anyone whose water broke only moments before delivery?

[preciousstone]

my mom and grandmom have had these kind of deliveries, where their water never broke until moments before baby came out. that's all i know, so i'm wondering if there is any kind of patter for this kind of labor. if you had a delivery like this, what was your labor like? long, short, back labor? were all your babies like that?

[broodymama]

DS was an induction via AROM, so can't say what would have happened with him.

With DD1, my water broke as she was crowning and she was born about 7 minutes later. With DD2, my water once again broke when she crowned and she was out about 3 hours later. Both of those labors were just over 2 hours.

[Kidzaplenty]

With my #2, my water broke (with a gush) one contraction (like 30 seconds) before my daughter's head popped out. Labor, from first contraction to birth, was a grand total of four hours. Normal labor (not back labor).

My #1 had PROM 18 hours before labor really got going. 4 hours of "real" labor.
#3 broke sometime within an hour of his birth, but can't really remember when. 5.5 hours of labor.
#6 had PROM about a week, maybe two, before she was born. But it was a slow leak and I did not realize what it was until deliver. 1.25 hours of labor.

I don't really remember when the others broke, but sometime after labor began and before delivery.

[ivymae]

With DD1, we assume my water broke about an hour before she was born (I pushed in the water for quite a while, and when i got out to push on the bed it had already broken, so it must have in the water), but with DD2, I was the one who caught her, and her water burst right at the beginning of pushing, and three pushes later she was out. Both of my labors were fairly quick, with DD2's being longer (though that was my own fault for not realizing/admitting I needed more space/seclusion). I can't actually imagine having my water burst before transition, though i do envy people whose water breaks, and then they KNOW they are going to have a baby soon. I am always in denial until transition hits, wondering if it will all just stop soon.

[BarefootScientist]

My water broke when I was pushing in the car, about 5 minutes away from the hospital, he was born as soon as we got to the hospital.

This was after 11ish hours of very easy-to-handle contractions every 2-4 minutes (so easy I did NOT think birth was imminent, obviously), and about 20 minutes of fast and furious, not as easy to handle transition contractions.

HTH.

[welsh]

Labor with DS was an intense 4 hrs. Water broke in transition and DS was born about 30 mins later.

[mummytoH]

My labour was only 5.5 hrs in hospital & my waters must have gone in the bath in hospital (I'm sure I remember feeling a weird click/pop) and they had gone before I got into the birthing pool. I managed a 10lb boy on gas & air and I've heard labour is 'easier' if your waters are still there as if they go first, you're having a 'dry' labour!? Never heard of that before though.

[aramat]

Mine break near the end; I think it's pretty common? I think Vitamin C during pregnancy is supposed to help strengthen the bag of waters, and I did drink tons ((tons)) of V8 Juice in both prior pregnancies.

[preciousstone]

thanks mama's. this is sooooo interesting. seems like you all had fairly short labors or short pushing stage. be interesting to see how it turns out for me. my family is from the Caribbean and my mom calls water breaking just moments before delivery 'dry labor' but whenever i ask someone in the US/google it, it's the opposite, we refer to dry labor as when the water breaks at the very beginning of labor - meaning you're laboring without the cushion of the bag of waters.

Did anyone have dilation that just jumped to 10 in a very short period. Like say, you went from 4 to 10 in less than an hour, or something?

[sparkygirl74]

My water broke while pushing with my son (second birth) I only pushed for nine minutes all together so it was pretty close to the end. Apparently I soaked a nurse!

[rachel65655]

My water breaks when the baby comes out. I have relatively quick labors with the longest being 9 hours. I also have pretty painless labor until transition, which usually hits just an hour before baby is here.

[NekeT]

My water didn't break until I started pushing as well. I was in labor for about 11 hours, 4of those being really intense. Mostly back labor and I didn't push very long, 3 pushes and she was out.

I'm pretty sure the ideal is to keep the bag of waters intact for as long as possible. I know my midwife consistently tells me to get enough Vitamin C to strengthen my bag of waters and she definitely doesn't believe in breaking it.

[pjs]

My youngest (6 days old) was born in the caul, so it never broke on its own (3 hr labor). I did take quite a bit of vit c this pregnancy too. My last birth it broke during pushing (one big push and dd was born, 1.5 hr labor).

[frontierpsych]

This happened with my son (water broke at crowning) it was a short and easy 3 hour labour.

[elf_babykins]

My baby was a caul baby too. Her sac broke as she was coming out. My pushing stage was maybe 30 minutes? Have you read some of the myth surrounding caul babies? I think it's pretty neat! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caul

[preciousstone]

Originally Posted by pjs

My youngest (6 days old) was born in the caul, so it never broke on its own (3 hr labor). I did take quite a bit of vit c this pregnancy too. My last birth it broke during pushing (one big push and dd was born, 1.5 hr labor).

how much vit c were you taking?

[paxye]

My UC was like that... water broke right before he crowned... I actually got a few minutes of relief after it happened and was able to ask DH to do a few things... and then my body needed to start pushing..

With my first the waters were "accidentally" broken by a doctor after I got transferred for "failure to progress"..

With my second my water broke before labour started...

[pjs]

between 1,000 and 1,500 each day ( a packet of emergen-c, plus a glass or two of oj daily)

[sostinkinhappy]

Originally Posted by preciousstone

Did anyone have dilation that just jumped to 10 in a very short period. Like say, you went from 4 to 10 in less than an hour, or something?

Me, twice. Both baby #2 & #3 were posterior - I can't imagine how fast their deliveries would have been had they been in the right position...

With baby #2, I went from 4 cm to delivery in about 40 minutes. Bag of waters broke about 1 hour before contractions started. The doctor had checked me at 8 cm and thought he had time to go back to the office and take care of a few more patients. He didn't even make it across the parking lot before he was called back. DS was born just as the doc rushed back into the room, catching him with his bare hands. Even the nurses were surprised at how fast he came.

With baby #3, I went from 4 cm to delivery in about 25 minutes. I only had one big contraction & that was when I got up to walk down the hall from the triage room (where I was 4 cm) to the birthing room about 10 minutes after they decided to admit me. I remember yelling that I couldn't do this anymore (thinking I was still a 4!!!) as I climbed up on the bed. The when midwife checked me and said, "Honey, you already have - he's right here!" I pushed a couple of times and then sploooosh, he was there. He was born with the bag of waters intact.

(Baby #1 was a fairly normal 13 hour labor with about 1 1/2 hours of pushing).

[Lilcrunchie]

With DS my membranes ruptured and contractions were immediately 5 mins apart (water breaking was my first sign of labor). I was already 2-3 cm dilated for a few weeks with him. Labor overall was pretty easy and manageable (used Hypnobirthing). Transition was a bit intense but still not too bad. Labor was 6-6.5 hours.

With DD, my labor was about 3 hours, and again pretty manageable (with hypnobirthing + hypnobabies). Transition was much less noticeable and I showed up to the birth center 10 cm dilated w/ no clue I was that far along. I didn't have a lot of rectal pressure like I did with my first (not sure if that was related to membranes still being in tact). Membranes didn't rupture til I was pushing.