How will you know when the time has come? Usually, you will know you are in labour by one or more of the following signs:

1 Show. This is the passage of blood-tinged mucus, usually only a small quantity, from the vagina.

2 Breaking of the bag of waters. This rupture of the membranes may be indicated by a gush of water from the vagina or by a slow leakage.

3 Labour pains. The first two indications are quite plain in most cases. Always call your doctor if either of them occurs. Labour contractions are harder to identify for a woman having her first baby. She is apt to be fooled by false labour, which usually consists of contractions of the uterus at irregular intervals, with or without pain. True labour pains are painful, rhythmical and accompanied by contractions of the uterus. The pain may be slight, but it usually increases to a peak and then fades away. The pain is cramp-like at the beginning, when it seems to be located in the small of the back. In a few hours it moves around to the front. Even at the beginning, true labour pains are usually spaced quite regularly, with a pain-free period between. The contraction of the uterus can be easily felt by placing the hand on the abdomen. The doctor has probably told you to call him if the contractions come every ten minutes or so. Even then he may want you to wait so your stay at the hospital will not be so long. Do not worry if the membranes rupture before labour contractions set in.

Induced labour

If, for some reason, the doctor feels he should start or speed up the beginning of your labour—for example, if the baby is past due and quite large—he can rupture the membranes quite easily. Labour usually occurs shortly after this. Or he may speed up the labour by giving you an enema, or medicines such as pitocin. Never attempt to speed up labour yourself.

*168\68\2*

Google Bookmarks Digg Reddit del.icio.us Ma.gnolia Technorati Slashdot Yahoo My Web

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!


This entry was posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 at 4:50 am and is filed under General health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.