What are hind waters?

[ilianora]

I'm
Not panicking but yesterday I had a bit of a gush and my underwear was really wet had to change it straight away. I had been for a wee literally 5mins before, otherwise I would probably have just assumed I had wet myself! It wasnt a big enough gush for me to know for sure it was waters though so now i dont know what to think! Had a pad in my knickers over night and nothing more was there this morning. Trying to really find out what it could have been as it was just too much for me to think it was discharge, and it was very watery and clear too. Been trying to find out about hind waters and if it could maybe have been that. And if it did turn out to be that, do they still treat it the same as if your waters fully go (ie, induce after 24 hours if no contractions)??
Trying to avoid calling midwife as I am having a homebirth and don't want to go in to hospital for them to check if waters have gone (I also read somebody's birth story who had this situation and then ended up with a painful induction, only to later find that they were mistaken and the waters were till intact)
Any ideas ladies?

Completely understand your concern about risking your homebirth, but I wouldn't mess around with this as it does sound like it could be your waters, although it would be a bit weird if nothing has happened since last night. I know it's gross, but did you smell it? Apparently waters smell quite sweet and very different to wee (if it's wee it would have smelt like that quite clearly).

As far as I know, the waters that go first are any in front of your baby's head when the membranes break. The 'hind waters' are the bit that then gets dammed up behind the baby because it's head is then blocking the cervix, and then you lose these more slowly with contractions.

I would phone your midwife and ask for advice, and explain your concern about being induced. Just in case it was your waters you don't want to risk getting an infection. I know someone this happened to and it wasn't fun.

Good luck - hope it all goes well.

My hind waters went with my last (planned homebirth), DD3, I felt a bit of a twang sensation when I was lay in bed and had a slight gushy/trickle.

Bit more, but not vast amount on standing. I was told that if you lie down for a while then stand if more trickles out it highly likely to be your waters its referred to as 'pooling' I think?

How many weeks are you? And if you are having a planned homebirth, they should come to you and check, I rang the unit and was told to go in until I advised them that I was having a homebirth so send someone out to me!

They do smell different to wee, sweet/oaty and straw like colour. If you put a pad on and walk around if it continues to trickle out save the pad for the midwife to check, my midwife smelt mine and gave it a good old squeeze and declared, Yep, that's your waters!

Hotpink has given a great explanation of hind waters, which was the case for me, it soon became more obvious as I kept having to change pads,and each time baby moved and when contractions eventually started more gushed out!

Oh the other MASSIVE indicator for me when I really started to think they had gone was my bump had dropped a lot and there was a noticeable dip in between my breastbone, my belly looked like a deflating balloon!

Good luck x

How far along are you?

The guidelines now are, I believe, that they have 72 hours before they'll induce, but they still stick to 24 in some places.