am i in slow labour?

[trishpops]

had sweep at 10.30am thurs, mw said i was already 2cm dilated much to my surprise and delight. since then have had fairly regular mild tightenings, not sure if they are braxton hicks or real contractions, about every hour or so. they are painless, i sleep through them easily, took some paracetamol fri night for back ache but no need last night. still loosing quite a bit of (old) blood streaked mucus, enought to need a pad, so i'm guessing i'm dilating further. am i in slow labour? should i go to get checked at hospital? (first baby in case it wasn't obvious) mw said if sweep was going to work i would be in labour within 48hrs which has passed now. booked for induction on 15th.

Well you could very well be in early labour. I had a sweep on a Thursday morning and nothing happened at all! I was not even dilated. However, I had a few aches and pains, but like you said nothing serious. Then Saturday night (over 48 hours)about 1am my waters broke. I went into the hospital and they sent me home. I then spent Sunday in bed watching movies and being taken care of...until about 5pm...then I knew!

I didn't have my Emma until Monday at 2pm (which I was booked in for my induction that day), but from the Thursday sweep I definatly knew it was coming...I have no idea if it was intuition or what.

So yeah, I would say keep an eye out...if pains get worse. Maybe write down to see if getting closer together. Also, if you have any bleeding, water breaking, or loose your plug...call the labour ward. I called them so many times when I was in labour they knew me by voice...it doesn't matter if you feel like you are annoying them...as long as you feel better, so call if you want to

Hope this helps and it sounds like soon you will have your little one in your arms!

It sounds like pre-labour, which can go on for a while particularly if you've had a sweep as this can start contractions going but if your body isn't ready to go into labour quite yet then it can carry on this way.

You can ask for another sweep in the next few days and this might speed things up a bit more.

At the moment I would just carry on as you're doing, eat and drink as normal, do things to distract yourself, go for a walk etc (but don't tire yourself out!)

do yourself a massive favour and stay at home until you're biting the back of the sofa. I know it's all very exciting but hospital rooms are DULL! And it's amazing how often those contractions just disappear once you get to the hospital too....

It sounds very much like my 2nd labour - I had no sweep but about 5 days of BH type contractions before things got going properly. On the final day, they got noticably stronger and more frequent and then much more like 'proper' contractions iykwim (not sure if this is your first). It was pretty obvious when things got going properly . Hope you get there without the induction.

oh and meant to add - you're not officially overdue till you get to 42 weeks so don't be pushed into an induction before this if you don't want it. It IS your choice you know.