What is happening please? I just need a little chat about labour

[Emz2019]

I’m just about due and my midwife has told me to call the labour ward once In labour with contractions 5 mins apart for over an hour.... so this has been going on 3 days now and what happens is I get back aches with cramps and that come and go and regular Intervals usually 10 mins but have been down to 7mins, lasting a few hours then fading off to nothing. Iv been having a mucus discharge and this morning we had sex to see if it would get things moving and I lost more mucus but it had a pink tinge. I’m a little crampy again now and have an app In 2 hours to see my midwife. I last seen her 1 week ago and she told me the head was free....

You are probably just in very early labour.

Your midwife will be able to give you a clearer idea when you see her.

I'm having exactly the same early cramps/backache at the moment and I'm 1 day overdue (DC2). It's just a waiting game for now for things to ramp up a bit. When your contractions are starting to form a regular pattern it will be a lot clearer, it doesn't sound like you are quite there yet but things will hopefully get going for you soon. The waiting is horrible

Yea I hope she can help me out a bit. It’s beginning to drag now with not knowing what is going on but it seams something is happening but I’m not quite there yet and it’s the waiting for it to start properly

It sounds like the beginnings of labour, but unfortunately that can go on for quite a while. At some point it will ramp up, but there's no way of knowing when that will happen. When I was at that stage though, my midwife gave me a sweep and that did help to push things along a bit.

Don't worry about the head not being engaged, some babies don't engage until labour starts, some engage weeks and weeks beforehand.