Prodromal Labour or Braxton Hicks...

[paxye]

What's the difference? Is there one?

Is this a good example or am I missing something...

I have been having BH since the beginning of pregnancy.... some are more intense than others and they do make my uterus tighten...

However, for the last week I have been having them come at regular intervals for an hour or two in the evening... (5-10 min apart)... So Is that prodromal labour?

Is the difference that BH are Random and Prodromal labour is more of a pattern?

[USAmma]

I believe that prodromal labor actually helps to dilate/efface, where BH are non-productive. I had preterm labor with one pg, and lots of irritable uterus cx all the way through both pregnancies. The cx were very regular, as close as 2 mis apart, as many as 5-6, but always there. Drove me crazy.

It went from those regular but non-productive cx into prodromal labor the last few weeks. They were more intense, I was often woken up by them from my sleep, and I was starting to dilate more.

I would love to hear an official definition.

[amydidit]

That's pretty much the definition I've heard as well. BH aren't non-productive, prodromal dilates the cervix, but are still too far apart (or not a regular pattern) to be called active labor.

[courtenay_e]

Yup, that's it. Prodromal labor can even be contractions that are close together (the week before dd was born my prodromal labor was as close as three minutes apart for hours at a time...), they are effective enough to change the cervix, but are not STRONG enough to be active labor...you're not in the labor zone during those contractions, they're just really annoying enough to keep you from sleeping 'cause you have to concentrate JUST A LITTLE through them.

Braxton Hicks are usually such that the uterus is not ALL contracting in sync, so that most of it could be contracting, but not necessarily all of it. Or if all of it is, it isn't strong enough to do real work. Or it can go down the middle, with the right half starting and then the left half starting a few seconds later. Weird, not quite contraction contractions. You feel the firmness, but there's no REAL strength behind it.

Oftentimes, too, my clients (and I, too) have found that prodromal tends to start and stop at the same time every day until active labor sets in.

[paxye]

Thanks... that was confusing me a bit....

The contax that I have in the evening that are regular and sometimes quite intense and feel like they are working my cervix often... that is something that I never felt before with my other two so it was really noticable to me...

So I guess that I will have a few weeks of prodromal labour ahead of me.... hopefully that will mean a shorter labour also...

[mntnmom]

With my last baby I guess I had prodomal labor for about a month. I dialated slowly the whole time. My "actual' labor lasted about 3 hrs.! Good Luck!

[~*~MamaJava~*~]

Don't want to be a party pooper...but with #2 I had prodromal labour - which I defined as regular contractions for several hrs - for about a month before he was born, almost nightly. I was excited because I thought it would get me *somewhere*

My cervix was something like 50% effaced when I went into labour with a gush of amniotic fluid(at 41wks) - was open enough to let the fluid out, but I wasn't more than a 1 or so. Bummer.

But I don't know anyone else who's had that much prodromal for nuthin'!