If your water breaks first

momma4jax

What would you all do?

go to the hospital or wait a little bit?

This would be pertaining to those not having a home birth of course  

i was talking with a friend about natural birth and she just keeps saying im a chicken im a chicken but she wants to know more, so i gave her more. and she said that he water broke with both her other pregnancies and she never had contractions with her second. but she said if her water broke she was going straight to the hospital.

Well my thinking is different because with my first, my water broke first, and didnt progress until the nurse forced pitocen on me, and about 12 hrs later i had my son. so IMO i wouldnt go right away if my water broke, but i could be completely wrong.

please no flaming, i dont know much about natural birthing and im just as scared and worried with this one as i was with the first. That labor is a blur to me at this point so i dont remember much.

sl_gordon

I wouldn't.  I would most likely try to get my contractions going with walking or nipple stimulation and wait until my contractions were strong and close before going in.  If I couldn't get my contractions going and they didn't seem to be starting on their own, I would probably consult with my midwife to see what she wanted me to do.

rlscheck

I went in right away.  Contractions were really mild and 5 minutes apart, and then my water broke and they became very intense and every 2 - 3 minutes apart.  It's a good thing I went in when I did because DD was born 2.5 hours after my water broke (45 min of which we spent in the car on the way to the hospital). 

CheriCO

My water broke around 1am, real contractions started around 3am.  I labored at home until around 7-7:30am (when I felt like I needed to get to the hospital, it was getting hard for me to work through contractions and I wanted to get the ride over with).  We got to the hospital around 8 and I had DS around 1pm.  I wouldn't have wanted to get to the hospital any earlier. 

ReeseM

I plan to wait a little while, and try to get contrax going if they aren't already. But I am GBS+ too, so I am not going to wait long. Maybe 2/3 hours? I am a VBAC too, so I can't really do Pitocin. So I want to get a good chance of going on my own before I wander into the hospital, where if I am not in active labor, I bet they push a C-section.

AutumnBride929

I wouldn't go right away for sure.  I would probably wait at least 12 hours and, of course, in the meantime, I would be trying all the tricks in the book to get contractions to begin.

SNL0605

I have to go to the hospital right away...for a couple of reasons

in order to have a vbac my doc wants me there right away

and b/c baby is still high there is a risk for cord prolapse so I have to go right away

thebigmare4

I asked my MW how long they would let me go after my water broke. I know some people say that you have to have the baby within 24 hours. (Some obs even want the baby out within 12 hours!) My MW said that I have to have "some progress" within 24 hours. Meaning as long as within 24 hours of my water breaking, I'm contracting and dilating on my own, they'll leave me and my body alone to do what it's supposed to do. 

TofuMama7

I asked my doctor about that exact thing earlier this week.  (I am planning an unmediated birth at the hospital and want to labor at home as long as possible)

 She told me that since I was negative for GBS (and therefor will not need penicillin during birth) it would be fine to stay home as long as the fluid was clear. She said if there was meconium I needed to come in,  She also said if my water broke and there were no contractions at all within 12 hours I should come in to make sure everything was OK.

papagena

ReeseM:

I plan to wait a little while, and try to get contrax going if they aren't already. But I am GBS+ too, so I am not going to wait long.

This.  I haven't discussed it yet with my Dr, but if I wasn't GBS+, I'd wait a fair amount of time.  Not sure with the GBS thing, though.  I'm hoping my water doesn't break until later in labor...

Temp76535187505890

With both kids my contractions started within about an hour to hour and a half. The midwife told me to come in in 12 hours if they didn't start. You can bet I would have tried nearly everything if they hadn't.

abell77

I would wait.  I did wait.  Here's my story...

First sign of labor was when my water broke when I was sleeping at 38.5 wks.  Had a few minor contractions that never established any kind of pattern and then nothing.  For nearly three days.  I was at a hospital that is very supportive of natural birth, so I realize that what happened with me would not necessarily happen at any hospital, but while most hospitals won't let you go more than 24 hours after rupture, mine was comfortable with 72.  I had to check in with them every day so they could monitor baby's HR, and I was given a strict list of instructions of things to do/not to do.  They did not do any internal exams until I was in active labor to avoid increasing the risk of infection.  I had to take my temperature every few hours to be sure I wasn't developing a fever/sign of infection.  There's more to the story once my labor kicked in, but baby was born healthy and neither of us ever developed an infection.  So, while I know that your hospital (or your friend's) policies might end up dictating how long you can go after rupture, I would definitely not rush out the door as soon as my water breaks.  I would try other techniques (walking, nipple stim) to get my labor going.

kbk84

When my water broke with DD, I was definitely glad we went to the hospital sooner rather than later. I totally wanted to labor at home, but something told me that we should go. My water broke at 9:45 p.m. and DD arrived after a fast and furious natural labor at 1:01 a.m. We didn't get to the hospital until 11:30 and things really started moving as soon as we arrived. 

flowerchild77

Im planning a homebirth but had I be planning a hospital birth, I would wait. Id just monitor my temp, keep things away from the vaginal area, and try to bring on the contractions. After about 12 hours if contractions STILL havent started, Id call my midwife and fill her in and see what she thought. Id def not go in right away though.

