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Today we're diving into all things contractions - because if you're in your third trimester (or gearing up for it), you're probably starting to feel those tightenings and wondering, "What the heck is this? Is it real labor?" I share personal stories and break down each of these contractions to help you understand the signs of real vs. false labor contractions.

The four types of labor contractions:

1. Braxton Hicks:those practice ones that can start early but are totally stoppable with rest or hydration.
2. Prodromal labor:the exhausting, ongoing pattern that feels real but doesn't change your cervix yet.
3. False labor:painful and regular, but it fizzles out on its own.
4. True labor:the real deal that gets stronger, longer, and closer together, often with signs like bloody show or pressure.

The goal here is to arm you with knowledge so you're not discouraged by these labor contractions that aren’t quite the real thing, yet. Your body's prepping like a pro, even if it's annoying. We touch on tips for managing them, like fetal positioning exercises or boosting oxytocin through rest and relaxation to potentially flip things into real labor. If you're unsure when to head to the hospital, don't sweat it - that's what OB triage is for, no apologies needed if you "get it wrong." This is part one, so stick around for part two where we'll tackle timing contractions, using your history and signs to decide when it's go-time, whether you're hospital-bound, birthing at home, or heading to a center.

More from this episode:

Read the blog: The Miles Circuit: Can it Induce Labor?

Listen to Episode 10: The Emotional Signposts of Labor

Helpful Timestamps:

1. 00:00 Introduction to Labor Contractions
2. 03:25 Types of Contractions
3. 10:03 Braxton Hicks Contractions
4. 16:20 Understanding Prodromal Labor
5. 18:22 False Labor Explained
6. 20:17 Fetal Positioning and Labor
7. 23:30 Real Labor: Signs and Symptoms
8. 28:17 When to Go to the Hospital
9. 32:42 Conclusion and Encouragement

About your host:

🩺🤰🏻Lo Mansfield, MSN, RNC-OB, CLC is a registered nurse, mama of 4, and a birth, baby, and motherhood enthusiast. She is both the host of the Lo & Behold podcast and the founder of The Labor Mama.

For more education, support and “me too” from Lo, please visit her website and check out her online courses and digital guides for birth, breastfeeding, and postpartum/newborns. You can also follow @thelabormama and @loandbehold_thepodcast on Instagram and join her email list here.

For more pregnancy, birth, postpartum and motherhood conversation each week, be sure to subscribe to The Lo & Behold podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you prefer to listen!

👉🏼 A request: If this episode meant something to you, would you consider a 5 star rating and leaving us a review? Yes, we read them, and yes, they help keep L & B going! ♥️

Connect with Lo more on: INSTAGRAM | TIK TOK | PINTEREST | FACEBOOK

Disclaimer

Opinions shared by guests of this show are their own, and do not always reflect those of The Labor Mama platform. Additionally, the information you hear on this podcast or that you receive via any linked resources should not be considered medical advice. Please see our full disclaimer here.

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Produced and Edited by Vaden Podcast Services

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there are four types of contractions there are Braxton Hicks contractions, prodromal, labor contractions.

False labor contractions, and then true labor contractions.

All these types of contractions matter because they're gonna help me understand what's going on they are going to help you answer the question of, Hey, is it time to go to the hospital or not?

Motherhood is all consuming.

Having babies, nursing, feeling the fear of loving someone that much, and there's this baby on your chest, and boom, your entire life has changed.

It's a privilege of being your child's safest space and watching your heart walk around outside of your body.

The truth is.

I can be having the best time being a mom one minute, and then the next, I'm questioning all my life choices.

I'm Lo Mansfield, your host of the Lo and Behold podcast, mama of four Littles, former labor and postpartum RN, CLC, and your new best friend in the messy middle space of all the choices you are making in pregnancy, birth, and motherhood.

If there is one thing I know after years of delivering babies at the bedside and then having, and now raising those four of my own, it is that there is no such thing as a best way to do any of this.

And we're leaning into that truth here with the mix of real life and what the textbook says, expert Insights and practical applications.

Each week we're making our way towards stories that we participate in, stories that we are honest about, and stories that are ours.

This is the lo and behold podcast.

If you are in your third trimester, it's pretty likely that you are starting to feel contractions, right?

And we are gonna talk about something today that I think is super valuable as you start to ask yourself the question of whenever this happens, right?

