Cramping at 38 1/2 weeks

[help]

I'm due somewhere between April 14 and the 20th, and after an exam yesterday, I've been having cramping in my lower abdomen and lower back. It feels just like I'm getting my period. It's not like contractions that come and go. It tends to stay for several minutes at a time. Could this be a sign of early or false labor? My first birth was induced and although I had some of the cramping the day before I delivered, they induced me and I didn't get to go natural, so I have no idea what I'm looking for. lol.

Thanks,
Crystal

[sanguine_speed]

Gosh, could be anything or nothing.
Was there a reason for an exam? I'm assuming you meant a vaginal exam? That can cause uterine irritability, and for what benefit?

[help]

I go to a mainstream OB, that's routine. He just wants to check to see if I've dilated. I go once a week. It's been a strange pain, kinda makes me nervous, but I have a ton of other stuff to be nervous about, so I might as wells just worry about the others. lol.

[tammylsmith]

Could be pre labor. I had plenty of that with the first. I suppose I have it with this one too, but am too focused on chasing my 3 year old to notice! I know the contrax will get my attention when it's "for real," and that it will be soon, though the exact day is a mystery. I had my midwife do an exam last week. Until my water breaks, it doesn't matter one way or the other to me.... it's just fun knowing my body is starting to gear up. Of course, I am secretly (well, not so secretly actually) hoping that when she does the next exam, it'll be "surprise, you're already 4 cm dialated and completely effaced!" lol, I know that it doesn't really start until it starts, and all the wishing and hoping and examining "symptoms" in the world didn't make my dd come one day before her birthday. I didn't have it this time, but with dd, I remember that things would be a little crampy afterwards... sometimes a little pinkish discharge from possible irritation. Good luck with your delivery... you know it'll be here before you realize it!

[snoopy5386]

I'm 39 weeks tomorrow and having weird cramping at times as well - definitely not contractions but longer cramps, after I get out of bed in the morning especially. I'm just chalking it up to my body gearing up.

[help]

Still having the cramping. I bled after the exam, guess it's from that. I've noticed that they are going away more and coming back instead of a continuous thing, and that it almost feels like a braxton hicks contraction with the accompanying tightness during. Maybe it'll be soon (although I doubt it!). lol.

Snoopy, I'm hoping for a water birth, too! Well, at least a water labor. Have you done one before?

[MsBlack]

Sounds to me from both the bloody show and the cramping that your OB did not just give you an 'exam', but also stripped your membranes--which involves inserting a finger into the cervix (the opening), or at least trying to. It is a more intense kind of stimulation, a sort of forceful 'massage'/manipulation of the cervix and often produces the symptoms you are having. It is used to try to hurry things up--to produce a reaction in your body that leads to changes which may bring on labor sooner than if all had been left well alone.

Or may not. But just as doing a simple internal exam to 'see what's going on' is routine among medical maternity care providers, so is membrane stripping fairly routine. Beware, as there is generally no reason to hurry things up--you and your baby know just when labor should start--and can lead to broken membranes and being on a clock to get baby out faster to avoid risk of infection from prolonged ruptured membranes.

It is a needless intervention and can lead to only more interventions that you may not want.