My experience of Prodromal Labour

Experiencing Prodromal Labour can be frustrating and confusing!
Here is the story of my experience with Prodromal Labour taken from my Week 38 Pregnancy Diary for Baby #2

Image by Karen E Photography

Week 38 was certainly a memorable one! In week 37 I was experiencing mild nausea on and off, some lower backache, menstrual type cramps and the like - well, they only got worse! In terms of baby's vital statistics: At week 38, baby is approximately 50cm long and weighs about 3kg, although those guesstimates get less accurate as time goes on. Baby is considered 'term' from 37 weeks, but there are many great benefits to sticking around until 40 weeks so we'll see.

Saturday

On Saturday morning I had a bring-and-share continental breakfast with some lady friends - a great idea for an easy get-together - especially if you are 9 months pregnant. I struggled to sleep since Wednesday night because of the back pain and cramping. Through Saturday and Sunday, twinges and such seemed to get worse and the sense of downward pressure increased. I was just over 37 weeks pregnant but even as a second time mom it felt like labour starting to me, albeit quite slowly.

On Saturday evening I had some pretty strong, regular contractions...

On Saturday evening I had some pretty strong, regular contractions - about 30s each every 5-7min, but they happened quite soon after a cup of red raspberry leaf tea and an unusually long toddler breastfeeding session, which I have since discovered is the result of some unknown ailment currently causing a fever. I wasn't sure whether I should encourage the process with some red raspberry leaf tea, speed walking, stair climbing, breastfeeding and of course, conjugal intimacy, or if I should try to slow things down - resting, warm baths and the like - so I just carried on as usual.

...I had all relevant parties on standby all weekend!

Image by Karen E Photography

Sunday

By Sunday afternoon, my midwife Arlen thought it best that I try get a good night's sleep, rather than encouraging the process and ending up exhausted and not progressing, so I took a warm bath and went to bed. It was the most restful night I'd had that week! I had genuinely thought things were happening and I had the relevant parties on standby all weekend!

...I honestly believed I was in labour...

Monday 

Monday morning rolled around and things were getting going again - I honestly believed I was in labour - I had definite, reasonably regular contractions that I had to concentrate on and breathe through. The toddler and I were washing dishes and every couple of minutes I would have to lean forward onto the sink and focus on my breathing to get through each one. So I called in the troops. My mom drove up from Durban, my friend Janine excused herself from work while another friend Kerry brought supplies (chocolate!) and Hans went to collect the birth pool.

...things seemed to have slowed again...

By the time Janine arrived, things had slowed again, so we took the toddler in the stroller for a walk around the block. On our 2nd, and last circuit, a friend of Janine's caught up with us and we spent some time chatting. She had had two homebirths with my midwife as well so it was great to chat to her! As our paths diverged she mentioned she had quite a strong impression from God that our baby would have a particular character trait, which will remain confidential for the moment. I started crying right there because that was precisely the meaning of one of the final two names on our shortlist, which we hadn't shared with anyone. So the name of our little girl was decided! I was very encouraged!

By this time things had completely slowed down...

Last few days of being an only child...

My mom then arrived and started washing some dishes and the photographer who did our preggie shoot was in town so she popped in as well. We set up the birth pool and did some last minute prep for the home birth and sat down to chat. A little later another friend Kate joined us. After some more chatting they went off to get some lunch, and then we went for another walk. By this time things had completely slowed down and I was feeling a little 'moedeloos' (Afrikaans for discouraged - but the translation doesn't do it justice).

...I had started having my strongest and most regular contractions yet

My mom-in-law also popped in with some snacks and a little later everyone went home saying we must just phone if they need to come back. Kate and her husband brought us a feast for dinner, which I was really grateful for as I was quite bushed and, lo and behold, I had started having my strongest and most regular contractions yet. Again, they were about 30s long, about 4min apart for about 3 hours altogether and with each one I was on the floor on my knees with my head on my arms on the couch to focus so I could breathe through the pain. "This is really it!" I thought. Wrong again! I had a warm bath, things slowed down and I had another great night's sleep.

One thing that was quite funny that night was that the toddler was curious as to why I was burying my head in my arms every few minutes - so I told her that I just needed to close my eyes and invited her to come and join me, so for a couple of contractions she was next to me, head on her arms 'closing her eyes' with mom. Then she saw hubby stroking my back and started stroking and tickling my back too. At one stage when I was breathing through a contraction, she told me to 'wake up' so she could put her head on her arms and 'close her eyes' and told me to tickle her back!

Checking dilation in early labour can only tell you how far dilated you are...

I hadn't yet had a 'show' - which is when the mucous plug at the cervix comes out - often an early sign of labour as it shows that the cervix is effacing (thinning). I had also chosen not to have an internal exam to check dilation, unless absolutely necessary. Checking dilation in early labour can only tell you how far dilated you are - it doesn't actually give an accurate idea of how much longer things are going to take, or how long it took you to get there. Some women can be stuck at 2 or 3cm dilated for days without realizing it. So it can be encouraging to find out that you are further dilated than you thought, but it can also be discouraging to find out the opposite - and knowing me that would stress me out and hinder the process even more.