What am I feeling?

What does it mean?

Is this real labor?

Why am I contracting and it doesn't mean anything.

I want to answer all of those questions for you.

So whether you're pregnant now or whether you will be in the future today, I want this episode to essentially kind of give you all the info that you need to know about contractions, and that's gonna be like our part one.

then I actually kind of have, we'll have like a part two for this, so come back and circle around when I get that episode up in front of you too.

I'll be recording that one next so that all of this can go together.

But essentially I want you to know what are contractions?

What do they all mean?

What does that mean for me?

then also, how do I know when to go to the hospital and what does this contraction or what I'm feeling, or what this rhythm is right now?

What does that mean for me moving forward?

Am I in labor?

And what do I do?

honestly, the question that I get asked the most is.

When do I go to the hospital and how do I know when to go to the hospital?

And it's an anxiety producing question, and I've been there four times I have all this knowledge, right?

And knew all the things, and I know all the types of contractions, and I still hate answering that question for myself.

Should I go, is it time?

I don't know.

I don't wanna go too early.

I don't wanna go too late.

What if it's too soon?

What if it's not real?

I know all these questions that you have because I have had these questions and I have them even with a ton of knowledge.

And so I don't want that to be discouraging.

I'm glad you're here.

I want you to listen to this part one and realize, okay, all of this knowledge is going to help me make this, this decision.

All these types of contractions matter because they're gonna help me understand what's going on.

They're gonna help me not be discouraged, should you know, maybe not be coming yet, and they are going to help you answer the question of, Hey, is it time to go to the hospital or not?

So part one is this question of.

What are the different types of contractions?

What do they mean?

What can you do about them in theory?

And then the part two that we're gonna get to later on is when do you go to the hospital?

Like how do you take all the info that I'm giving you in this episode then put it together to actually answer that question and like let that play out in your actual labor and birth scenario.

So my guess is if you're in your third trimester, whether that be now or in the future, there's a good chance you're likely going to be feeling some contractions at some point.

And I'll just stay right off the bat.

If you're not, that's fine and we're gonna get to that.

But when you do, or if you do, you're gonna be asking, you know, is this labor or what type of contraction is this?

Or should I be paying attention to this.

Right.

And so we are gonna go through kind of all that thought process right now.

So you're at a point where you might be experiencing contractions is normal to be experiencing contractions.

What do you do with that information?

So we're gonna talk really quickly.

What is a contraction?

What are the different types?

And I really want you to hear that because I think those types matter and they help you make choices.

then we'll get into each of the four types.

There are four that we're gonna talk about here, and then kind of part two, we're gonna wrap up there and I'm gonna leave you hanging a little bit and that part two.

Then we'll answer more of those questions of, you know, how do you time contractions, should I be paying attention to?

And when do I use what I'm learning or experiencing, you know, in my body at that time?

When do I use that to actually.

Get my butt in here and should I be at the hospital at this point?

Of course, if you're having a home birth or going to a birth center, some of these decisions might change.

Not really for a birth center.

You still wanna be there right when it's time to have a baby.

I would say actually for a home birth, this decision process is still like relatively similar.

It's just the choice of like, when do I want my midwife there?

When would I want my doula there, my extra support person?

As opposed to, you know, for those of us who have had hospital bursts or that's the plan you're making a decision of like, is it time to go somewhere and have.

More support around me.

So ultimately this, this information is really for all of us.

Regardless of where we are planning to have our baby, we're gonna start really basic, what is a contraction?

And don't roll your eyes with me just like we're gonna go really fast.

But I think it makes sense to understand this and it helps in the birth process too, to understand what's going on.

So the uterus is a muscle, it's tiny.

When you're not pregnant, it's down there deep kind of within your pelvis, and it grows and grows and grows until it gets like up under your breast essentially.

By the time it's time to have a baby.

So basic biology will tell you that a muscle is supposed to contract, right?

You know muscles all over your body.

Do that all the time.

You can feel it and you can see in your arms, your legs, all of that while we move throughout our day.

It's that simple.

The uterus is doing the same thing.

It is no different than these other muscles, and it's been contracting on and off throughout any menstrual cycles you've been having for years too.

So it's been doing.

This type of work.

Right now it's just baby having work instead of the kind of like uterine lining shedding work.

so that's your period cramps.

