has anyone else experienced very long contractions in early labour?

[multiplex]

That's it basically. In my first labour, my latent/early labour phase went on for about 2 days. Started off normally enough, contractions every five minutes, but for the last 20 hours or so, while I was still just at 2cm dilated, they were 2-minute long contractions just a minute apart. All before 'real' labour had really started.

Am due in 6 weeks and have no idea when to go into hospital as turned away so many times last time. It's the thing that's worrying me most of all.

Has anyone else had anything remotely similar happen to them? Or am I just weird. If you did, was your second labour any different?

Thanks for your help. I am quite new to this

I was the same - for 3 days I had strong, long contractions but was only 3cm dilated (I didn't progress at all in those 3 days).

Back at home, I was worried about how I would know when to go back in. But I just knew somehow - the contractions weren't any longer, stronger or closer together, but I was feeling very hot and I almost felt like I wanted to push a little bit (MW said it was probably my waters bulging) so we went in and I was at 6cm.

So perhaps do some research into other signs of progress other than contraction timing alone? Good luck xx

i had v hard long contractions every 3 minutes for 24hrs before i got to 3cm, was wanting to have a home birth but ended up going to hospital as they wouldnt give me gas and air at only 3cm at home and couldn't stand anymore.

not had a second so cant really help on that one but your not weird unless i am too :wink:

Thanks both. That is so reassuring that other people have had the same experience . Yes I will have a look on the web for other signs of progress. There is a website that tells you how to check your own cervix for dilation - but I feel a bit nervous about that...

P.S. - 3 days Heidster? You poor thing!

Heidster - I wish midwives would do some research into other signs of progress other than contraction timing alone (and dilation).

I don't remember if mine were very long - the pain was pretty much continuous, it just intensified with the contractions. I was lucky that so-called "early labour" only lasted a few hours, but what I do remember is that my contractions started very strong and stayed very strong. They got closer together (only to 3 minutes apart though at full dilation) but the pain at the start was pretty much the same as the pain at the end ie pretty horrific, especially when they won't give you gas and air because it's "too early".

So quite different from you really, but doesn't it go to show that there really isn't a "normal" pattern to labour at all?

Yes, my labour pain was the same throughout too. And contractions were 2.5 minutes long with a 30 second gap for the last 15 hours or so. Before that I had about 12 hours of 1.5 minute long contractions every few minutes.

The pain was continuous though and the contractions just added a dimension.

I wasn't brave enough to have a 2nd.

Yes, that was the other thing for me. Like ShowofHands and gaelicsheep I had no pain-free gap between contractions. There were peaks of pain, but in between there was a continuous grinding back ache that never went away.

I did two sets of antenatal classes during my first pregnancy (NCT and NHS) and both of them described a labour where latent stage was mild contractions 10-15 minutes apart and even during strong labour you would get a pain free window between pains. All my pregnancy books said the same.

As a result I was totally unprepared for what actually happened to me - which made it all the more difficult to deal with.

Still at least this time I know what to expect. Or do I.... what if it's completely different. Don't really want to give birth in a mini cab. So confused .

Mine were irregular, some being a few seconds long and others being a couple of minutes long. Do you know if your baby was back-to-back? Mine was, and I was told that these long super-contractions are often when the baby is the wrong way around and is trying to turn around. Once I was finally hooked up to a monitor and on an epidural I could actually watch the long ones as he tried to turn, it was most odd!

'Heidster - I wish midwives would do some research into other signs of progress other than contraction timing alone (and dilation).'

Totally agree! And believe me, having two internals, three days apart, at 3cm was NOT pleasant. Felt so retched to discover I hadn't progressed.

Also got very annoyed by midwives clearly thinking I was exagerating the pain as I was only 3cm. It f-ing hurt!

'P.S. - 3 days Heidster? You poor thing! '

Ha! Yes 'twas very tiring! On the plus side, I got so good at handling the pain that when I EVENTUALLY got into established labour I didn't need any pain relief at all, even after they put me on the hormone drip to speed things up. But then DD's heartrate dropped so was in to theatre for a CS, had epidural, then they decided to try forceps instead.

Makes me tired just thinking about it!

Heidster you sound very courageous and resourceful. With me I got worse and worse at dealing with the pain as time wore on - I seemed to exhaust all my coping strategies.

If you have any tips......

Multiplex - for me, breathing through the contractions and also visualising the cervix stretching, thinning and dilating with each contraction really helped. It made me feel like I was making progress. Must highlight that I was lucky and had no pain at all between contractions, so I did get a bit of respite.

I have only had one baby so I'm by no means an expert, but the biggest thing for me was that I did a lot of reading before the birth and knew exactly what my body was doing at each stage - I think if you can understand the pain, it is easier to bear. Also I was determined that the pain would not get the better of me and that I would remain in control and not give in and scream, shout etc.

When I have another baby I would definitely consider doing a hypnobirthing course, after seeing how much effective breathing and mindpower helped me with my first labour.

It's so hard to prepare when every labour is different!

In reply to ealey, my DS flipped back to back very early in labour. Consequently continuous pain in my back, but even worse in my legs. Having also read all the books and been to classes, all of which tell you about the pain-free gap between contractions, I was particularly surprised when I complained of having no respite between contractions and was told "well of course you won't!".

my 1st was like that, he was back to back..
2nd was not like it @ all, much much easier and contractions seemed a lot more "normal" so its not necessarily gonna be that you'll have the same again
i worried about that too, that i would be in loads of pain and go to hosp only to find i was only like 1, 2cm as thats how it was with my 1st. but actually, by the time i realised i was actually in labour (cos i was expecting much worse like the 1st, so didnt quite realise ) then got to hosp, i was @ 8-9cm
if your 1st one was back to back try to ask them if they can tell the position of this one to get an idea if its going to be the same, they might not be able to tell but its worth asking as it could put your mind @ rest more
if you are in a lot of pain from early labour though i would just go in whenever you cant take the pain, and see what they say
im sure on that tv 1 born every minute some weeks they have had ladies on there given the gas and air at 2cm, or definitely before 3cm so maybe you would be able to go and get some pain relief even if early on (i thought before seeing that, that there was some kind of rule everywhere of no pain relief b4 3cm but maybe not always?)

Firawla - now that I'm 26 weeks pg with my second I found your post very reassuring.

Thanks Firawla. I've been spending a lot of time on the spinning babies website and doing lots of the exercises. I had a late scan a few days ago as DS1 was so huge and was relieved to learn that at the moment baby is anterior (and not that huge).

I'm feeling quite calm about the labour right now actually, largely I think down to doing the natal hypnotherapy cds. (Although I had an appt with my consultant today which threw me a bit - lets just say he's not really a people person).

Gaelicsheep and Ealey - there does seem to be a bit of a conspiracy of silence around back labours doesn't there, as far as pregncy advice and ante-natal classes are concerned. Yet all the midwives must have come across it time and again....

The particularly thing is that the MW had no clue that DS was back to back. It was much much later on when his head had been showing for nearly 3 hours and I still hadn't pushed him out that the penny dropped.