I think my waters have gone but no contractions - how long before they'll make me go to hospital do you think?

[fhdl34]

I'm 41+0 today, had a good trickle last night just before midnight and it seems to have been trickling away all night, and continuing to do so now. I have the midwife coming out today anyway so have not rung the hospital yet as thought I might as well talk to her if things hadn't really started to get going.
I've had some backache and some low abdomen/back period type cramping similar to what I've been having for the last 3 or 4 weeks but more frequent. How long do you think they'll let me stay at home before they ask me to go in? There was no blood or dirt in the water, or the large blob of cervical mucus (which I now assume was my show) I lost earlier in the evening. I've no fever or flu type symptoms so no infection. I'd like to stay out of hospital as long as possible because they pushing for an epidural early on and I want a natural birth due to risks associated with my health.

Definately sounds like your waters. My waters with DD were just a leak and took me a while to be sure that's what it was. Anyway, I was told once waters have gone its basically a timer to get yourself into labour as will induce labour if not established in 24 hours. As long as you begin contracting I don't see why they should make you come in any earlier. I'd get some sleep, with any luck you've got a big job later today!

All the best. X

With me my waters went on Thursday (early hours) and they induced me on the Sat, after 48 hours, depends on your hospital I think.

I think it really depends on the hospital.

My waters broke suddenly at 41 weeks, when I called the hospital they said to come in right away, even though I didn't have any contractions yet.

have you called your midwife to see what she thinks?

I think there's no harm calling the hospital. It's good for them to know in advance who will be coming in. And you don't have to consent to an epi if you don't want one.

good luck!!!

Thanks guys. Midwife is due out this afternoon after 2pm anyway for my 41wk appt. The midwife office (or whatever they're called) are supposed to be ringing me this morning to update me on a likely time and see how I am before she comes out. That's why I thought I'd hold out on ringing the hospital and speak to the midwife office first. At least if I've spoken to them and she's coming out, I'll feel in a stronger position when I tell the hospital. I will refuse the epi but as soon as i get there I'll be seeing the anaesthetist and I'd just prefer not to have the hassle. They were less than honest in my notes so I'm not very trusting of them. My mum asked them whether they'd consider putting the needle in my back for the epi but not administer the drugs and they were vehemently against doing it because it was so risky for me to have the needle put in and then a week later when we saw the consultant, the anaesthetist had written in my notes that I'd have that done which is not what I said at all, my mum just asked the question and even though I may have considered it before, her reaction about how dangerous it is to me soon put me off!

This happened to me. They wanted me in within 24 hours, I negotiated longer through the community midwives. Just try to avoid too many internals as this increases the risk of infection and have showers instead of baths etc. Most (but not all) women will go into labour spontaneously after the waters break. Fingers crossed for you . Good luck!

Keep monitoring your temperature & have shower rather than bath to keep any risk of infection low. If you are feeling up to it get active, walk around a bit, bounce on ball etc to try to start contractions. The time it took for me between waters going & really strong regular contractions was about 60 hours. As long as you are not showing signs of infection or meconium then your midwife should bee happy to let you go 48 hours. Good luck, hopefully things will start soon.

I think you should call the midwives and not wait for them to ring you.

I had my waters break early with no contractions. The hospital gave me up to 72 hours before induction was advised, but I had to go in for regular monitoring every day. Labour came on two days later and I was allowed to use the water birthing pool for 12 hours.

It turns out my placenta had started to break down and this was probably why the waters went early. My daughter was born 71 hours after my waters broke. In the end we did need medical intervention but it was worth it.

I've rung the community midwives office but no answer. The midwife said they'd ring me this morning to confirm what time after 2pm she'll be coming so I'll wait for that call. The big purple book says to ring the midwife if your waters go and I've done that so I'm not breaking any rules :)
Thanks for the advice on the shower, was wondering about that. I hate baths anyway, I'm a shower girl :)
Eeek, I'm going to be a mummy soon :)

Just spoke to the midwives office, they said that I was fine to wait for my midwife to come out before contacting the hospital. Did want to pop into town this morning but not whilst I'm still leaking so it'll have to wait.

Well I imagine the 'rule' is to actually speak with your midwife -- not just ring them!

I understand you don't want to be forced into hospital too soon but I really think you should get some proper medical advice.

Things can happen very quickly. My temp shot up after my waters broke, luckily I was already in hospital and got put on ABs right away. I didn't realise my temp was up, it was only their monitoring that caught it.

If you call the hospital they can probably arrange to have your midwife come out sooner rather than later.

