A survery on Braxton Hicks and the effects on labour......

[growingbagpuss]

I'm interested to know if strong Braxton hicks/ tightenings in the 3rd Trimester lead to shorter, sharper labours?

Do women who never feel a twinge have longer labours?

Is this a load of rubbish... there should be enough women here to get a fairly good idea......

DD1 - not a single twinge, induction was long and bloomin painful prior to epidural!

DD2 - loads and loads of BH's - so many that a few times I actually thought I was in labour. She was back to back and face first presentation, but all over in 7 hours with just gas and air.

HTH

No BH here - short easy birth

For me there was no correlation bagpuss - some pgs I had loads of bh, some very little - but each subsequent labour was half the length of the previous one!

God it sounds like I've given birth to a football team, the way I've phrased that - I've had 3 and expecting my fourth

And I've just realised I've posted a thread about a survery (!!) sounds like something wher things get SUUURVED..

A SURVEY.. this is a SURVEY!!

Hee hee I didn't even notice the spelling mistake until you pointed it out.

I get loads of BH, I've been tortured with them every time.
The first stage of my labours were very long and gradual, then last three babies popped out very fast.
I didn't have to consciously push...my well excercised uterus pushed them out each time in two huge contractions.

DS - don;t remember any twinges or tightenings, he was induced a week early as i had bleeding on and off throughout the pregnancy.....I ended up with an em c.s

DD - BH started at 20 weeks, by 28 weeks, i was admitted for observation for several hours as they wouldn;t stop!! By last trimester I had 2 false alarms, i also drank raspberry leaf tea....had a hindwater leak the day couple of days before she was due. also had such strong BH i was rooted to the spot on several occasions....

went into labour day before due date..laboured at home for hours, got to hospital , 3 minutes apart..NO dilation ! baby OP....encouraged to stand and move and rock with the contractions....baby turned and was born 3 1/4 hours later...very intense and contractions almost non stop once it got going...

so 3 1/4 hours established labour but 15 hours of contractions to get there

so not sure if i prove the point or not !

I suppose i should add that I had v strong BH's for weeks before DS was born, bringing me out in a sweat quite often. He was born after a 5 hour labour -from no contractions at all to 2 minutes apart within about 1 hour.

I'm hoping this is a good sign - as i'm now 36 +++ weeks and would like this babe to arrive fairly soon....

Come on -I need more input - this isn't remotely scientific yet!!

i had lots of bh's throughout both pg's, fairly quick and easy labours with both

cool - one more on the list...... .

No BHs at all, had a sweep at 41 weeks, 9 hour labour I'd describe as agony.

DS - 1st baby - had loads of BH and a couple of false alarms from 33 weeks onwards - had him at 41 weeks with a 49 hour labour

DD - 2nd baby - barely had any BH, although one false alarm on due date, she arrived 10 days late with a 3.5 hour (very intense)labour.

So no I don't think the regualarity (sp?)and strength of BH correlates to the length of labour etc.

hmmm ... skews the stats a bit....

yes with all four pregnancies, very strong early on and all through.
so far all three births were v quick, and I imagine this one will be the same.
i go red and can't move with some of them

I disprove the theory...

I had vile, painful BH from about the fourth month of my first pregnancy; and a prolonged, two to three day labour culminating in a ventouse and very nearly an emergency C-section.

I had a few painless ones towards the end of my second pregnancy and a straightforward seven hour labour and delivery.

I had a lot of bh in second preg but that was due to being on my feet a lot more, the mw confirmed this seemed to increase the frequency in her experience.

I had lots of BH with both DS and DD.

DS - waters broke at 6:30am, proper contractions at 6:45pm, DS born at 2:50am the next morning.

DD - contractions started at 6:45am, DD born at 1:26pm that day.

I don't think either of the labours were particualrly "sharp" but they were painful enough thank you .

No BH for me on either occasion - well none that I was conscious of anyway.

DD1 was induced by pessary and was born 12 hours after.

DD2 was induced by drip and ARM and was born after a labour of 1 hour 45 minutes!

never had a bh and had two quick [though esceedingly painful imo] labours

DS1 no BH and was born in just under 10 hours
DS2 mild BH and born in under 2.5 hours
DS3 horrid BH with admittance to hospital a couple of times, and arrived in under 16 minutes!!

All of these are from my waters breaking, as have no proper contractions up until then!

Getting very worried about current pregnancy, at 35 weeks and BH are worse than last time!!!

ds1 loads of braxtons that were so strong even the nurse when i went in 2 weeks before due date due to sickness bug said 'are you sure you can't feel these? Are you sure they don't hurt?'

Then went 11 days over and had to be induced v. long.

ds2 on the way am 24 weeks pregnant and getting those hicks nice and strong again...

dh has just asked 'why do b/h not hurt yet are practise contractions and they can be very strong but real contractions hurt like billio..?'

lots of BH with all three pregnancies

each labour totally different from marathon agony to piece of cake.