That's your uterus doing its job in that regard.

And now it's gonna do its job in this regard, which is to help you deliver your baby vaginally.

So the uterine muscle is going to get to work at some point.

What hormones cause contractions?

This is the sciencey stuff you guys know I love, but essentially there are two hormones that kind of act on the uterus to cause contractions, or two main things I'll say.

So there's prostaglandins and then there's oxytocin.

Your body makes both of these, and so I think it's helpful to know your body makes both of these infra.

A lot of us, it makes enough in sufficient quantities that you can have the baby without ever needing to introduce more.

And I'm sure you're familiar with the fact that yeah, we introduced Pitocin.

Or other things sometimes to cause contractions, but in general, your body is capable of making these, it's making these, it's following this process through pregnancy and towards, or close to the time of delivery.

You know, there's more stuff being produced to kickstart this whole process.

so essentially you have the oxytocin and the prostaglandins, and they act on the cervix or on the ute.

To cause contractions, get the body ready for contractions, and then make things go.

And so toward the end of our pregnancy, we're kind of waiting for this cascade of things to all happen.

And know there is no timeline to say like, when does oxytocin hit the perfect level?

Or when do my prostaglandins kick in and how much do I need?

And, and, you know.

In theory, in a perfect world, can we like make this stuff happen so I can just make that baby come out?

The answer is no.

We can use medications like, you know, to induce or augment.

Induce means to cause contractions, which when basically they are not happening.

So that's kind of like if you were to go in and nothing's going on and you're 39 weeks in five days, and we literally kickstart labor more or less from zero, that's an induction.

The vocabulary augmentation is where we're actually labor's going and there's stuff happening and we introduce a med, like a prostaglandin or an oxytocin, the pitocin to kind of strengthen things or move contractions closer together.

Technically, that's augmentation, but essentially you can just think about it as using some sort of prostaglandin medication.

So these are brand names, but that's like a cyto attack or a cervidil, or using the Pitocin, which it's supposed to be act like oxytocin, and using either of those to make the body contract or have stronger contractions closer together.

So induce augment two vocabularies for you to know.

But essentially all of this the hope is that it kind of causes like a similar outcome, which is contractions and baby, right?

I will mention inside of your body, your birth or birth course.

I have this whole mini course.

On induction two, so we really deep dive induction and augmentation.

What are all these meds?

What should you know about them?

What should you know about when you need them or when you don't, or how to make that decision or when they might be suggested or offered or all that.

So that's tucked inside the full birth course.

You also get all of this information on induction and augmentation two.

So just know that while you're considering.

Learning there and doing more with me there is that you're not going to, this is not going to be left out of your education because induction and augmentation enter into about like 50% of births in the us.

it is not needed in that many births, but it enters into about that many births.

So really good for you to know as you're learning and getting ready.

Alright, so that's the uterus.

It's a muscle.

We can act on it.

And then physiologically, there are things that act on it and we don't need to act on it.

Right?

And so that's like basic understanding of contractions and this kind of.

Getting labor started ideas.

So let's get into those types of contractions, which is like the meat of why we're here in this part one, essentially, there are four types of contractions that I like to walk my students through.

There are Braxton Hicks contractions, prodromal, labor contractions.

False labor contractions, and then true labor contractions.

Once you are having like true labor contractions, you may hear a nurse or you may hear us say something like, you are having early labor contractions or active contractions, or, man, these.

She is transitioning.

She's in these transition contractions, and those are real labor contractions of those four that I just mentioned.

But essentially, they're classifying you based on the stage of labor that you are in.

So that's why you might hear the vocabulary change a little.

Those aren't different types of contractions or a whole new category.

Those are real labor happening, and you're just being qualified based on that stage of labor.

So Braxton Hicks contractions, when we started chatting, I mentioned.

You may be feeling something in your third trimester of pregnancy, right?

And typically those are going to be brax and hicks contractions.

But interestingly, these contractions, which are your body practicing, they can start as early as like 12 weeks.

Now, will you feel 'em at 12 weeks?

No, it's not likely.

However, I will tell you that with my second baby, I felt, I'm gonna say it was one Braxton Hicks contraction, this massive contraction, and I was about 15 weeks pregnant, but I was on a run.

So I was likely a little dehydrated.

