My water broke at 3am and still sitting in hospital waiting room with barely a contraction

[LDNmummy]

It came first in a small trickle and has turned into a gradual gush. Poor DH has been up since 6am yesterday with just 3 hours sleep in-between.

No sign of serious contractions, feeling nauseous and so bloody knackered.

Any advice or info for a first timer? Am I hoping in vain that this baby will be here soon?

rest !! it is v likely your ctx will start soon, try some nipple stimulation , walk up and down stairs side ways to get baby's head down on the cervix and sit on a birth ball rocking your hips,

NICE guidelines do recommend induction of labour after 24 hours if ctx have not started so baby will be here soon x

Thank you lulumama! I'm 39 weeks so when my water broke I thought baby was in a rush to get oit of there... apparently not.

Will try your tips now and see how it goes

Do you know baby's position? If posterior then contractions can be slow to get going naturally, or can be stop-start for a while. If you have an opportunity, bone up on induction practices & make sure your birth partner knows what you want.

Definitely rest!
Get as much as you can, it won't be long til your baby comes and you're going to need all the energy you've got!
Rest, drink plenty, sit on your birthing ball, walk up and down the stairs and have lots of patience!

Good luck, hope things start to happen quickly for you xx

My advice - go home and try to get some sleep! Is there a specific reason you are in hospital??

Rest while you can. Everybody says this, we all ignore it, we all regret it

Why are you in hospital? Is it because waters broke 24 hours ago and they want you on an antibiotic drip? What is their plan for starting labour - wait and see or induction?

Try to curb any desire/expectation that you'll have your baby by the end of the day; think in terms of it happening by the weekend, pace yourself, and REST. Nothing worse than starting labour already exhausted.

Either go and have some rest/sleep whilst you still can, or go for a good long walk (which might help get things going!)

My waters went long before any contractions with both my babies.

Oh God, this happened to me first time around. I tried and tried and tried to get things going- walks, not lying down, not eating (my feeble contractions stopped after eating). What a mistake! It took 48 hours for me to go into labour by which point I was completely knackered. (My hospital allows 96 hours after waters breaking) If I had to do it all over again I would have taken a paracetamol and had a bath, meal and nap.

Good luck, it won't be long!

Hey everyone, thank you for the advice and good wishes!

I called the hospital when my water broke and they told me to come in to be examined. I actually thought it was OK to stay home, but they said they had to check on the baby and to make sure my waters had actually broken.

We were there 5 hours but managed to get home by ten and I have been able to sleep thank goodness. DH on the other hand still hasn't slept more than three hours since 6am yesterday morning and I'm worried he is going to crash by the time established labour actually kicks in.

Contractions are coming in strong but far between at the moment so I'm thinking things won't finally happen till tomorrow morning.

As a first time mum, can I be the hundredth billionth woman to declare how much this BLOODY FREAKING HURTS!!!!!

Yup, it hurts. My DH kept falling asleep in the chair in the delivery suite, woke up just in time for DC3's arrival, then complained how knackered he was .

Aww, good luck! My waters went at 1.30am on a monday, and DS finally came (induced) at 1.30pm on the wednesday. After a couple of pointless trips to hospital, I went in for the final time at 5pm on the tuesday. The traffic was rather busy so we were stop-start all the way there. I had the window open as I was hot, and by then the contractions (every 2mins or so I think) were excruciating, so I was basically sat in the car screaming my head off. DH was mortified!

Yes it hurts, but the end is nigh and it's worth it, I promise!

Ouch yes, it does hurt. It hurts like fuckery. I'm guessing by now you're probably chewing the furniture, or back in hospital, so I'll just say VERY BEST OF LUCK. Probably by the time you're back on this thread you'll have met the new love of your life, you'll be knackered and all endorphined up. Hope all goes well for you and let us know the happy news

Hope everythings going smoothly and you're finally getting to meet your little one!?

Come back and let us know, when you get 5 minutes, of course!

Good luck! I am assuming you are cuddling your baby now? :)