unsure as when to call the hospital

[HelenCS]

Hiya,

Sorry in advance if TMI..

Im 41 weeks today and yesterday my mw performed a stretch and sweep.
Before she did this i told her that i had had no signs whatsoever that labour might be imminent ( no braxton hicks, havent lost 'the plug' etc) and the moment she layed me on the examining bed she said i was having braxton hicks as she could see the stomach tighting and relaxing, but for some reason i was having no pain or uncomfortableness at all.
She then performed the sweep and said i was 2cm dialated and said you may find that you get some brown discharge.
But i seem to have ALOT of browny/bloody discharge constantly and on 2 occasions the discharge has been long and stringy with blood, could that have been the plug?
And since then i have been getting what im pretty sure are contractions, although i can get about 10 mins where i have constant pain then go a few hours without anything.
Im just so confused as what to do now.. do i call the hospital, do i leave it a while or what?
Any advice at all is welcome!

I reckon you don't need to phone the hospital, however they will always be happy to talk to you so do if you want to.

It maybe the plug going. It doesn't happen in one big go, often you just get mucous (having blood in it is ok too I think) throughout labour. Definitely a good sign though. As are the contractions. As you've probably heard before though ( ) proper contractions bloody hurt so if you're not completely sure thats what they are then you've probably got a good way to go.

I think they say call the hospital when they're about 5 minutes apart or if waters go. However at 41+1 they're not going to mind you calling, and it might be best to warn them you're imminent to help them with planning their workload!

Good luck, how exciting. Keep us updated.

I think it's a bit early yet as nothing is regular and even if you're plug has gone it doesn't mean labour is imminent I'm afraid. But if you're unsure then give them a call and they'll advise you to come in or stay where you are.

Actually I disagree with 007 about using pain as a gauage of how far along you are. First time round my contractions never really got worse than quite bad period pains with the result that I was 9cm dilated by the time I arrved at hospital because I kept waiting for it to get really, really bad!

I don't mind being disagreed with.

Certainly true that everyone is different. Also I've never had contractions which were in any way regular - they were always irregular and went though stages of being more/less frequent.

Any developments Helen? Hope you're doing ok.

my advice to you is call the hospital to keep them informed in whats happening and then im sure they will give you the best advice over the phone in what you should do next . best of luck