how long can you be left after waters have broken but no contractions?

[fairylights]

my friend's waters broke this morning but she has had no contractions and the hospital are about to send her home. They said they may even leave her til the end of the week which sounds a very long time to me, i thought it was 48 hours? TIA

NICE guidelines do say 96 hours. have her waters definitely gone, her forewaters? if she feels unwell, has a temperature, shivery, or any other signs of illness/infection she needs to go back ASAP. more than likely her labour will start before then anyway.

forgot to also ask - assuming they have to induce her, will they try to make it speedier?! And are you more likely to end up with c-section if there has been a gap between waters breaking and established labour? ta

NICE guidelines have it as 96 hours but in the meantime she just needs to keep an eye out for infection.
If she feels at all unwell/hot/sick she should go back in. It's a good idea for her to take her tempterature every 4 hours - if it goes up, it's a sign of infection.
She should avoid having a bath, although showers are ok, no sex (as if!) but apart from that, she should be absolutely fine.

sorry lulumama, cross posted!

if they have to induce her and she is already dilating, as her waters have gone , i would imagine she would be given a drip to stimulate contractions. a lot of factors can determine how succesful indcution is and whether a c.section is more likely

great minds , VBACqueen !

if your friend starts to get niggles, and twinges and some contractions then nipple stimulation, preferably with a breast pump can help as it releases oxytocin, the synthetic version of this (syntocinon) is given intravenously to stimulate contractions in induced labour

Hiya Vbacqueen, you've not been here for ages (tis Lorayn btw)

thanks ladies! This friend has really not wanted to plan her birth as i think she has been v scared of it, so for this to happen at 37 weeks has thrown her a bit! The reason i know her waters have gone is that she phoned to ask if we could lend her a car seat because she hasn't gotten one yet...
So am hoping it all goes ok for her. will let you know!

Actually, the NICE guidelines are rather confusing at the moment because the intrapartrum care guidelines have been updated and recommend induction 24 hours after waters have gone, yet the induction guidelines (which are in the process of being updated) say 96 hours. To confuse matters further many hospitals have their own policies which match with neither!

If she's unhappy with being left until the end of the week she needs to ask why and also what she should be doing in the meantime in terms of temperature taking and keeping an eye out for other signs of infection.

oh i seeee ! thank you for the clarification, i did read teh NICE intrapartum guidelines when they were updated, all 50 odd pages ! but i have slept since then, will be interesting to see what the updated induction guidelines will say.

Message withdrawn

Same as TrolleyDolly - I was induced after 36hrs and my baby was born within the 48hrs and they made her have ABs, although I remain convinced they were unnecessary.

for those of you who were nice enough to answer this (and my other thread!), just thought you'd like to know that my friend had her baby girl at 3.40am yesterday, called Elif Elisabetta

That's lovely fairylights. Congrats to your friend

Mine went at about 6pm on Thursday. I went 24 hours before going into hospital and was told that I'd be induced the next morning (saturday) because of the risk of infection (so about 40 hours). I did have some contractions but not major ones. I went into labour naturally in the end.

congratulations to your friend - thanks for reporting back