So, if your water does break...?

[LittleLlama]

Mine has NOT. Just wanted to get that clear.

So, whatever the situation, be it in a gush or a trickle, , if I'm delivering at a hospital, am I supposed to go right in? Or do I wait till there are contractions for a good amount of time before going in?

I know I know this, but... well... : you know.

[boogiemonster]

You're SUPPOSED to go right in, at least that's what I've been told.

With DD, it broke right after my afternoon nap, so I ate some dinner and went in about an hour later.

HTH

[Mama2 '05'06]

Depends- With ds1, my water broke @9pm. Contractions really didn't start until about 9:30 and weren't regular until about 10. I think we went to the hospital about 10:30-11pm. He was born@2:43am. With ds2, my water broke about 9am on monday. I went to the store, to WIC, and puttered around the house. Not a single good contraction. Went to the hospital@1:30pm b/c I was only 34 1/2 weeks. I never went into labor on my own, had to have pit and ds was born tuesday afternoon @4:13.
To deal with leaking/gushing, I wore depends underpants.

[Curlita]

With my first, my water broke and I called L&D. They asked some questions and we determined that there was probably meconium in the fluid, so I had to go in. If the fluid had been clear, then I would have been able to stay home for a while until labor picked up.

[Da WIC Lady]

I thought mine had broken last night, but I just threw up so hard I peed. I couldn't smell anything from being stuffed up from the vomiting, so I called my doc... in the middle of the night... and she told me not to worry about it until the contractions were 10 min or less consistantly. I've not done this whole labor thing, and today marks as far as I've gone in a pregnancy.

Anna

[YankeeMomInVA]

With my first I made the mistake of thinking that since my water had broken I'd have a baby faster if I went in to the hospital... so I called my doc and he told me to go NOW. I wasn't having any contractions....and of course they ended up inducing with pitocin and ds was born 30-some hours later.

This time, my new doc said that if my water breaks and if fluid is clear, I should hang out at home until the contractions get "good"... So we shall see...

[AimeeandBrian]

Do you always know if your water has broken?

[Dee-Groovy]

Sarah I was just going to post this question... b/c my water broke last night!

I'm so excited but I'm still not having regular contractions. I was going to call the doc's office when they open this morning but now I'm tempted to wait until I can at least time the contrax. I do not want to be induced!

Aimee I heard that an easy way to tell if it's water or pee is to do a kegel and see if it keeps coming. If it's pee, the kegel will stop it. I tried that last night but the fluid just kept pouring out so I knew it wasn't pee. I also heard that amniotic fluid turns pads pinkish, which I also found to be true. So ya, I would think you would know if your water breaks unless it's a slow trickle, which is also possible.

So sorry to hijack Sarah's thread but what should I do? Any advice?

[JamesMama]

When my water broke with Aldria my midwife told me to hang out at home till I was having regular ctx and take my temp every 2 hours to monitor for infection. It took about 3 hours to have reg ctx, we went right in at the point because they were 2 mins apart

[oskie]

I was just talking about this with my aunt over the weekend. When she had my cousin, her water broke at the beginning of the last part of a miniseries she really wanted to catch on tv so she stayed home until her show was over.

The water was clear though - with my other cousin, she had some meconium, so she went in right away when her water broke.

The other cool thing was that she knew it was going to happen each time, because she felt a kind of bloop of air bubble up inside her. She went over to the toilet and sure enough, her water broke. She always was the neatfreak of the family!

[wwisdomskr]

I had a leak the other day that had all of us stumped! But, it resealed and everything is fine.

Personally, I don't think it's entirely safe to go to the hospital right after your water breaks...unless you are preterm, have a fever, mec-stained fluid, foul odor or the like. In both scientific evidence and mama-stories, this practice has not resulted in better outcomes for mamas and babies...

Remember, we and our babies are a unit...what is good for mama is good for baby...and what is bad for mama is usually also bad for baby...

The standard protocol for natural birthers is to check temp every 2-4 hours, practice meticulous personal hygiene, keep everything out of your vagina, drink lots of water, change your pads frequently and smell them for any foul odor. They should smell neutral and/or sweet. Even if I were birthing in the hospital/birth center, I would follow this protocol for as long as it took for contractions to kick in on their own. I would not go in unless there were obvious signs of a problem or my instincts told me something was wrong.

[cheeseRjedi]

Most hospitals have a 12 hour limit from when your water breaks to baby. I'd hold out going until your contractions were regular (assuming the waters are clear with no traces of meconium).

FWIW, my water broke 26 hours before labor started and everything was fine. Obviously don't insert anything after that point.

[GinaRae]

Originally Posted by AimeeandBrian

Do you always know if your water has broken?

Unless you have ths slightest trickle and are used to being incontinent, then yes, you will know.

Could be a huge gush gush gush, a lengthy trickle, a trickle on and off, or a 1/2 cup at a time in little gushes.

[GinaRae]

Originally Posted by LittleLlama

So, whatever the situation, be it in a gush or a trickle, , if I'm delivering at a hospital, am I supposed to go right in? Or do I wait till there are contractions for a good amount of time before going in?

If your fluid is clear and there's no cord prolapse, you can be fine waiting at home. depends on how badly you want to check on the heartbeat and what-not I guess!

Once you go in, they time stamp you and want to push interventions like Pitocin and what-not. Also, if you don't go into labor right away, you risk infection every time they reach a hand in there.

SO, if you're nervous about staying home, you could show up at the hospital and sit in the waiting room, walk, visit the cafeteria, etc until something starts happening. Or just sit it out for a while at home.