If you don't feel them, they're not working?

EmilyT2388 · August 2012

Contractions, that is. I'm watching baby's first day and this young girl is having contractions that are 2 minutes apart but she has stayed at 4cm for however long. And she said she can't feel the contractions. The doc said to start her pit and the nurse said something like, "if you don't feel them, they're not working. So let's get you hurting."

Is that true?????

chris&kendra1 · August 2012

That doesn't sound right to me, but I have no actual experience or education to back that up. I have heard many people describe their births as painless, or at least not necessarily "painful".

danienross · August 2012

With DD I started having mild contractions at 34wks. At 37wks they hit the 5-1-1 rule and we went to the hospital. I was told I wasn't in real labor because I wasn't uncomfortable enough. My cervix didn't start dilating until 39wks, after five whole weeks of contractions. So I guess there is some truth but I also think some doctors and nurses expect women to be in so much pain they're begging for drugs and that's an unfair generalization.

alanap · August 2012

This is from my own experience only, but I would say "yes, kind of". Although I don't like the way the nurse said it and I am against using pitocin. And I also don't understand how the girl could be having contractions if she didn't feel them.

I have had 1 live birth and 4 natural miscarriages and each time I have "ridden the waves" (I know that sounds dorky) to make sure that the contractions were productive as possible to get through the process.

I think of contractions as your body's way of opening up to push your baby out. You are going to feel your body opening up; and you need to let it happen instead of fighting against it. You just have to understand that the feeling is not an "ouch, I am having pain because something is wrong"; it is an "uncomfort for a purpose".

judahsmommy1 · August 2012

Not necessarily. If that were true, how did she get to 4 cm? Generally speaking once you go past a certain point in labor your contractions are going to become intense and something you actively have to cope with. What number that is for each woman can be very different. However, my mom has said that her labor with my younger sister was "uncomfortable but not painful." So not every labor is required to be painful. Not to mention, what a horrible way to speak to a patient!

pc150805 · August 2012

Not true. I had absolutely no idea I was in labor and I was 6 cm. I was having (what I thought were) braxton hicks contactions but they were real. I didn't start having pain until I was in transition.

EmilyT2388 · August 2012

judahsmommy1:
Not necessarily. If that were true, how did she get to 4 cm? Generally speaking once you go past a certain point in labor your contractions are going to become intense and something you actively have to cope with. What number that is for each woman can be very different. However, my mom has said that her labor with my younger sister was "uncomfortable but not painful." So not every labor is required to be painful. Not to mention, what a horrible way to speak to a patient!

Thats what I was thinking. I have 3 different women who have told me that they were never in an extreme amount of pain. Although they all gave birth over 20 years ago...

elinorc1 · August 2012

No experience here, yet, but in our prenatal classes we were told that the contractions aren't likely to be really doing a lot of dilating until they're 45 seconds to one minute long. But having read so many stories about women who never really saw a 'pattern' of contractions establish, who knows. It seems to be another of those things where people want to make up rules, but it really varies woman to woman.

WearingRed · August 2012

I would like to add just because you feel them doesn't mean they are "working" either. I had simi painful BH for months before anything down there had any changes. Now I realize that my BH were doing their job of making my uterus ready to push baby but that nurse would have said they weren't because nothing was happening. I also had a nurse tell me I wasn't in active labor because nothing was changing on their time line. 10 mins later my water broke. And I changed from 3 to 5.5 in 30 mins. Sigh normal birth is different for everyone.

brennarobbie · August 2012

Oh my goodness...I saw that same episode yesterday! I was so mad at that nurse for saying that!!! At least the "so let's get you hurting" part. Who says that??

Anyway, everyone's labor is different. From what I understand, all contractions are doing something...but the super effective contractions (the ones that open the cervix up) are extremely intense. I remember going from 7 to 10 cm in maybe a contraction or two...those were the most intense moments of my whole labor. I felt like my uterus literally took over my whole body. ;o)

brennarobbie · August 2012

FWIW, that girl was stalled at 4 cm for quite a while...AND when the pitocin kicked in, she started having major discomfort and her cervix opened up really really quickly...

AnonnAni · August 2012

I totally disagree, I feel it depends on the person. With my son I had contractions for 7hrs that never hurt bad an were not regular so I thought they would amount to nothing. Stood up of the couch after siting to watch tv and water broke, left for te hospital immediately (was gonna be rush soon so wanted to beat traffic) hospital was 15 down the road, got there an was at 6cm!! So the 7hrs of contractions that passed the test of can u walk an talk through them hd done a lot of work!

ridesbuttons · August 2012

No.

I can tell you from personal experience that you can feel short, light, very manageable contractions and get to 8cm without knowing for sure you are actually in labour.

aetg · August 2012

pc150805:
Not true. I had absolutely no idea I was in labor and I was 6 cm. I was having (what I thought were) braxton hicks contactions but they were real. I didn't start having pain until I was in transition.

Same thing here, I kept getting told I was having Braxton hicks but I was also 6 cm dilated. Well they obviously were working. I could feel them but them were onlyo odd not painful.

catsinawindow · August 2012

It might not be true for every woman and every labor, but it was true for mine. I was induced due to PreE and was on a low-dose Pit drip for about 12 hours with mild contractions. They were traceable, but I could barely feel them and they didn't do a darn thing to dilate my cervix.

After determining that Pit alone wouldn't send me into labor, the OB broke my water and I immediately had my first REAL contraction. The OB and nurse were worried that my contractions still weren't strong enough but I assured them they were, LOL! Sure enough, after that my labor followed a textbook dilation pattern.

My nurse said some similar things to me during those 1st 12 hours. It didn't bother me because I knew labor was going to hurt and hurting meant the induction was working. Baby had to come out ASAP due to my PreE so induction pain was preferable over a c-section, YKWIM?

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