Help - waters broke at 1am this morning - what now?!

[Minicooper]

Waters broke at 1am, I rang the hosp and went in, expecting to be straight back home after checks, but they kept me in overnight as my pulse was very fast. The doctor saw me this morning and wanted to induce me, but agreed to wait a bit longer and (hurrah!) has let me come home. No major contractions yet - quite strong period type pains were becoming more reg overnight but have died down now. They want to induce on Sat morning if no further progress. Any advice/ experience/ ideas as to what the chances are of this LO coming spontaneously - sooo upset that I might have to compromise my 'all natural' birth plan, but above all just want LO (and me, of course!) to be ok.

With ds my waters broke at about 7am and I was told to go hospital (same happened wilth my first).

I had mildish contractions about 2 hours later which then just disappeared for the rest of the day, despite me walking around the hospital grounds for ages! Then suddenly at 6.30pm I went straight into quite strong contractions.

No advice really but wanted to let you know my experience. Good luck!

this thread from ages ago might be useful.

The only problem as far as I know from premature rupture of the membranes is possible infection. They are being a bit previous expecting to induce you on saturday. NICE guidlines say they should offer you monitoring for up to 96 hours. I would suspect they are managing their workload as much as concerned about the baby. A lot of planned caesareans are booked in on mondays and tuesdays so I maybe they want you done and dusted before then. I am a VERY suspicious person when it comes to hospitals.

There's some useful stuff on the homebirth site about induction too.

Good luck. I am sending vibes to your bump that things get moving soon.

My waters broke at 6am and I stayed at home until around 2pm when my contractions were 2 mins apart. How are things now?

Still nothing much - grr - think I'll stick a DVD on and see what happens! Its 11.5 hours since waters went, so hopefully things will start happening soon....

Watch the DVD whils bouncing on a birthing ball, that may do the trick.

Chances are things will get going but here are some things you can do:
go for a good long walk, to get the baby down onto your cervix, to persuade it to dilate;
do lots of nipple stimulation when you feel the period pain-type pains coming back - you might have to do it for ages but it is good for getting labour started and keeping it going and much preferable to syntocinon drip;
go up and down stairs;
stay upright, bounce on birth ball if you have one, keep moving and visualise the baby's head opening up your cervix.
All the best!

My waters broke in the early hours of a Monday morning, when I was 38+5 weeks. I had a midwife appointment that day at the hospital anyway, and got referred on down to the delivery suite. I was a bit reluctant because I hadn't had any contractions at all - spoke to the consultant there and he was happy to let me go home until the Wednesday morning. He said that there was a 90% chance of going into spontaneous labour within 48 hours of your waters breaking, and that he would recommend strongly that I go into labour naturally rather than being induced (they would have left me even longer than 48 hours but I had high bp so had been booked in for an induction on my due date anyway). To cut a long story short - he was quite right, I had mild contractions from Tues afternoon onwards, and was in established labour by early hours of Weds morning. So chances are that you'll be in labour before you know it - best of luck!

My waters broke on a Monday morning at seven. Also went in and was sent home and told to come back on wed morning for induction. They assuered me that this was within the time scale with regards to possible infection after membrane rupture. The problem was that as they were so busy my induction did not start until wed pm. DD was born thurs pm. We both ended up with an infection and on IV antibiotics. Not trying to scare you, but I would keep asking about when to go in. Maybe speak to your own midwife and see what she says.

Thanks, girls, that's interesting, makapaka - I think we're so programmed to avoid intervention of any sort that it can be good to remember it is sometimes for the LO's good. Thanks for your stories. Getting more pains now and hoping they don't tail off again...

I was meant to be induced with number 2 but my body didn't let me down.

What set me off with number 3 was rhubarb and custard after a long walk, another shorter walk, curry for tea, the next day I had rhubarb again and I went in to labour that night. Somewhere along the line I had a raspberry leaf tablet too.

I had PROM with my second. 9am Tues they broke. No contractions till 5 pm on the Weds. After eating a whole fresh pineapple. They put a lot of pressure on me to be induced and I was back and forth being monitored in that time.

BTW with PROM they stuck me onto continuous antibiotic drip once I went in in established labour so was stuck in bed for whole time in delivery suite. They also had me continously monitored.

hi Mini.

I found that when I sat down my contractions stopped, if you want your little one to come - dancing and staying upright is a really good idea.

Get MTV on and dance yourself silly... if you think of the Hakka (SP?) that the newzealand rugby team do get going dance that baby into the world! it helps jiggle baby into your pelvis and put on the pressure for your cervix to open.

An image to make you laugh - me - 9 months pregnant dancing to the pussycat girls in our sittingroom!!

It worked for us. Good luck!

I had PROM with my first
Eventually got contractions started after a v long walk
It didn't affect my labour (no ABs/drip/continuous monitoring)

Good luck

my water broke at 9am and was booked in for induction next day at 9am, but MW suggested accupunture and after the acupunturist came to our house it took 30 minutes to get contractions going and 8 hrs later DS was bron at home in bath..

Good luck, relaxing bath might help ...

My waters broke at 1.45 on a Wednesday morning. I called the hospital and was told to come in for a check up that lunchtime. I was then due to be booked in for induction on the Thursday afternoon. Luckily my contractions started very strongly and quickly on Thursday morning and DD was born at just gone 7pm. The only 'problem' I encountered was having to stay in hospital for an extra night (i.e. 2 in all) to check that neither of us had an infection.