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I know this was covered in antenatal classes but have totally forgotten and never had labour on DD.

Half an hour from hospital assuming not rush hour traffic - when should I leave, ie how many mins apart for contractions?

I presume it's still the same.

When contractions are a minimum of 3 mins apart and lasting at least 1 minute in length and you find it hard to talk through them

or

Waters go

It depends

if you are hoping to get a epidural id say straight away, just in case,
if your waters break and their is meconium in them straight away

for me, id have to go straight away, i labour quick, but for most i think its safe to stay at home, until the pain is painful that you can't talk through the contractions, the thing is that sometimes, they might be close together, but they don't have to be getting more painful each time, like you might have one bad one, one or two not as bad, two bad, three not so bad, iykwim, i think frequency is the key

good luck x

i didn't actually realise mine were contractions until I timed them and they were a minute apart! So the minute you feel anything start timing. I thought I had eaten too much dinner. I phoned hospital once I realised and was told to come in asap. Unfortunately it wasn't until the next day i had my daughter even though they were so close together.

Are you in labour now?

G
xx

No such luck!! Getting twinges now and again - but nothing definite - could be another week or two at this stage - but might happen tonight for all I know Just trying to work out as need to get SIL over to look after DD and she is 40 mins away and then its 30 mins to hospital.

Oh Donnie, for a moment I thought you had jumped the queue also!

If I were you, I'd prob ring SIL when you start getting contractions to let her know - it doesn't hurt to have her at your house early, that way you don't have to rush too much in case things heat up faster

When I had DD we went to hospital when contractions were 2 mins apart - wanted to go in before then but it just happened faster than anticipated that they came closer together.

Remember I am around the corner if your stuck xx

Did you get the waters checked- is that all ok?

THanks - waters still intact so another while to wait yet!!

That was the part of labour that i struggled with !!
With ds1 I was already i hospital so no probs there.
with ds2 I was induced so again in hospital!
With DD, i was getting a few pains but nothign major, was walking and talking, drove to teh shop, etc, but I got a few bad pressure pains down below and after an indction with ds2 I knew what they were. So I rang the hospital to explain. It was day before EDD. Pains were irregular, coul dbe 10 mons apart, could e 2 mins apart and lasting anywhere from 10secs to 1 min so I thought it could be just practise ones. Hospital said to go in seeing as it was my 3rd and almost EDD. I arrived and was 4cm. DD was born 2 hrs later !

With DS3 i had a sweep at about 4.30am cos i went inthinking my waters were gone (they weren;t) so was sent on my merry way !! I woke up at 7.30am with a pain and i thought this could be it. I got up , got kids ready for school, drove them to school, cam e home sortedd dd with brekkie etc. Then it sawned on me I could be in labour. Again pains weren't regular. Some were painful, others weren't. I rang midwife again and explained about the quick labour with DD. She said if I feel like I need to go in, go. So i arrived in at 11.45am and 7cm. DS3 was born at 1.32pm.

So for me, my labours weren;t teh 'text book' 3 mins apart and lasting 1min. I think u'll know urself. I got a bit panicky for a bit cos dp was taking his time getting into the car (i was trying to put dd into her carseat and sort her bag while having contractions!!) and contractions were close together, but when we got on teh road, the weren't so close together.

Best of luck with it.

How quick was your first labour? Bear in mind second labours are generally an awful lot quicker, so dont leave it too late!