Tuesday

I think, "OK, today is the day!" Wrong again.

Tuesday morning rolls along. I go to the toilet in the morning, and I have a 'show'! (Apologies if this is TMI for the casual reader - you want real life, you got it!) I text the midwife to let her know and I think, "OK, today is the day!" Wrong again. I walked to our usual Tuesday morning mom's group close by, contemplated having a go on the trampoline but thought better of it. I had reasonably strong menstrual pain for most of the day, like I would for the first or second day of menstruation, but that was about it! (It was a weird sensation, having not menstruated in what felt like forever!)

I am choosing to trust my body and embrace the process!

Despite all the weirdness, I was feeling great - I was not as discouraged as I had been on Monday. We women so often assume that our bodies are somehow defective when something about us doesn't fit in with the 'average', but with birth the range of normal is very wide, and  Maybe I'm doing too much and I just need to rest, maybe baby isn't in quite the right position yet and all these contractions are squeezing her into the right spot, maybe I just need a little longer to dilate this time, and maybe it's none of the above. Baby is still moving well and I'm feeling fine.

Wednesday

...I woke up feeling stiff and irritable.

I woke up feeling stiff and irritable, despite having rested the whole day Tuesday. Alternative arrangements had been made for my ballet classes so I went from pretty-active mode, to couch-potato mode. Frustration! I decided get some last minute supplies at the mall. Even with extra walking there was no change - nothing - it was the quietest day since Wednesday last week. Arg!

The fact that it was a full lunar eclipse that night too didn't seem to impress little one at all - it would have been so poetic!

I was hoping that something might happen on Wednesday night considering that it was a full moon and there are many old wives' tales / urban legends and one or two studies that show that more babies are born during the last quarter of the moon than at any other time of the lunar month, but no such luck. The fact that it was a full lunar eclipse that night too didn't seem to impress little one at all - it would have been so poetic! This was my Facebook status for that day:

Thursday

Thursday was also quiet...

We had a laugh on Thursday morning when a friend of ours (an out-of-towner to give him credit) phoned to congratulate us, thinking the baby must be born by now! Thursday was also quiet, so I spent much of the day pondering the whole idea of a 'ripening' process. Later that night I was in the bath and discovered that I could barely move; even turning on to my side was painful. Something in my pelvic / sacral area was out of whack - it felt like it was in pieces that simply refused to work together!

Friday

And so the sun rose on another Friday morning - a full week after I first mentioned that I was starting to feel twingey. I must admit, I was feeling a little emotionally overwhelmed, not about all the false starts but about things in general, like my back. I took the emotional-ness as a good sign that my hormones were kicking into high gear, or so I hoped! My back was even more uncomfortable than before and it was really upsetting me.

I also got a great back massage for the first time in months...

Because I've danced all my life, my physical mobility is really important to me so limping about because my pelvis didn't want to hold me up was very distressing. Fortunately I managed to get an appointment with the chiropractor - what bliss! Apparently my pelvis was slightly twisted as my pubic symphysis was out and she got that fix in 5 minutes flat. I also got a great back massage for the first time in months because I could actually lie on my stomach on that fancy table of hers! Joy!

I am feeling strong... I promise I'm not putting it on just to get the attention!

Besides the fact that we keep expecting this baby to pop out, our one car won't start, I have developed a cavity and the toddler has had a reasonably high fever for the last two days - we are doing well! I am feeling strong and really empowered actually. I've said elsewhere:

If at any stage it seems as though I am in pain, please do not pity me. I am not suffering. I am doing what I was born to do.

And I would add to that: I promise I'm not putting it on just to get the attention!

...what I am experiencing is generally referred to as prodromal labour...

If you want a name for it, what I am experiencing is generally referred to as prodromal labour (also known as pre-labour, or false labour). The thing about it is that it can be very difficult to distinguish from the real thing. You can generally find an exception to anything anyone says about prodromal labour. When people say real contractions should get stronger and more regular but prodromal contractions don't - you'll find someone whose experience contradicts that. So really, prodromal labour is generally only recognized in retrospect!

I've got a more technical post about the various forms of prodromal labour and how to cope with it in the pipeline, so please do subscribe to the Blog or like the Durban Doula Facebook Page to keep updated when I post it!

So that's the long story about I'm learning to embrace the process and trust my body! Looking forward to sharing again next week!

UPDATE: So it seems all that prodromal labour was leading up to something! Here is the story of our Quick, Almost Unassisted, Home Water Birth

UPDATE:
Well, it turns out this was the last week of our pregnancy diary! It seems all that prodromal labour was heading somewhere and our little girl was born the Saturday night. You can check out the story of our amazing beautiful ecstatic home water birth here.