Any Midwives available for some advice?

[mummyhill]

I have been having mild contractions every 1/2 an hour or so for the last two days and don't seem to be progressing any further. I am currently 40+5 should I be worrying or is this noermal? This is my second successful pregancy but last time my waters went first and I was kept in from 7 on the Monday morning till 2.34 on the wednesday when dd was eventually born. How do I work out if this is really the early stages of labour or just my body messing me about?

really good question mummyhill... i have a similar problem!
i don't have any useful advice though I am afraid so we will have to wait for a midwife!!

I'm not a midwife but if the contractions aren't getting closer together and stronger then it isn't true labour, just Braxton hicks (practice)contractions. Sorry! But it is normal i think.

ohh pooh. Am getting really fed up and confused. Really need to have this baby before Wednesday because if I have to waddle up to Nursery and face the constant questions. Let alone the constant text messages/emails and phone calls we have been receiving since my due date. And the looks of complete horror that I am actually daring to poke my nose out of the front door when overdue let alone go to mums and tots, shopping and taking dd to nursery. FFS who else is going to take her out and keep her entertained?

Every half hour or so sounds promising to me mummyhill. Go for a good long walk see if you can get things started. I've had long pre-labours in the past which sound like this.

All the best anyway. Have a good 'un.

You must have a date for a check-up though?

Got a midwife's appointment late tommorrow and a hospital appointment to discuss my options on Friday. I was just feeling really fed up his morning and hoping someone could offer some reassurance.

Sorry - not a midwife either. But I have to contradict the advice that if your contractions aren't getting closer together it's not true labour. My NCT teacher said that 'established' labour is when talking becomes impossible but that in some people contractions never get closer than half an hour or so apart. She told a scary story about coming across a woman in labour on the Holloway Road in London. Her husband was with her and the poor woman was no longer able to speak. The husband told her that he hadn't taken her to hospital because the contractions were half an hour apart and he thought they had to wait until they were minutes apart. The NCT teacher called an ambulance and the paras discovered that the woman was the full 10 cm dilated. This is not to alarm you but to let you know that if talking between contractions becomes difficult you are in fully established labour. If not don't worry about it!

sounds perfectly normal to me (only a 2nd year student midwife though!) your body is gearing up to go into labour and i would expect it to start any day now. these days even if your waters break before your contractions start, they rarely keep you in hospital, usually send you home to await events for approx 48hours before getting you back in to induce you, if labour hasn't started properly by then.

Hope it starts soon for you. is your midwife going to perform a stretch and sweep?

Ragtaggle- I would argue that your teacher maybe didn't mean to convey quite what you understood by that. I'm a student NCT teacher and I think she was probably trying to illustrate that it isn't a good idea to be tied to timings and clock watching. Much more important to listen to what your body is telling you- IMO this woman's husband must have been a bit daft- fancy thinking if his wife was in so much pain she couldn't speak that they didn't need to do anything.
It's a bit like my dad when my mum leaves him to cook a ready meal when she is out- even if it were frozen in the middle he would still eat it, just as long as he had followed the exact instructions on the back of the pack.

The couple your teacher was describing might have started the contractions forty five minutes apart and were waiting for them to progress further.
It would have been mentioned because so many parents get very hung up on exactly when they should go to the hospital, how many seconds apart must contractions be, etc (which is understandable).

But i think we're talking about something a bit different here. Mummyhill did say that these mild contractions had been going on for a couple of days which to me suggests that if they were getting closer together or stronger she would have seen it by now.
Certainly if she had posted that she couldn't speak during contractions or that they were painful, catching her breath etc, my reponse might have been different.

But the nature of first stage contractions is that they become progressively longer, stronger and more frequent.
So i would be inclined to think in this case it is either very strong Braxton hicks or prelabour. Both of which are good as they are signs that something is happening!

I am going to ask her advice about a sweep as they don't seem to be offered routinley here in the midlands unlike many of the women I have spoken to in London who have been offered one as soon as they go a day over.

She might just do one there and then MH- then i reckon you'll be able to take the new baby to nursery on Wednesday

God I hope so mutters the insomniac in the corner

mummyhill - what you are describing is a perfectly normal start to labour. You are in a pre-labour phase where all these contractions are thinning the neck of the womb preparing you for labour.
I personally would avoid a sweep unless you are still here in a week. A sweep can make tightenings more painful without acually stimulating labour. By the sound of things you will go into labour on your own soon. Try and relax and rest as much as you can. A warm bath and paracetamol can do wonders. Labours are much better starting on their own. Good luck

Thanks mears, I have noticed that they are getting a little more intense but not getting any closer together.

They will get closer together when you are ready.

Now 23 mins apart, am feeling more pain in my back than any where else (not terribly supprised as I have a prolapsed disc and felt it more in my back last time). Am keeping mobile, paceing floor and bouncing on ball which DD thinks is marvelous. Can't take paracetamol as I have a bad reaction to it but am using a tens which is helping with my back unfortunatley won't be able to take it with me when I go into hospital as it is not an obsteteric one (boots own have had it for ages due to on going back problem).

have you had your baby yet?? I'm on tenterhooks!

No, I have been up to the hospital though because the back pain is getting beyond a joke. They have agreed to induce me but cannot fit me in till the 21st, however, they have put me on the standby list so if some lucky soul goes into labour on their own between now and then and I haven't popped myself they will call me in.