Any midwives? Worried about slow stage of labour

[MissPepper8]

Basically as title, feeling a little frustrated and tired as I've had on/off contractions since Thursday, got worse in strength yesterday and lost bit of plug.

Certain family member is saying (despite me talking to two midwives) that there's no such thing as early/latent Labour and they didn't do it that way.. And if I'm like this i should demand to goto Labour ward as baby can get in fetal distress and die, so I should be asking for a section as my body isn't working right.

I'm finding it really hard to deal with them, shown them NHS information that explains all this about latent stage, but honestly they're stressing me out and upsetting me something is wrong with me.

Anyone else or any midwife advice? This is normal for some ladies isn't it? Persons telling me midwifes are wrong (I can't deal with it anymore).

I'm not a midwife... But with my 1st dc I started getting strong period pains on the sat early hours, by sun it was getting stronger but the hospital weren't really interested. I went in to the hospital, it was very busy and I sat in the waiting room all day. When I was eventually seen I was 3cm dilated and the baby was in distress. They did all the could to break my water but by that point it was thick meconium and nothing came out. To cut a long story short dc was born by emergency section on Mon morning. He was on a monitor in distress the whole labour.

So I agree with your family that you should get checked out. It could be everything is progressing as normal, or it could be you need a bit of help to get things moving.

@Delbelleber Ah I'm sorry to hear that, glad he was delivered ok x. I didn't have this with my first, my waters just broke at 38 weeks and I needed an emergency section.

I have rang my community mw and labour ward yesterday. They won't see me, told me this is normal progression, as long as I'm not leaking fluid, bleeding and baby is moving. Just said if contractions speed up to ring. Contractions start and then stop so unless I'm moving or on a ball I've just had tightness, period pain and back cramps.

Yesterday I had quite a few hours of them, the evening it really ramped up, constant 3 hours of it (to the point I thought I should sleep incase it kicked off as it was very painful), but this morning I just woke with tightness and period type cramping again.

So I had this with baby one.... Days of contractions on and off, after midwifes not being worried I carried on about my normal business decided I needed to vax the house carpets all off them to keep me entertained after carpet 5 a warm bath and clean pj's "real" labour started..... I sat with a midwife very composed and said I really feel like I'm in alot of pain and it won't be long adding I have a high pain threshold hence my composure (it hurt like hell) ..... She told me I was young only 2nd baby and obviously I'd be along time I asked her to humour me with examination she huffed and puffed and did it then a very alarmed look descended upon her and rushed me to delivery at 9cm dilated..
You know your body xx get moving if you can to kick start those big contractions and then get your self in to hospital if that's where your having baby xx

@Avearage Thank you for this, made me feel like what's going on is fine :). I think it's early, I had what I worked out was 4 hours of it last night building to some good contractions (after a big walk and bouncing on ball) but I needed to rest, going to try get out today to move more.

I had about 4 days of constant early labour, in that time I had one midwife check, and then on the monitor even though there were no causes for concern.
I had another 3 days of full labour then a section because ds was too big to exit.

I had really slow start to my labours with both my DC. With DC1 it lasted over a week then once my waters broke I had another 2 days in slow labour then finally a drip brought on full blown labour. With DC 2 I was over due and in slow labour for about 5days after 2 sweeps before the drip brought on full blown labour again. Stay in touch with your midwife and definitely take your self to hospital if cant control the pain or waters break. You know your body best

Firstly, call your labour ward and let them know that you think labour has started.
Make sure you’re happy with fetal movements.
You can take paracetamol regularly for the pain if necessary.
If you feel that contractions are regular (2-3 in a 10 minute period) and quite painful then it would be worth attending the labour ward to be assessed.
If you have any bleeding or your waters break tell labour ward immediately, some mucous show or “the plug” is normal but shouldn’t be heavy blood loss.
The main thing to focus on is baby movements, if at any point you are unhappy with them you should come in to be checked. Also if the pain is too much and you need some pain relief again go to labour ward. If you get any pain that is constant and doesn’t go away you also need to call labour ward.
Early labour can take days..stay active and hydrated, rest when you can and stay positive and relaxed, let the oxytocin flow!! 🙂

I’ve just seen you’re a previous Caesarean section...you should be offered monitoring if you’re contracting due to you being more “high risk”. Keep an eye on contractions for sure and if they continue you really should be having a ctg.