My bladder was full, needed to pee.

I am pregnant obviously, so I have all this stuff going on, and I just had this massive contraction and my belly was so tight and I wasn't worried, and it was my second baby.

So I had some, you know, wisdom and knowledge.

Of course, pulling forward from just being a nurse as well and going like, this is crazy.

I'm having a right now, I know that it doesn't mean anything.

I'm not worried about my safety, but holy cow, like the uterus is already.

Responding kind of to me and what was going on in my body, but already kind of practicing this contraction was not painful, but it made me stop and it made me think about what we're gonna get into, which is how do you get Brex and his contractions to go away?

So like I said, this is just your body practicing.

So this is the uterus, like getting tight and thinking about.

Job.

It is not trying to cause labor at all.

Brex and Hicks don't like convert over into true labor.

They're just their own separate practice thing.

And I know I mentioned briefly when we started, I said, Hey, if you never feel anything, I don't want you to worry about it.

And that is true.

And I'm talking about that right here.

There are patients or students who have come to me and they're like, I don't feel any brax and Hicks.

Like, is that a bad thing?

I'm 39 weeks.

I've never felt a contraction.

They are happening.

You're not aware of them.

And that's totally okay.

Your uterus doesn't just not practice.

Nobody's uterus just decides never to have any sort of practice, Brex and Hicks contractions.

But our awareness of them, we just might not notice.

And I think I definitely didn't notice like as quickly with my first baby.

And then once you're aware of them, it.

It's like, oh, that's what's been going on the whole time.

But I've certainly had patients in front of me in a triage bed, and they are having brax and hicks on the monitors.

It's tightening and releasing.

It's tightening and releasing, and they literally don't feel them.

And that's fine.

That's totally fine.

So I want you to know that.

Don't think it's some sort of indication of I'm not ready, or my body's not ready, and so what's going on?

Why haven't I felt anything?

That's not valid here at all.

Okay, so I've mentioned that the Braxton Hicks, what do they act actually feel like?

It's definitely a tightening and typically it's like a, my YouTubers, you can see me, I'm trying to show, it's like from the top of the belly down, right?

You just feel tight everywhere and if you put your hands on your belly, it is.

Certainly hard.

They're usually short.

They're not painful, but I think a lot of people would say they're uncomfortable, particularly if your bladder is full or you're on your feet if you're 39 and a half weeks pregnant, like you just don't wanna feel all tight and uncomfortable there, right?

so it's more of this like, Ugh, I always feel like it's this ugh annoying feeling of like, oh, my belly's so tight, please stop.

But I'm not necessarily hurting.

And then Braxton Hicks, I qualify them as equal.

And what I mean by that is they just don't get stronger.

It's just this tightening that ugh feeling.

There it is again, and then it goes away.

So you don't see this like rhythm or this increase in frequency, things that can happen with the other types of contractions.

And so that's important I think as a qualifier too, when we get into the other types and what that might mean.

then the last thing is, this isn't like a great vocabulary word, but stoppable a brax, Braxton Hicks contraction, you can.

You can make them stop, which is not true really for any of the other types of labor that we're gonna talk about.

Why are we having these Braxton Hicks?

I, I mean, I think it's important to understand because it helps us understand how to get them to stop if we want to, but I also think it's important to say, Hey, like you don't have to worry about it or think, oh my gosh, I'm having Braxton Hicks.

I need these to stop right now.

That's not true, but certainly you can think about why am I having 'em and then correct it.

Right?

one thing is intercourse.

So if you are having sexual intercourse, it's not uncommon to notice.

Braxton Hicks contractions, particularly if you're orgasming during intercourse.

The two just go together.

Exercise for sure.

Like the story that I shared initially, I was exercising and I was dehydrated.

That's another reason.

Physical activity.

And by that I mean like even just like mowing the lawn or you know, all of you who have said, I moved six months before, or six weeks before my baby was born and I was contracting all day during the move.

Like all of those things, just a really active body, can make Braxton Hicks.

Continue or not go away.

And then typically you're gonna be dehydrated when you're doing that.

so all of that.

And then lastly, I would say the bladder having a full bladder.

Which just happens a lot in pregnancy anyway, right?

So you can see how there's kind of a setup here to have brax and hicks, right?