Definitely take a shower! It was the best thing I could have done before going in

oh sorry x-post

glad you spoke to them

Good luck! Mine broke sat 6 am, went to hospital at ten am for a check, contractions started midnight then they induced sun am at 8. With waters breaking they usually induce within 24 hours of waters breaking due to risk of infection.

Thanks dreamingbohemian, I've just taken a shower so I'm nice and fresh. Definitely getting some very mild and irregular contractions so something is happening. It turned out my doctors gave me the wrong number for the midwife, that's why I couldn't get through earlier.
Hopefully they'll get more regular and stronger within the next few hours, might get the birthing ball out and see if that brings the contractions on a bit better.

This time round I had an emcs 38hrs post waters breaking. The hospital have a 24hr policy but I negotiated waiting. I didn't want induction due to previous emcs and the position of ds. It turned out he was a repeat of dd's position and I've since had a twist in my pelvis confirmed (caused the early membrane ruptures and odd position both times). I was happy to hang on past 24hrs with regular monitoring and temp checks.

Just be careful though due to risk of congenital pneumonia. I had a hindwater leak 3days before my waters went and I went into labour but hospital didn't believe me. DD was born extremely poorly as a result. (was also oxygen starved and in NICU for a week. Had to have a lumbar puncture etc) I had no temperature and was fine.

I'd err on side of caution if I were you.

Agree to err on the side of caution.

Good thing to do is to keep active - I rested too much with DD2 which slowed everything down. And agree re not having baths - firstly because of infection risk, and secondly because baths too soon slow everything down (MW told me with DD2 to go home and have a nice bath - which is probably why everything stopped and I ended up with an induction).

With DD3 my waters went and I kept pacing up and down stairs, had cups of tea walking around, basically anything to keep gravity on my side (something to do with the baby's head against the cervix encouraging dilation, or that might be an old wive's tale)

Keep an eye on your baby's movements too and phone/go in immediately if you suspect anything isn't right.

Good luck :)

Spoke to the hospital, they initially said come straight in but then when they put me through to someone who was willing to speak to me for more than a minute, they said they were happy for me to wait for the midwife to check the fluid that's leaking and then possibly book an induction in case labour doesn't start spontaneously. I was bouncing on my birth ball but I've really hurt my hip doing that so just resting it a little while and will then start a few regular laps on the stairs.

When is your midwife due?

Are you taking your temperature?

It's good to stay active but try to rest too! You may not get any sleep for a few days.

Oooohhh, exciting! Just listen to your body, rest when you feel you need to, pacing walking does help, but even just standing and leaning over the back of a chair, whatever is comfortable.

Also, as tempting as it is to phone your friends/family and tell them things are happening try to resist if you can - they will only worry when they dont hear from you every half hour with an update and you will get annoyed with the phone beeping away at you (speaking from experience).

Ooh good luck! You could try walking sideways up the stairs too

we'd already told our families that they wouldn't be told when i was goin into labour for exactly those reasons but some of my family do know as they're staying with us. It's DH's family who would expect updates though, mine are happy to get a call that a baby has arrived. Midwife starts shift at 2pm so anytime after that, not taking my temperature, have been roasting all through pregnancy and my base used to be around 36-36.5 but don't know what it is now. Midwife'll be here soon anyway so goin 2 have a snooze

Well I was going to have a snooze but dog decided it really needed to go out just at the point I lay down despite the fact DH let her out just before he went for a bath and to put the last few items in the hospital bags so staying up now.
Been reading up on the nice guidelines for induction prior to the midwife arriving. It appears I can still have prostaglandin pessaries despite my waters going (wasn't sure if they'd go straight to syntocin) so that is some consolation if induction is destined to be. I am using hypnobirthing techniques and really wanted a natural birth but if it isn't meant to be then so be it. I can still use the techniques for pain relief it was just I really wanted to avoid any intervention because my high BMI just complicates every little thing. Starting to worry a little now that things aren't going to start, hope it's over nothing :(

Fx crossed for you.
With ds1 hospital said to go straight down so I did I was not having contractions perhaps mild af pain but nothing notwworthy. They examined me as soon as I got there and I was already a few cms dilated. The examination then kicked off the contracions. Sounds good if you have some mild contractions.

Thanks orangeLFDThead, you've cheered me up (feel a bit tearful in fact ). I should be thinking more positively, I have been the whole pregnancy. Am so glad hardly anyone knows in RL though, it'd be really irritating me if I had people texting/fb'ing/phoning all the time. At least it's just a few members of my family that know and they don't feel they need to be kept updated all the time like DH's family would (and some of my friends would).