I HATE the term false labor. It is a great way to discourage a woman who has felt signs of labor for hours, days, or even weeks. Every other movie with a birth scene shows a mother going to the hospital and being told she is not in labor or the labor is going slowly. Some of this is true, most of it is guess work. I am a woman with lots and lots of contractions throughout pregnancy. I started feeling Braxton Hicks contractions around twenty weeks this pregnancy. Let's just say the uterus is a smart muscle and it knows it needs a good workout before the main show-the birth.
As my pregnancies come close to the end I tend to experience chunks of time with fairly strong feeling contractions. I know it is not active labor at this point because those contractions are much more intense, but there is a distinct point in labor when Braxton Hicks contractions switch over to the kind of contractions leading up to the birth. With my second child, I knew my contractions just felt different. My whole self felt different. This was the only pregnancy I really felt a sense of understanding as to what was happening to me. Since then it has all been guess work.
With my third child, I thought the contraction shift had happened, but when I got the the hospital everything would stop. This happened several times. It is hard to tell if I was not really in labor, or if I experiencing a strong level of stress and anxiety at the hospital, causing my body to stop the labor. As I have mentioned in one of my previous posts, my third labor and delivery left me feeling very discouraged. I think that if I had pressed the doctors, my 'false labor' would not have gone on for five days. From my experiences, labor takes two things, an active uterus ready for the birth and lots of strong encouragement. It does not matter how many children a person has, labor is still a mystery and different every time. I have felt a couple of similarities, but not that many.
By the time I was getting ready to deliver my fourth child, I found myself in a situation where it was too early for me to be in labor. I was 36 weeks, so my baby would have been alright, but I wanted to be careful. When I started to feel my contractions in my legs as well as my back and stomach, I went into the hospital. Everything stopped, just like with my third child. Why was my body stopping and starting so much? This was a very frustrating process. After all the contractions this time I ended up having my baby two weeks later!
With this baby I am sitting around with the same kind of feeling. I have had contractions for weeks, but none of them have shifted into active labor. When I have been afraid of preterm labor, I have been checked and there are minor cervical changes going on. I would not call this labor, but I would also not call this false labor. If I were to define what was happening, I would say, my body was still working hard preparing for the birth. False labor implies nothing is happening and the mother is dumb to assume anything is.
As one can see through my experiences, not one labor is a like. There has not been a distinct pattern. Labor is not text book science as far as I am concerned. The pattern I do see is doctors discouraging women who actually think they are in labor to go home. I have heard hospital nurses telling women that they should not be in so much pain because their cervix is showing very little change. How can anyone really determine this? Many women rush to epidurals, just because of little moments like these. If a nurse were to say something like, let's wait and see what your body is doing and maybe put some belief into a woman's intuition, it would be nice. With my second child a nurse did this for me and it gave me my dream birth. When the doctor told me things could go either way, she encouraged me to listen to myself. This encouraged me so much, I had the baby a couple of hours later.
Having a labor that progresses is more complex than just contractions. The mental state of the mother determines whether or not she feels comfortable enough to have the contractions. Let's face it, if one were to compare birth the sex, then the way most births are treated are closer to rape situations than anything else. Birth is a sacred time, not something to just get over with. Yes, it may be a hassle to deliver a baby at 3AM, but at least the mom got to reap the reward of giving birth naturally. This may cause less problems later for mom and baby. I am no doctor, but I do know that through my last four experiences and into this fifth pregnancy, I am glad that there are midwives who allow uninterrupted births to happen and in every hospital there are some nurses and doctors who actually encourage women to stick to their own desires for a natural birth.
**P.S.** Part of the problem is trying to figure out when to go to the hospital. If other women are like me, I do not want to go in when my contractions make it impossible to move, so it is easy to end up there too early. Since I have started to have my babies at home, the stress of moving in the middle of labor is eliminated leaving the labor to progress more naturally.
As my pregnancies come close to the end I tend to experience chunks of time with fairly strong feeling contractions. I know it is not active labor at this point because those contractions are much more intense, but there is a distinct point in labor when Braxton Hicks contractions switch over to the kind of contractions leading up to the birth. With my second child, I knew my contractions just felt different. My whole self felt different. This was the only pregnancy I really felt a sense of understanding as to what was happening to me. Since then it has all been guess work.
With my third child, I thought the contraction shift had happened, but when I got the the hospital everything would stop. This happened several times. It is hard to tell if I was not really in labor, or if I experiencing a strong level of stress and anxiety at the hospital, causing my body to stop the labor. As I have mentioned in one of my previous posts, my third labor and delivery left me feeling very discouraged. I think that if I had pressed the doctors, my 'false labor' would not have gone on for five days. From my experiences, labor takes two things, an active uterus ready for the birth and lots of strong encouragement. It does not matter how many children a person has, labor is still a mystery and different every time. I have felt a couple of similarities, but not that many.
By the time I was getting ready to deliver my fourth child, I found myself in a situation where it was too early for me to be in labor. I was 36 weeks, so my baby would have been alright, but I wanted to be careful. When I started to feel my contractions in my legs as well as my back and stomach, I went into the hospital. Everything stopped, just like with my third child. Why was my body stopping and starting so much? This was a very frustrating process. After all the contractions this time I ended up having my baby two weeks later!
With this baby I am sitting around with the same kind of feeling. I have had contractions for weeks, but none of them have shifted into active labor. When I have been afraid of preterm labor, I have been checked and there are minor cervical changes going on. I would not call this labor, but I would also not call this false labor. If I were to define what was happening, I would say, my body was still working hard preparing for the birth. False labor implies nothing is happening and the mother is dumb to assume anything is.
As one can see through my experiences, not one labor is a like. There has not been a distinct pattern. Labor is not text book science as far as I am concerned. The pattern I do see is doctors discouraging women who actually think they are in labor to go home. I have heard hospital nurses telling women that they should not be in so much pain because their cervix is showing very little change. How can anyone really determine this? Many women rush to epidurals, just because of little moments like these. If a nurse were to say something like, let's wait and see what your body is doing and maybe put some belief into a woman's intuition, it would be nice. With my second child a nurse did this for me and it gave me my dream birth. When the doctor told me things could go either way, she encouraged me to listen to myself. This encouraged me so much, I had the baby a couple of hours later.
Having a labor that progresses is more complex than just contractions. The mental state of the mother determines whether or not she feels comfortable enough to have the contractions. Let's face it, if one were to compare birth the sex, then the way most births are treated are closer to rape situations than anything else. Birth is a sacred time, not something to just get over with. Yes, it may be a hassle to deliver a baby at 3AM, but at least the mom got to reap the reward of giving birth naturally. This may cause less problems later for mom and baby. I am no doctor, but I do know that through my last four experiences and into this fifth pregnancy, I am glad that there are midwives who allow uninterrupted births to happen and in every hospital there are some nurses and doctors who actually encourage women to stick to their own desires for a natural birth.
**P.S.** Part of the problem is trying to figure out when to go to the hospital. If other women are like me, I do not want to go in when my contractions make it impossible to move, so it is easy to end up there too early. Since I have started to have my babies at home, the stress of moving in the middle of labor is eliminated leaving the labor to progress more naturally.
Hey Marion, Are there any books you would recommend reading before becoming pregnant? I really appreciate your sharing experiences of giving birth and raising young children--you are a mentor to me. :) I am slightly terrified of giving birth so really soak up all the info I can get to prepare which makes me feel less nervous.
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