@fedupandlookingforchange @DivaRainbow Thank you both, makes me feel atleast something isn't wrong, been really doubting myself today that this isn't normal for Labour. I don't want to waste time if baby is happy and I'm ok with the pain for now. It's incredibly frustrating though :(.

@MrsLaura89 Thank you :), I did on Friday, both community and Labour. Labour ward knows its vbac, she said they treat it like any normal Labour for now unless I bleed, lose waters ect. I'm ok with pain cause I get periods of rest (except for last night) and I'm watching baby like a hawk, seems really active at night which is when I have them more. I lost bit of plug last night too.

I see consultant on Monday with a scan too (37 weeks Wednesday, baby was measuring small) so well see how long this goes on. I'm just more worried about baby more than me right now.

Hi! I'm in the same boat, got a show on Wednesday and just slowly getting light contractions but nothing major! Can't wait for baby to come already

Midwives aren't interested at all when I called, as long as baby is moving ok. I've booked in for acupuncture on Monday so hopefully that will speed things up.

Luckily I didn't tell anyone other than DH about the show, but everyone is asking me when baby is coming. It's really getting on my nerves

@babychange12 Yeah they're not that worried, but I've had enough today, tonight has been really painful, timed 5 over 26 mins to check it out. Just tired of it now.

I lost more plug and had a bit of pink blood today. Hopefully you won't need to wait any longer x

Why on earth would your family think they would know more about labour that the professionals who have trained for years?!

Having said that, I do know old school midwives who say they didn’t ever used to see such long latent phases as they see now. I have NO IDEA if this is true but there’s a belief it’s possibly because of the “have a warm bath and take two paracetamol” approach many midwives suggest. Pharmacologically it’s not truly understood exactly how paracetamol works, and some midwives are starting to consider whether it had any place in interrupting the establishment of labour.
Anecdotal not data but: I took no paracetamol at all and was 12 hours from woe to go!
Good luck - sounds like you’ll have a squishy new baby sooner or later!

Just to say I was in slow labour for days and days and days. I walked miles and miles to try to convince the baby to come. One afternoon, I started crying to my husband that I couldn’t cope with the pain day after day but no progression, and realised about 10 minutes later than things have significantly ramped up. The baby was born about a day later.

Hi, congratulations
2 of my labour's sound like yours now OP.
They both lasted a few days, it felt so tiring and never ending.
I stayed active, kept walking, doing chores & looking after my other DCs. It sort of took my mind off it, I know it probably sounds crazy while you're in pain but try to stay active, even just walking is good.
With my 2nd AND 3rd DC, I started to lose the plug and within the same day I gave birth.
It just happened a bit quicker than expected and they were delivered at home by my DP before a midwife could get here!

Dont let your family member scare you, they are being unfair. Try not to worry.
If you feel worried then speak to a midwife, if not, try to enjoy it, I'm sure your baby will be here very soon and good luck

I'm currently in the latent phase and have been since 7pm last night. Went to midwife unit for a couple of hours in the night to get some codeine and have a rest as pain was unmanageable (back labor) and am now home again hoping things progress quickly but less painfully!

I have had long prodromal labours both times. It might just be how my body works, or it might be that both of my babies were back to back. With DC2, after many days of early labour and many hours of the real deal but slow progression, a wonderful midwife noticed that baby was actually badly positioned/turning. A couple of hours on hands and knees and baby was well and truly on its way!

How are you going OP? Following with interest! Good luck for the birth!

Thanks for all the replies :), honestly you have no idea how it's put my mind at ease as I was going round the twist with what was being said and it was stressing me out and upsetting me more.

So last night I had bit of muscus plug come out and then about 6 hours later at 1am I had a bloody show (I think, it was darker than the muscus pink blood).

I went in actually because I was concerned the pink spotting wasn't stopping (could of been waters they suggested) and I woke up with constant period pains.

Baby is all fine, had little contractions on monitor, had one on way home (these were way different) and sitting down on phone.
So my genius idea was to have a mad nesting clean by hovering/tidying/scrubbing floors and it's slowed them a bit but sitting here now I can feel like period is about to come on pain again and in my back.

Honestly thanks for the reassuring comments, hearing baby too calmed me down no end. I think family member was worried but this was winding me up more so, because they even got my someone to text a midwife who confirmed what I was told was normal :(

How are you getting on @MissPepper8

How are you now OP?
Has your little one arrived yet?