Natural Birth
JoJo507
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Laboring at home?
JoJo507
member
Hey, ladies...I usually post on the Sept 12 board but this question might be better answered by you all. I am planning a natural birth at a hospital. I understand that once you enter a hospital "the clock starts ticking" and you're expected to deliver your baby by the next 12 or so hours. I've been advised that the best way to avoid interventions is to labor at home for as long as possible. I'm a FTM and I have no idea how long you can labor at home without stying there TOO long. Are there even any clear signs of when you should head to the hospital? TIA!
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Re: Laboring at home?
I'm a FTM too, so I don't know from personal experience.....But I am taking a HypnoBirthing class so I'll tell you what I learned there.
You can wait until your contractions are approx. 5 mins apart (consistently).
My HB instructor says in her opinion it's best to wait until it "feels like you're sitting on a baby head." This would be when you're about 7cm dilated (transition).
If your water breaks sometimes your dr will advise you to go in right away, but that's not always necessary. You can still wait for the contractions to get close together, or for the feeling that you're in transition. You just need to make sure you don't have a fever (a sign of infection), and you should be just fine.
Hope this helps! I'm planning a natural hospital birth too, but I also want to labor at home as long as possible because I don't want to feel pressured or rushed. I want him to come when he's ready, no matter how long it takes.
Unless your water has broken, I don't think hospitals really put you on a strict clock. They might try to intervene to speed you up for their convenience. I would talk to your OB/midwife about this. That being said, laboring at home is so much more comfortable since you're in your own environment and no one is asking you a million questions or trying to get you to sit down so they can monitor things. Depending on how close you live to the hospital, I'd go with the 3-1-1 rule: contractions three minutes apart, lasting at least a minute, for one hour before leaving. The book Natural Hospital Birth suggests that if it takes you less than 10 minutes to get out of the house and into the car (between stopping to deal with contractions), you're leaving too early.
With my last birth I showed up at the hospital complete and ready to push. It was great for avoiding interventions, but the car ride totally sucked. I kind of wished we had gone a little earlier.
While I labored at home, I called and checked in with my midwife every 2 hours or so. When it came time to go, I KNEW--and she could hear it in my voice on the phone. It wasn't the time on the clock between the contractions--my legs were shaking and getting into a car any later than that could have been really hard to do.
I arrived at the hospital around 6 p.m., was 6 cm at check in, and had my daughter around 2 a.m. I had already labored 20 hours at home.
There have been a few posts about this that I've lurked on. Some things people have suggested:
* Don't go before 5-1-1 (5 min. apart, lasting 1 min for 1 hour)
* Go between 3-1-1 and 2-1-1
* Go when you are no longer comfortable being at home
* Go when the aspect of riding in a car is the absolute LAST thing you want to be doing
i agree with talking to your provider- like one woman said- they can "hear" if it sounds like you need to come in.
consider a doula- most of them come to your house & if they have experience can usually tell when its time to go.
if you're not having a fair amount of bloody show its not time to go- when your cervix really starts to open you'll see this.
i also agree with not going in until the contractions are 2-3 minutes apart for a while.
i tell my first time moms, when you are thinking of throwing in the towel & getting an epidural- then head in because your usually in transition.
BFP 7/2009 m/c
BFP 9/2009 m/c
Clomid IUI 12/2010, 1/2011, 2/2011 All BFN
IVF #1 6/2011 BFN, no frosties
IVF #2 2/2012 BFP
DD born 10/2012
IVF # 3 11/3/13 Canceled after retrieval d/t severe OHSS, 3 frosties
Disagree. I had bloody show with J. But with A. I didn't. I had non-regular contractions all day long. But no bloody show. My MW checked me at 4 pm. I was almost 5 cm...and still no bloody show. Just over half an hour later my water broke. Still no bloody show. But I was holding A. in my arms half an hour after my water broke.
With A., as I said, I had random contractions all day long. It wasn't until back labor started at 3 pm that I knew it was the real deal. And then they went from nonregular (Some long, some short, some awful, some barely noticeable) to horrendous close together long back labor contractions immediately.
