QuestionI have been having semi regular contractions for a couple of weeks and I am 40 weeks tomorrow. This is my fifth child and I have never gon into labor on my own but yesterday I was having contractions every 3-4 minutes for 3 or more hours so I went to the hospital and I was a 2-3 and soft but 50% effaced and very posterior. they sent me home and sometime in the middle of the night my contrax stopped what is goingon.
AnswerI myself experienced this sort of labor with my last two births. Contractions would start and then stop, be regular for a few hours and then stagger out. Then the real thing started, at 40 weeks with #4 and 41w5d with #5, and took less than a day.
This is a very, very normal labor pattern for an experienced mother. It is called prodromal labor, and it can go on for weeks or months for some women. It may be frustrating, and you may feel like it's going nowhere, but in reality all these stop-and-start contractions are working to ultimately shorten your labor when the big day finally arrives.
How long have you waited in the past before being induced? How are you calculating your due dates? Remember that a normal pregnancy can be as long as 42-43 weeks. Also remember that if your due date was calculated solely from the date of your last menstrual period (LMP), there is a very good chance that it is wrong. Due dates calculated this way, using Naegele's rule, assume that every women has a 28-day cycle and ovulates on day 14. But normal women can have cycles from 21 to 50 days (or more!), and can ovulate anywhere from day 3 all the way to day 39. So a due date calculated by LMP could be as much as three weeks wrong...in the wrong direction!
Finally, also know that dilation and effacement mean nothing. They mean nothng before labor. You could tight shut and holding your baby two hours later, or you could walk around at 4cm for a month. They mean nothing during labor, because not every woman dilates according to a standard 1cm/hr pattern. Some are faster, some are slower, some dilate in steps, and some just do it all at once in mere minutes, after hours of "no progress at all." Internal exams do not give you or your doctor any truly useful information, and you have the right to refuse them.
Good luck, and enjoy the rest of your pregnancy!