If you're not staying super hydrated, if you're not emptying your bladder every 60 minutes or whenever you know you need to, and if you're busy on your feet, if you have a job where you work all day, you're probably gonna be experiencing some brax and hicks at some point, particularly as you get closer to, you know, the end of labor and certainly 37, 38, 39 weeks.

At that point.

I do wanna put in front of you this idea that Braxton Hicks.

I've said they're like unpredictable, right?

And they don't increase in strength and they don't have a rhythm.

And so that's why they're, they're a little scattered, right?

And you just think, oh, this is happening.

And then it stops.

I like to say that they're like predictably unpredictable or you could flip that and say, unpredictably predictable.

And what I mean by that is I just described to you all the reasons that you might have Braxton Hicks.

So you can see where if you have this like regular rhythm in your life that introduces some of those.

Reasons you might have Brax and Hicks that you might find.

Like every day I have Braxton Hicks at 5:00 PM What do I mean by that?

Labor nurse on my feed all day long, right by about 37, 38, 39 weeks at the end of a, you know, 13 and a half hour shift.

By the time I'm done, I knew I would be contracting with Braxton Hicks contractions.

By the end of my shift, I'd been on my feet by, you know, 10, 11, 12 hours By that point.

Maybe I was dehydrated.

I'd probably been running around taking, taking care of other moms, right?

And other people having babies.

And so I just knew, and so it was like every evening as I was getting ready to leap a shift, I was just having Braxton Hicks and, and yes, as soon as I sat down and rested and got in the car and made sure to drink again, they would go away.

And so it was.

They're unpredictable, right?

They weren't like every five minutes, but I could predictably know I'm probably gonna start contracting at the end of my shift.

So I like to put that in front of you just so you understand.

Yeah.

What causes them, and then like, oh, there might be a, I'm gonna say air quotes, rhythm to them, but it's based on your behavior and not because it's some sort of real.

Labor.

Okay.

Let's get into the next two types of contractions, these are the two that just get us sent home from OB triage all the time.

So the first one is prodromal labor.

And prodromal labor is essentially this pattern that feels a lot more real, which makes it a lot more confusing because they can be painful.

You get tied again, you might have like lower uterine pain or back pain, which is more indicative of real labor.

And then, like I said, they can be regular.

They typically are not going to change your cervix.

And we'll kind of circle back to that.

And I don't want you to think that's.

Discouraging, because prodromal labor is still your body practicing, right?

And all of this practice is prepping you for the real thing.

And that is a good thing.

But prodromal labor just keeps going.

I think this is the difference between prodromal and the one we're gonna get into next, is that some people will be in prodromal labor for like a week or four days, you know, and they say, I literally have been contracting since Monday, and they're sitting in front of me and triage and it's.

Thursday they say, I just have been contracting like every five minutes.

And typically it's like, it's not getting worse.

I don't have any bloody show, but I just can't sleep.

I'm exhausted, and it's just this labor pattern that seems real.

Right?

Maybe it's that 5 1 1 that we'll get into more later, but it is not.

Real labor and that cervix isn't really changing yet.

And you can see how prodromal labor like this is so incredibly exhausting.

We are not totally sure like what causes this prodromal pattern.

And so it's not necessarily easy to make it stop.

And so for some, especially those who are literally are, you know, having this prodromal labor for 96 hours before the real thing.

This is a rough entry into real labor, but there's part of like.

What can we do I'm gonna get into it a little more like maybe some things to consider as soon as I talk about the next type of labor, but in theory, like try to rest.

You can't make this stop.

You're not doing anything wrong.

And know that prodromal labor like this is going to flip over into the real thing so you are close.

And that isn't super encouraging when you haven't slept, you know, in one or two days, but you are close and this is still leading us towards the good thing we want, which is real labor.

to have that baby.

Okay, so this next type I'm talking about is false labor, and I really do like clarifying that these two are different to me.

Prodromal continues, continues, continues, but it doesn't get more intense, it doesn't get more, painful.

They don't get closer together.

If that's happening, then we're getting into real labor most likely.

So we have that prodromal labor, and then we have false labor, which is often going to feel a lot like.

This prodromal labor that I'm talking about.

So it can be painful, it can be regular, it can feel very, very real.

You cannot get these contractions to stop on your own, you know, by position change or drinking or all the things like we talked about with Braxton Hicks.