As for the "when you think you can't do it" advice that's often thrown around, when I hit that point with J. I finally let my mw check me. I was fully dilated. And just as I started to think I was there with A., I started to push.
For a first time mom though, the 3-1-1 rule is probably good. I also agree that your care provider will be able to hear in your voice if you should be heading in.
I was one who went in too early. I had already labored for 15 hours at home, left the house when I was about 6-1-1. I had time to walk around Best Buy (we bought movies thinking I'd be in labor another 15 hours) and get some dinner (the fact that I could eat between contractions should have told me I wasn't ready to go).
I was only 4 cm. They admitted me and ruptured my membranes shortly after that. I went from 4-10cm in about 2 hours.
When the drive to the hospital sounds like agony, that's the time to get in the car.
I'll go in a little sooner next time; I arrived at 10 cm and if it wasn't for my obstinate OP baby it would have been close. As it was, I pushed for 2 hours so it was fine.
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For our first, I labored at home for as long as possible. I was scared that if I went in, it would just give them more time to "mess with me" / start interventions that I really didn't want. I was also afraid of the time-table.
That being said - we cut it a little too close. I wasn't totally sure that my labor was real - I honestly thought there was a good chance that they were just braxton hicks because the pain was manageable. We called the hospital at one point & they said that my pain level was too low for it to be real labor & to stay at home. Not too long after that (15 min or so) I felt like I was no longer safe at home & we headed to the hospital. I was 9.5 cm dilated upon arrival :-) Perfect timing! Obviously, the hospital was wrong.
I liked how the Bradley method talks about the "emotional signposts" of labor. When you get to the "oh my Gosh give me drugs I can't do this" point, is when I would say to head into the hospital. Although I never experienced that emotional sign post - kept waiting for it - and waiting - and it never came. However I remembered that "not feeling safe" was one of the emotional signposts of "baby is almost here" from the class which is why we ignored the hospital's directions to stay home and went on in. Thank goodness we did or we would have had an unplanned homebirth!
Anyway, I've rambled. I would say:
-when you no longer feel safe at home
-when you feel pressure down low like you want to have a BM
-I would NOT go in based on how close your contractions are together or how long you have been contracting. I would just listen to your body.
-If you feel like things have been going well and then all the sudden "I can't handle this" - start getting your stuff together
This was really helpful, thanks guys! I'll keep an eye on this for more advice. Without a midwife or a doula or the availability of classes, I feel like I'm going this alone with just advice cobbled together from these boards
I really didn't know what to do and called the dr b/c my contrax were 5 minutes apart and lasting about a minute for 90 minutes and then went out of whack. I called the dr about an hr after that (5am). luckily, he told me to stay home and come into his office first thing in the morning. I got to his office at 9:30 and I was 4cm. I think that would have been too early for me in terms of avoiding any interventions. In fact, when I left my house that morning, I didn't think I could do it drug free.
My dr then told me to go have breakfast or go see a movie or something (4cm!!). I walked in the park and returned to his office at 12:30pm. At that point I was over 6. Then I went to the hospital and all the nurses were asking me what # baby this was and how I made it to that point as a FTM. It really helped boost my confidence.
So my advice is this- If you can go to your DR to get checked before you go to the hospital, that would be best. Obviously this won't work if it is the middle of the night or not a weekday. Second, I just want to reiterate that the 5-1-1 rule doesn't really work for everyone. My contrax did not follow the typical pattern of getting closer together and longer. Even through transition, I had some contrax that were 5 mins apart. I had some that were 2 mins apart but even then, they never came "on top of each other" as I had expected.
I labored at home for a while with this one. I went to the hospital when I started showing signs of approaching transition- I really didn't want to get dressed, I started thinking an epidural would be nice, I started throwing up, and I couldn't stay quiet during the contractions.
I live about 5 minutes from the hospital, and I was in full blown transition by the time I got my room. 6 cm when they first checked, 10 cm half an hour later, and she was born in one push, 61 minutes after I checked in.