What kind of contractions = calling L&D?

SomersIsles · March 2014

At my appointment today my MW said to call when contractions get to be 5 minutes apart and last for a solid minute. This seemed logical to me.

I mentioned this to my MIL and she acted as if that was too late! Obviously I'm going to follow the directions from my office but it made me curious what your L&D suggestion was.

Mamajen08 · March 2014

Mine said if they are 5mins apart, each one lasting for about a min and they last for an hour. The 5-1-1 rule

farmrose · March 2014

My MW uses the 5-1-1 rule. Five minutes apart, one minute long, for one hour. Everybody's different though. My sister says hers started out 2-3 minutes apart.

htn1763 · March 2014

ours gives the 5-1-1 protocol too. I hope to stay at home a little longer than that though

ProudMommy030614 · March 2014

WickedNE said:
Mine told me to call and head to the hospital when my contractions were a steady 10 minutes apart. But this is my second, and my hospital is just over an hour away.

Me too and I had ds 2 super fast!

StephBrim24 · March 2014

Yeah 5-1-1 is standard. I think other people have different experiences but you'll know if you should do something different. Like PP said, if you start right away at 2-3 minutes but aren't very intense, you'll know to feel out the intensity instead.

sopranoali · March 2014

It's not just 5 min apart, 1 min each. This needs to happen steadily for an hour for 5-1-1 to happen.

That being said, some women go to L&D at 5-1-1 and are hardly dilated. Others would be having babies at home if they waited for 5-1-1. Best advice I can give you is listen to your body. I plan on going to L&D if contractions are too painful to talk through.

VanessaBee · March 2014

I got the 5-1-1 rule from my doctor, but the 5-ish rule from my midwife. She said 4 to 5 minutes apart, for an hour, but the length of the actual contraction didn't really matter. Sigh. Confusing. @-)

LiFeIsAmIrAcLe · March 2014

My midwife told me the 5-1-1 rule as well.

Melissa72777 · March 2014

5-1-1 seems to be general rule of thumb but my doc is very laid back. He said if it's further apart than 5 minutes but super intense or water breaks/fluid leaking or if it just doesn't feel like normal progression (gradually increasing in intensity and frequency) to call. I must say I love my doc for making me feel at ease about calling. Like he said he would rather me call or have me come in and it be false labor than having some kind of complication occur cause I'm afraid to bother him.

kkranberry · March 2014

My midwife said if I have more than 4 contractions in 1 hour for more than an hour to call. I live over an hour away though.

jwls84 · March 2014

My doc told me to go to the hospital once they are 3-5 minutes apart and I can't walk through them.
I asked about the second baby being quicker and she said that if at anytime I feel a lot of pressure and increasing intensity to just go in. But she didn't seem too concerned about me not making it in time.

Npironi · March 2014

My doc also said wait until they're 5 min apart..lasting around a minute each..obviously wait an hour or two and if they don't go away and they get stronger it's most likely the real thing

aLsMay24 · March 2014

My MW tells me to call/come in when I get to the point of needing something (pain meds, etc). But I routinely have contractions that are 5-1 for hours that do nothing. But the normal rule for them is 5 mins apart, a minute long for an hour.

MeggsM · March 2014

4-1-1 is my rule for calling the midwife. However, they told me that they will talk to me on the phone for at least one full contraction to evaluate the strength of the contraction and give me direction from there. To either go to the hospital or stay home and labour.

Mind you- if my contractions are terrible and close together I'll call them earlier so they can evaluate.

Lollirot · March 2014

Mine told me the same as most PP. The 5-1-1 rule or if water breaks. But about 2 weeks before I went into labor, I was having timable contractions that happened every 5 minutes and lasted at least a minute and went on for 2 hours and then died off. With DS1, I didn't feel any contractions, I just felt crampy in my back constantly. It wasn't until they hooked me up that I could see on the monitor I was having contractions. But every labor is different. If you start feeling off or different than you normally do, give L&D a call.

KariB509 · March 2014

MEjack1 said:
My MW uses the 5-1-1 rule. Five minutes apart, one minute long, for one hour. Everybody's different though. My sister says hers started out 2-3 minutes apart.

Mine also goes by the 5-1-1 rule. By the time I was at 5-1-1 with ds, I had been laboring for about 11 hours and was miserable. I wanted nothing more than to go to the hospital!

knittinlins · March 2014

We live close to the hospital and I have a doula, so we are doing more of a 4-1-1 here unless water breaks.

pepperedmoth · March 2014

Mine uses 4-1-1 for FTMs and 5-1-1 for STMs.