You can't make this go away and like prodromal labor, you're probably going to be saying, is this real?

Like this is painful.

This is hurting.

This feels like some of the things I've been taught about.

It's every five minutes.

Like, do I need to be paying attention to this?

And the thing about false labor, unlike Prodomal labor, is that false labor will just stop.

And so I feel like the typical story with this is when you're in false labor and someone says, man, every night I lay down to go to sleep.

And I start contracting and from nine until midnight I have three hours of contractions and then they just go away.

And that is like the quintessential false labor story to me.

And it is also exhausting and frustrating and confusing.

Right?

And then it just peters out and so you're left going, ugh.

Again, like what is the point?

This is so frustrating.

I dunno how to make a decision, but I think what is nice to know with false labor is that it is.

Also really good practice and false labor might actually be changing the cervix a little bit.

So again, just like getting the body ready, you're that much closer when you're going through this.

And so if you can take that as encouraging in the midst of being confusing or annoying is still, I would say like a good thing because that body is that much closer to kicking into the real thing.

All right.

I mentioned how with false and prodromal, well, we don't like totally know why they're happening, so we can't just.

Tell you how to get it to stop.

That doesn't work.

We do have like ideas or suggestions sometimes, and I saw this Instagram reel a while ago where someone had said, I got sent home from OB triage.

Like I said, these get you sent home from triage all the time, and this is what they told me to do.

And she had shared that the suggestion from the nurses in triage were go home and do the mile circuit.

So that is because, or this is how I like to explain it to my students.

Sometimes prodromal labor or false labor are being caused by a baby who is not in a great position for labor.

So maybe they're kind of sideways or their head's a little wonky, or they're just not super engaged, which is when they're like nice and deep into the pelvis and putting some good pressure on your cervix.

so if that's true, we can do fetal positioning exercises to encourage baby to be in that really good position for labor.

And so what we're talking about is optimal fetal positioning exercises and stretches the things we can do that kind of make space in our lower uterus and give baby the space they need to rotate, turn, descend, whatever it is that's going on in there.

Give them the space to do it.

And so the miles circuit, I have a blog post, on this, and you can, I'll link in the show notes before if you wanna read through all the steps.

But it has three steps, things you can do to kind of.

Give baby a a shot at, you know, rotating into a better position if they're not, and then descending and putting good pressure on the cervix.

And that is something, you know, going back to that brief prostaglandin conversation we had when we started.

But good pressure on the cervix can help release prostaglandins and that can help kickstart the body into labor.

And so when we're having false or prodromal labor, you can think about things like, Hey, if this is a fetal positioning issue, is there some stuff that maybe I can try?

To get baby in a better position, maybe that's gonna help kickstart the body and say, Hey, you know, I like to say we're locked and loaded.

We're ready.

Let's do it.

So try things, certainly if you are free to and safe to try things, but also recognize that you're getting close.

And so rest is super valuable too.

And not just in a, I really need to sleep because I'm getting ready to do this really big thing, but also because when we're resting and we truly feel restful, less anxious.

Let's say more safe.

All of those things, when you have that kind of peace that we do need to head into labor, we're gonna have more oxytocin in our body and potentially be putting ourselves in situations.

You know, maybe a warm bath if you're allowed to take a bath, maybe if you're spending time with your partner, maybe if you're just watching a movie and relaxing.

These are likely going to be oxytocin inducing situations, and that is so much better to get this thing kickstarted and flipped over into real labor.

Then like sometimes the anxiousness or the adrenaline or the like, do, do, do that.

We have that feeling that we have of how do I make this happen?

How do I make this better?

How do I get these contractions to flip over?

Sometimes that kind of anxiousness, frenetic energy, if that's what's going on in our body is not actually what our body needs at all to kickstart into the real thing.

So it's really a balance here with the proma labor or the false labor of accepting.

The disease are normal.

Maybe you can support the process a little bit with some fetal positioning exercises.

But rest and relaxation and peace and all of that is incredibly important too.

And particularly because anything that increases oxytocin and those feelings in our body and that hormone in our body is really what we want the most to kickstart things and get labor going.

Alright, so that does bring us to the real thing, which is real labor.

And real labor.

How do we qualify this?

Because if you were listening to prodromal labor and false labor especially, you're probably going, that sounds real though.

