More common to for water to break or contractions first?

baby2011boy

Is it more common to have your water break or to have contractions first? Just curious.

Cleo29

In my experience, contractions.  My friend had no clue she was in early labor for an entire day (I guess had mild contractions she figured were BH) and woke up to her water breaking at 3 am.

They broke my water for me with my last pregnancy. 

KYmama9286

Definitely more common to have contractions start first vs. water breaking. I think its something like less than 15% of women will have their water break in early labor/when labor is starting-- it is much more common to have your water break during active labor and it is also possible (though rare) for your water to not break at all and the baby be born still in the amniotic sac (called being born in the caul).

Linds1224

Contractions for me. With my first my doctor broke my water hours after my contractions started and with my second it broke well after contractions started and right before she was born.

leftynat

It is usually more common for contractions to start first.

My first my water broke before contractions, but my 2nd I had contractions first and my water broke many hours later.

ryry1977

Contractions are more common.  Of  course in my case my water broke and had to have pitocin the next day to even get contractions to start...hopefully my body works better this time around!

katcarls

Contractions first is much more common.  I've read a few different statistics but they're pretty similar.  Your water breaking to start labor only happens about 10-15% of the time.

panicked228

Contractions for sure, in my case. I started having mild contractions about 6pm which got progressively worse, to the point that I had to really concentrate through them. My water broke at 3am that night; I was 1cm when I got to the hospital. I had my LO by 8am that morning.  

Cherryblossoms07

Contractions came first for me.  I didn't even know I was in early labor until hours into it.  I woke up at 3 feeling weird.  I forced myself to go back to bed and woke back up at 5 still not feeling better.  I took the dog out for a walk when the neighbor who was outside asked if I was in labor - that was the first I even thought about the possibility since I was only 35 weeks.  My water broke at the hospital an hour before DD arrived. 

led2009

ryry1977:

Contractions are more common.  Of  course in my case my water broke and had to have pitocin the next day to even get contractions to start...hopefully my body works better this time around!

This happened to me too. Water broke and no contractions after hours of walking. Finally had to have pitocin to get things moving. I too am hoping to have things go differently this time. Pitocin caused contractions that had me begging for drugs even though initially I didn't want them.

Qmommy

my water didn't break until my first push with DD1.

ghdst1

I don't know which is more common.  But with DS I had tons of contractions (for over a day) and had to have my water broken at the hospital after I was admitted.

unexpexp

It is more common to have contractions first. But in my case, I woke up at 2am to  my water breaking followed immediately by intense contractions less than 5 minutes apart.