disingenuous.

Everyone else thanks so much for your advice and empathy!

Sorry, I am another movie style waters going with a dramatic flourish. Luckily I was in the kitchen at home, but I felt the pop then found myself standing in a puddle. Had a male friend there with me at the time, who completely didn't know where to look or what to do. His wife was a bit more pragmatic.

managed to post without the second paragraph...I didn't see anything disingenuous. Lemonsqueasy said she wasn't entitled to maternity leave/pay and later clarified the reason. It wasn't the point of the thread though.

Ok, nc as this is outing

My waters broke taking assembly, worse still it was the nativity assembly talking about baby Jesus.

I’ve brazened that out, just distracted soon after with pictures of a newborn. Teachers I’d never met years later had heard of it.

So... it can’t be that bad, you’ll be fine 😁

Another one who had the movie style waters breaking with all of mine.

Started with a sudden gush and a big puddle of water larger than the average wee, maybe a really big first wee of the morning after a long sleep in. Then it just kept going. Forget incontinence pads, soaked through less than a minute, I had bath sheet sized towels between my legs to soak it up. For the first one I left the towel in the car when arriving at the hospital. It was absolutely sodden plus I was a little self conscious walking through the hospital with an enormous dripping towel being held between my legs and walking like a deranged duck. Had to use a lift. In the time between getting into the lift and going up two levels there was a huge puddle and my shoes were soaked. Everyone else in the lift pretended not to notice anything odd. Next labour’s i said fuck it, took a fresh bath sheet for when I got out of the car (left the other in the car), walked in to hospital and got up to maternity with it positioned like a huge nappy and rubber thongs.

With all of my labour’s they wanted me to labour on the bed with the bed protectors as they thought the constant water on the floor was an OH&S issue and would have involved a cleaner stationed permanently in the room. I ignored them and kept getting told off. Apparently it keeps producing at a rapid rate.

The best one was where I had polyhydramnios as well. When the baby was born the rest of the water that had been damed up behind them shot out drenching the OB, soaked through every bit of his clothes not covered by the plastic apron and also completely soaked his shoes.

My advice for OP is to aim for this to happen anywhere other than in your home/car as the stuff is yuck (and includes lots of hair from baby - like a soup with lots of hair). I always knew what colour hair mine were going to come out with from what was in my waters. You don’t want that stuff on your carpet/floorboards/upholstery etc. Much better in public as then it’s someone else’s problem to clean it up. Never heard of anyone insisting a woman who’s water has broken in public clean it up. Alas mine were all at home.

Sorry, forgot to add, what wasn’t like in the movies was having a baby 10mins later. With all of mine there was absolutely nothing after waters broke, nadda. Had to be put on the drip each time so definitely no movie style ending there.

My waters spontaneously went twice. The first time was my forewaters and it was a gush. The second was hindwaters and it was much more of a trickle that was worse when I stood up. By all accounts it’s unusual for your waters to go as the first sign of labour, so I would take that as a positive it’s unlikely to happen. Also, the majority of babies are born between 37 and 42 weeks so that means you hopefully just have one week in work to worry about.

I would wear a big pad, have a change of clothes and focus on the fact you are unlikely to ever see these people again.

3 dcs

1st - waters broke spontaneously only once In established labour
2nd - waters didn’t break (was born in his amniotic sac/they broke just as he was delivered)
3rd - waters broke on first contraction which came out of nowhere (and he was born 1hr later)

So apart from third, never had that painless breaking of waters (I.e. no warning).

Mine gushed everywhere just like in the films! Apparently that's very unusual though.

Wearing pads might be a good idea for peace of mind.

Just going off the stats... You are unlikely to go into labour before 38 weeks. Also as many have said here it's not that common for a big gush to be the start of labour. This whole scenario is unlikely.

I wouldn't worry about this OP- you're teaching adults. They aren't going to be snickering at the back of the class whilst chanting "teacher weed her pants!". They will know it means you are going into labour and will jump up and help you. No one is going to be laughing at you.

My mums waters broke in a supermarket. For a prize in the "how to embarrass your 12 year old child" I would nominate being made to go back into the shop (I had been in the car) to collect and pay for the basket of shopping she had left .

My advice OP is carry a roll of kitchen paper!