So how do we know there is nuance in this conversation?

I'm sure you're already recognizing that.

But with real labor in general, these contractions do not stop.

There is nothing we can do to get them to stop.

I know that's true at Proma labor.

So just hear me out on all the rest too.

'cause this is a holistic, like put it all together picture real labor contractions.

Do not stop.

You cannot do anything to make them stop, so you'll find position change, laying down, hydration, distraction, like nothing is working to make 'em stop.

They typically get stronger longer.

Typically, labor contractions end up about 60 seconds long, so you end up, at that point, they often start shorter.

It's like 32nd contractions, 45 second contractions, and then you land at that about like 62nd ish long contractions, so longer, stronger.

And closer together.

And so that is one thing you'll notice as well is maybe you're having contractions every 10 minutes or so, and then it's eight and then it's seven, and then it's eight, and then it's six and five and six and four and two.

And you just see this progression.

And that won't be true of prodromal labor, could be true of false labor.

So again, like there's some nuance here and we're putting all of this together.

And then the other big question for me with real labor is that question of how do you feel?

So you have like lower uterine.

Back pain may be hip pain.

That's where these real contractions are occurring too.

And they typically are gonna come on like a wave, right?

So you feel it coming, it's going to peak and it's going to subside.

And you're gonna feel that really specific wave or rhythm.

Now, I know I mentioned this a couple minutes ago.

Yeah, there's nuance here, right?

And there is, and that makes this conversation complicated.

'cause someone can say, I felt this and I felt this.

And prodromal felt like real and false.

There was no way to know.

Like all of that is true.

And so just taking all this in and receiving all this information is just helping you make this decision and figure out, you know, what real labor feels like.

For your body when you experience it.

I wanted to share a couple.

I have asked my social media communities many times like describe contractions just because it's funny and it also shows you kind of the difference, right?

The different vocabulary that we apply to this.

A couple of answers I got the last time I asked.

One person said, contractions feel like your butt is going to fall out.

Which one made me die laughing?

And two, I would say that's more what I feel like when baby's close to coming and not necessarily right when labor starts.

So if you feel like your butt's gonna fall out, I think you need to get to the hospital.

We'll get into that more later, but just a little heads up on that one.

Intense squeezing pressure and pain was another answer.

Rolling.

Electrifying pressure, brace, grunt, gasp, repeat, someone else said intense pressure, breathtaking tightening, nauseating difficult.

I thought the nauseating part was interesting 'cause nausea is often an additional sign of labor that you can use to kind of clue you in about what's going on.

Someone else said punches in the gut.

Another person said, super tense, squeezing, painful, crampy.

So that's a lot of vocabulary there.

Right?

And some of it's.

Sounds more manageable.

Some of it sounds pretty intense.

You can just see, I don't know, like I honestly can't answer the question of what do real labor contractions feel like?

But all of this together is what you can look at to kind of decide, hey, is this a real thing?

then the other thing that I think is important to know with real labor contractions is that they're often associated with other signs of labor.

So like.

The going butt's going to fallout idea is this idea of pressure, right?

So are you feeling some sort of increase in pressure with contractions?

This should be ringing some bells, right?

Are you having any bloody show?

Which we often start to see as the cervix dilates, because a dilating cervix is what goes along with real labor, right?

And so.

If we're having real labor contractions, that means the cervix is dilating as well, and eventually we may start to see some bloody show.

So that sign all of that together is a sign of real labor.

Increases in pressure.

Like I said, your water might break.

It doesn't happen for many.

It's not quite as common.

Pre-labor maybe, but certainly in early labor.

And when you're in real labor, like your water can break at some point.

And then those changes in dilation that I mentioned are going to be happening as well.

So that's a huge signal that this is real.

The cervix is dilating and opening up.

then the last thing I would say is there's changes in your emotional signposts, and I know that vocabulary can feel a little bit.

Foreign for some of us.

So we're gonna say, I, what, what's an emotional signpost?

Do I really need to care about it?

I think you do.

I love the topic.

Episode 10 will go into all of that for you, and it's a really good topic for your birth partner to listen to as well, because it's a way they can look at you and try to figure out what's going on in labor because they can't feel all the things you're feeling.

They don't know if your contractions are real or fake, or more or less.