Alirebco

With DS, I went in pretty quickly after my water broke b/c I had meconium in my fluid.  If it would have been clear, I would have labored at home until contractions got stronger and closer together. 

With this baby, we'll probably wait until contractions are a few minutes apart before heading to the birthing center even if my water has broken.  I don't want to wait too long though because I had a really quick labor with DS and so they're expecting this one to be even faster.  

erinms

My water broke at 11pm or so.  I paged the on-call doctor and she said to go in the next morning if nothing really happened.  I went in to the hospital and they triaged me and told me they could admit me and induce me or that I could wait until that evening and come back. 

I went home and waited until the evening.  I didn't have any real progress at home so I went in and was induced with pitocin.

So with my OB and our hospital, it seemed that they just wanted progress by 24 hours, not necessarily a delivery.  DS wasn't born until nearly 48 hours after my water broke.  I was GBS-, so maybe if I had been positive it would have been different. 

momma4jax

Thank you for all your input ladies! all of this is exactly what i was planning to do if my water broke first again. 

My friends mother is an OB nurse so she likes to argue alot with me kn things that she thinks she knows more about. She told me that once the water breaks that its a sign to go to the hospital immediately because it is a increased chance for infection and the baby doesnt have enough amniotic fluid. I thought this was ridiculous because if that we so then my baby would have died.... My water broke at 5am (i freaked and went straight to the hospital, im learning now my MW didnt tell me awhole lot about anything)  i didnt start contracting until after my pitocen was forced in and that wasnt even until almost 11am. i didnt give birth until 5pm exactly. so that was 12 hrs exactly of active labor and my water broke first, so if the baby didnt have enough fluid to survive then he would have died earlier, or they would have done more of an intervention on me. 

This is my friends 3rd so with her mom being an OB nurse and this being her third baby im sure she tends to lean toward thinking shes a pregnancy expert. but i am not going to say anything to her about this, if she feels safer going to the hospital right away then thats fine by me. i just did a lot of reading this weekend and thought not thinking about it and laboring at home would be less painful and less boring than sitting in a hospital for 5+hr waiting. 

pinksweetpea2

momma4jax:

 She told me that once the water breaks that its a sign to go to the hospital immediately because it is a increased chance for infection and the baby doesnt have enough amniotic fluid.

It scares and also makes me sad that this woman works in this field.  Your amniotic fluid regenerates itself while you are in labor.  ::sigh::

I wouldn't listen to ONE SINGLE WORD out of that woman's mouth.

Oh, and I was in labor for 40 hours after my water broke and there was no infection because my MWs kept their hands to themselves.

 

momma4jax

pinksweetpea2:

momma4jax:

 She told me that once the water breaks that its a sign to go to the hospital immediately because it is a increased chance for infection and the baby doesnt have enough amniotic fluid.

It scares and also makes me sad that this woman works in this field.  Your amniotic fluid regenerates itself while you are in labor.  ::sigh::

I wouldn't listen to ONE SINGLE WORD out of that woman's mouth.

Oh, and I was in labor for 40 hours after my water broke and there was no infection because my MWs kept their hands to themselves.

 

 

Its her mom that works in the field but i totally agree with you 100% and i didnt even know that about amniotic fluid! it just didnt make any sense what so ever to me for that to be true! 

She realy is my best friend and i feel sorry for her that she believes all these things, but she does believe them and she wont change her mind about them. I really dont know if it was her mom that is telling her this stuff or if its just what shes cooked up in her own mind. I talked to my mom about it and she said that when she had my siblings and i that they Dr told her to come in right away if her water broke, but my mom is now 50 and she was 17 when she had my brother!!!!

celiabwatson

My water broke first but I was only 37 weeks so they did have me come in right away. I was supposed to go to a birth center but since I was early they wanted me at the hospital. I birthed with a midwife at the hospital and in my case they were very patient with me. They didn't push pitocin or threaten anything. They told me I couldn't leave the hospital until the baby was born and gave me tips about how to get labor started and left me alone. In my case it worked out just fine. Water broke at 10 am and he was born (beautifully and naturally) at 9:40 pm.

lindsayll

My water was clear and I was GBS neg, so I labored at home for quite awhile.  Contractions started about 15 minutes after my water broke, I labored at home for 10 hours, and had baby at the hospital 12 hours after my water broke.

When we called the midwife, she actually told us to go back to bed (it was midnight), try to rest, and check in later that morning.