ETA: I misread. My midwives want two phone calls minimum --- the first when I realize I am in labor (increasing regular timeable contractions) and the second when we're driving in.

The second call follows the rule I gave at the top.

wearebirds · March 2014

I haven't asked for any rule to go by yet. But we live quite a distance from our hospital and if there is traffic, we're screwed. I'll probably take whatever their rule is and add a minute or two...then if they wind up sending me home we'll just hang out nearby.

myfriendscallmemeg · March 2014

I asked the doc today when I should head to/call L&D today since this question keeps being discussed. He didn't give me a rule, just 4 instances. He also warned me not to call ahead, just come in. Since depending on who answers, one person would rather avoid the work & have you stay home rather than the extra work of checking me out & rather being safe than sorry. Hopefully that's just a lazy small town hospital thing and not something widespread.

SomersIsles · March 2014

NanaCook said:

I asked the doc today when I should head to/call L&D today since this question keeps being discussed. He didn't give me a rule, just 4 instances. He also warned me not to call ahead, just come in. Since depending on who answers, one person would rather avoid the work & have you stay home rather than the extra work of checking me out & rather being safe than sorry. Hopefully that's just a lazy small town hospital thing and not something widespread.

Yikes.....

jennbaylor12 · March 2014

NanaCook said:
He also warned me not to call ahead, just come in. Since depending on who answers, one person would rather avoid the work & have you stay home rather than the extra work of checking me out & rather being safe than sorry. Hopefully that's just a lazy small town hospital thing and not something widespread.

Uuuhh, wow!

ring_pop · March 2014

I was told 5-1-1 the first time. Ignoring my recent crazy story, even with my first, the 1 hour part was really not relevant. But that had already become apparent from the rate at which I went from 10 mins to 5 mins apart.

This time I was told to go as soon as they were 5 mins apart. I really should've gone right when they became painful.

Aturl · March 2014

I've always heard the 5-1-1 but my dr said with this one since it's my third "I'll just know and he'll trust my judgement" tbh I wouldn't trust me lol. I'm a bit hormonal, crazy and anxious!

SurpriseAt39 · March 2014

With my first, doc said basically to follow 5-1-1, or water breaking, or heavy bleeding.
Buuuuut, I had 5-1-1 contractions starting at 25 weeks, and they actually lasted for hours upon hours.
They came daily, and LO had dropped and was fully engaged, so I was put on bedrest at 28 weeks, at which point they were 3-4 minutes apart, ALL.THE.TIME. I had irritable uterus, incompetent cervix and lived an hour from the hospital. They eventually started to space out. So doc said come in at 3-1-1 after that.
Labour lasted 36 hours.

2nd time around, (different OB, different city) doc implied I follow 5-1-1 because I lived so close (25 minutes away).
I had 3 contractions in one hour, (btw, MUCH different feeling that the ones in previous pregnancy) then woke DH. He showered, got dressed and headed to hospital. While he was showering, they started coming every 2-3 minutes.
I got to hospital 2-2.5 hours after first contraction. (Glad I woke him when I did).
Labour was 5 hours.

This time, if my first contraction feels like it did last time, we will leave right away. (I haven't asked for doc's thoughts this time, I just don't want to give birth at home, or on the side of the road)

myfriendscallmemeg · March 2014

@somersisles right? Luckily it's only a 10 minute drive to town/the hospital. I think he meant it in a nice way though..?

SomersIsles · March 2014

NanaCook said:
@somersisles right? Luckily it's only a 10 minute drive to town/the hospital. I think he meant it in a nice way though..?

Yeah seems like he's at least trying to help you out... All the while throwing his colleagues under the bus haha. Better to know! That is definitely not the impression I get at my hospital though... Or if it is they certainly keep it a secret.

I still have an irrational fear that I'll have a highway baby. Luckily I'm 10-15 min away.

ProudMommy030614 · March 2014

H has been trying to Take me in for 3 days now. He won't leave my side. Our second ds was born so fast H is afraid that in the hour it takes to get to the hospital he may have to play dr! Poor guy is stressed out

its good for him though since he has the easy part of this birthing babies business!!!

Pankers · March 2014

I currently have cramps 15 mins apart, and dr told me to head in when they get to 10 mins and feel worse. Usually they want them closer but with the stupid NC weather again they want to be safe. No point in me going too far as baby is breech. This has been going on since 6:30. I think I'll head in at lunch, just to get checked out. They said I could.

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