But they can watch your behavior and that's what the emotional signposts are about, and we can use all of those to kind of help us figure out true labor versus maybe prodromal or false labor.

Alright, so how do you know, right?

When do you know when it's real?

We talked about this, there's all this nuance and a lot of this, there's some crossover, and this happens with this kind and this happens with this kind.

Ultimately, I do think there's a little bit of this answer and you go, Ugh, that's not fair.

But I feel like a little bit of the answer is, when you know, you'll know.

it often comes in hindsight too, because many will say.

After.

Let's say they had prodromal labor for four days and then the real thing did kick in, and then after they're able to say it was different, I just didn't know until I knew.

so there's a little bit of that wisdom that you're gonna get as you learn and go through potentially some of these is what the differences feel like between the two.

So you're gonna have some of that, and that's the gift, right, of a second, third, fourth labor is you get to pull this wisdom through.

But even if it's your first time, you go back to this idea of this holistic picture.

We're looking for all these signs of labor.

We're not just focusing on one single number or pattern or rhythm or frequency, and we're thinking about all of this together.

So that's what you can pull through, especially like I said, if this is your first baby.

I think one challenge in all of this as well is the complication of subsequent babies.

If this is not your first, so speaking to you, second, third, fourth timers.

Those babies might come a lot quicker, right?

And so then you're going, Ugh, I need to make this decision.

I can't wait it out and see if it's false labor.

I gotta get to the hospital.

If this is real, I'm gonna have this baby.

so I think that that's just something that we bring in to the when to go to the hospital conversation.

And we'll table that for now.

We'll get into that when we do that episode on when to go to the hospital.

But certainly that's a part of this and I think I just wanna acknowledge it.

To make it seem like this isn't easy when you add in some of this extra nuance of your history and how to help, how to use, you know, maybe your prior birth history of fast laborers or how many kids you've had to make this choice too.

Ultimately, though, I think it's really important to hear if you get this wrong and you waltz into OB triage and you're having Braxton Hicks or false labor.

Who cares?

Like that's totally okay.

That's what OB Triage exists for, is to receive any of these patients come in and who think their water broke or maybe their baby's coming, or that their contractions are real, or they're worried about bleeding, or they're worried about decreased fetal movement.

None of these are worthy of an apology.

If you come in and you know, quote unquote, you had it wrong and what you thought was going on wasn't going on and all as well, that's great.

I would choose to send someone home from OB triage every single time.

Well, you don't have to be embarrassed and say, Hey, you're both doing great.

Come back in when you think, you know things are happening.

That is, that is what we want in triage, so come in, utilize it.

It's part of a labor, I'll say like the labor service.

It's part of the work that we do, and there's just no shame in coming in and getting it wrong.

And we can check on you and reassure you that you're both doing well too.

So it's not like you should run to OB triage at the sign of a first contraction, but that's why it's there.

And sometimes we get it wrong and sometimes we get it right and hopefully you nail the timing.

But most people aren't getting this perfect.

Okay.

And that's.

Totally.

Okay.

Like I said, you're taking in all this knowledge, you're gonna use it and if it's a little bit imperfect or you go into triage once and then the next time the real thing or whatever that is totally okay.

I also want you to hear that I don't want you to get discouraged as your body is practicing and prepping for the real thing, it is very likely that you are going to go through some of this practice prep, annoying what's going on stuff before.

Your true labor kicks in.

Maybe you won't.

And that's cool.

And you'll just realize, wow, that was textbook and I just started contracting and I had a baby.

And that's great.

But if that isn't, you let all of this other stuff be an encouragement of practicing and a body prepping and just an awareness that you have of like, we're getting close.

My body's practicing it knows what it wants to do, and we're gonna get there.

Okay.

So that's it for now.

That's gonna be our cliffhanger.

And I'm gonna leave you with a little pin right there.

And then in this part two episode, we're gonna get into that question of timing, contractions, and when to go to the hospital, but not just thinking about.

What are going on with my contractions, but what about what's going on in my pregnancy?

What's going on in my body?

What's going on with my baby?

What about my history?

We're gonna take all of that and put it together and show you how you can answer the question even better of when to go to the hospital and what's the right time for you, and not have it just be about some sort of contraction pattern, but about everything that's going on in your pregnancy, in your labor, and then in your story and your history as well.

Thank you so much for listening to the Lo and Behold podcast.

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