Advice to help you recognise the early signs of the onset of labour during pregnancy with information on imminent birth and delivery..Discuss signs of labour on our forums, right now! Or, post a comment below.Labour is the process through which your baby will be born. For most women this happens when they are around 40 weeks pregnant, but anything from 37 weeks to 42 weeks is considered as being normal. With a first baby, from the first signs of labour until the baby is born can quite easily be a full 24 hours. This is because labour tends to start gradually allowing your baby time to adjust to what is happening. If you have already experienced labour the womb seems to work differently. The process of labour may still begin gradually but you will usually deliver your baby much more quickly. Signs of the onset of labour: - A show - This is the mucousy plug that sits in the neck of the womb. As the neck of the womb begins to open this mucus may be dislodged. The mucus may be clear, slightly brown or pink. You may notice some streaks of blood. This is normal. If there is more than just a few streaks of blood, if there is bleeding without mucous or if your baby has not been moving please contact a midwife to make sure things are OK. Otherwise just wait and see. A show can actually happen a few weeks before you actually go into labour so it may or may not be a sign.
- Waters breaking - Your waters are the amniotic fluid that surrounds your baby. They can break before you go into labour or during the labour process. When they do break you will be aware of leaking fluid all at once or keep leaking small amounts. Some women feel a popping sensation.
Most women go into labour when their waters break after 37 weeks, but it can take a day or two. You will need to contact your midwife or the delivery suite to let them know what is happening. If you do not go into labour yourself then your labour may be induced because once the waters have broken there is a small risk of infection to your baby which increases with time.
- Contractions - This is the muscle of your womb tightening, pulling up on your cervix and pushing down on your baby. At first you may be aware of just some discomfort or period type pain that comes and goes. As time goes on you will become more aware of definite contractions, usually felt low down in the front of your abdomen or in your back. They will become longer and stronger and more intense.
Once your contractions are lasting about 45 seconds to a minute they will probably not go away. Up until this time they can stop for a number of hours or days and then come back again. Do not worry if this happens. You will start again where you left off. Once the cervix has begun to open it does not close again.
- The stages of labour - We divide labour into three stages
- Stage 1 - From the time your contractions become regularly and strong until the cervix has moved out of the way which means you are dilated to 10cms.
- Stage 2 - From the time the cervix is fully dilated until the time the baby is born.
- Stage 3 - From the birth of the baby until the delivery of the after birth or the placenta and membranes.
Every labour is different. No one can predict for you how things will go, but there are lots of things that can help you on the day. | 
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i'm 31 weeks pregnant with my 3rd baby and over the last 3 days have been having pink staining my discharge is clear, had spoken to midwife last night and she asked if I had ever had an eroision, which I have had and she said it could be coming from that. i'm still staining today and having some period pains but no contractions, has anyone had any similar experience as never had this with my other pregnancys, and now it is going on i'm just worried that it could be early signs of labour. maybe i'm over reacting.
I am 38+2 days pregnant and am due to have a c-section on the 29th Dec 09. Even though I am a mum to and angel called Joshua and a little boy called George I have never experianced labour and am starting to get a little concerned that I may miss something.
Over the last week I have been having very painful braxton hicks with period type pains in my pelvis, tightening all over my belly and a burning senststion in my upper abdomen left feeling bruised after (the tightening is not consistent). I have had an increase in discharge but not lost my plug as far as I am aware. Last night I had a popping sensation in pelvis and my pants were slightly damp after but as far as I am aware my waters have not broken as only had an increase in creamy discharge nothing more (sorry tmi)... I have been getting mild backache but not sure if this is the way that he is lay or anything else.
I am not due to see anyone until the day before the c-section so any advice to put my mind at ease would be hugely appreciated!!
Best of luck to everyone else :0)
xx
any ideas pls?
this is my second pregnancy but couldn't have been any more different than my first! i'd like some help/advice please on this. Im 37+1 and the baby is 3/5 engaged, i am constantly going to the loo (Waterworks) but no pain, i feel lightheaded a lot of the time (as if i'm watching myself-if that makes sense??), i get a lot of back ache and now i've started with chest pain that definatley isnt heartburn. Im wondering if all of these things could be a sign of early labour?
Please could anyone help???xx
I can't really say i had much in the way of signs of labour, all i do remember is the few hours before going into labour i madly cleaned, felt full of beans and then as i sat down to go to sleep feeling exhausted the labours started!!!
I do remember the aching back but to be honest it felt like that for the last few weeks and it's not until you're in labour you can really identify that that back ache was the start of it.
my first labour ....... the first sign i had was i felt a 'knock' in my pelvisthen a bit of water trickled out, i knew it was my waters as when i wiped myself it was like wiping the remains a cracked egg(it's sticky).
Then maybe 30 mins the contractions started and nothing more in the way of signs til hospital. It was only my hind waters that had broken, they broke the rest in labour.
My second felt the same knock, same liquid stuff but this time after a couple of hours the contractions came and the plug came out and all my waters broke before i'd got to the hospital.
My third i woke up and straight away i was experiencing mild contractions straight away. from around 7.30 am. by 10 am the contractions were coming every 5 mins and were strong. so went to hospital only for them to tell me that i wasn't even dilated!! they sent me home and pretty much the contractions came evry 5 mins til 9 pm i just couldn;t take much more, went back to the hospital and finally but slowly was 3 cm dilated!! the plug, waters etc all came out literally just before i started pushing the baby out.
I'm sorry to hear about your complications, maybe you should try and relax a little and that should help your blood pressure go down but I know this is much easier said than done as I was only painting the bathroom last week!!! I have had lower back pains ever since I can remember but I do think this is rather common but you can get one of those wheat bags that you put in the microwave they're supposed to be really good for getting rid of the pain. Another thing, make sure you mention this pain to your midwife as back pain and headaches can be linked to pre-eclampsya and thats why they check your urine everytime you visit them, I hope this helps, sorry for rambling on x
i'm 31 weks pregant tomorrow and had a few complications from been 25 wks, i've been leeking water and sufferin from blood pressure. for the past couple off days i cant stop cleaning, my nesting period must be kicking in lol. but i've got these cronic pains in my lower back, i'm really unsettled and hirritated. please can anyone help me has anyone every felt like this??????
I'm stressing out like crazy as my boyfriend of a year left me 3 months ago for a girl 5 years older than him that has a boyfriend and lives 65 miles away. I just don't feel like I can cope alone and I'm terrified of getting post-natal depression - anyone have any advice on preventing this??
thanks xxxxxxxxx Chloe xxxxxxxxxx
Thank 4 takin time to read this xx :D