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Symptoms of real labor

pregnant belly

What are the symptoms of prenatal and false birth versus the real and identify the right time to head to the maternity ward!

Several times we have heard stories of women who have been in the last few weeks or even days of their pregnancy, who with the slightest pain they run quickly in the maternity ward. More often than not, the big day has arrived, while in others this feeling turns out to be misleading as it is nothing but a simple warning that the big day is just coming! But it is good to be able to separate the symptoms of prenatal and actual labor from those of so-called false births.

Pre-delivery

Physical changes to pre-delivery may precede the true one for a whole month and more or for just one hour! Many women have pre-birth symptoms that pretend that the big day is coming, and these are the following:

During the last weeks of pregnancy the baby has come down and you no longer feel so much pressure on the lungs but on the pelvis and anus. You can see the change in the position of the fetus just by looking at your belly profile in a mirror! This phenomenon occurs most often in women who give birth for the first time and during the last two weeks before the birth.

You feel more intense Braxton Hicks contractions. These contractions prepare the body for the actual delivery, as their role is to cause thinning of the cervix by turning it from a cone with thick layers into a thin-walled calyx. In this way, the cervix is about to begin to expand when the actual delivery begins.

You are likely to experience diarrhea but also nausea, as the hormones cause abdominal cramps and those in turn frequent stools to cleanse your gut. Nausea can mislead you by giving you the feeling that you have had some stomach upset.
Vaginal secretions become more viscous and sometimes they have a slight pink color.
It may be excreted from the mucus with blood, because the cervix begins to expand as this mucus blocks the cervix by protecting the embryo from infections. The color of mucus may be pink or brown. Blood in the mucus results from the breakage of small blood vessels as the cervix is thinner. Usually, mucus warns the woman that the imminent delivery can begin within the next three days. Yet some gave birth after one or two weeks! If you see more blood from mucus, it is advisable to consult your personal physician.
There is a possibility of premature rupture of the membranes (rupture of the fluid sac before the onset of labor). Then, you can expect your actual delivery to begin within a few days or even the next day. You need to avoid sexual intercourse under these circumstances.
If your membranes break and your baby has not begun within 24 hours, your doctor may have a birth defect in order to avoid the risk of an undesirable infection.
When the prenatal period is over, you will have a dilation of about 1 to 2 cm and you will be ready for childbirth.

False labor

Even if your body misleads you by giving you false information that the imminent childbirth has arrived, you may be able to recognize if you need to bow to the maternity hospital! False labor can be recognized because of the following characteristics:

In some cases, you may suffer "false initiations" prior to actual delivery, which do not actually cause cervical dilation. In such a condition the symptoms you may have are as follows:
Convulsions are not regular and do not increase in the frequency with which they occur, nor in the intensity of the pain you feel.
If you change posture or body posture, then you will see how these contractions stop. In this case, urinate or drink two glasses of water.
The pain of contractions is noticeable in the lower abdomen and not in the middle.
The blood excreted from the vagina is not reddish but brown. This can happen after a recent examination or sexual intercourse.

Real labor

The duration of contractions increases and may increase as you move. But that you will notice is that while you can change position, they do not stop bothering you, but they insist!
The contractions begin from the waist and then reach the abdomen and sometimes on the legs.
Abdominal pains give you the false sense of having a gastrointestinal disorder.
You may even experience diarrhea.
Vaginal secretions are pink or are blood stains.
The rupture of the membranes has taken place and and you can see and feel the amniotic fluid! Now you can head to the maternity ward!

In any case, it is strongly advisable to talk with your doctor about your symptoms so that he can safely judge if you have entered a childbirth phase.

labor symptoms