Hello everyone!
My step sister lives in Oakland, Ca and is due any day now with her first baby. She has been having contractions every five minutes since yesterday morning, about 4am our time. At 7am she went into the hospital because she thought her water broke, but the sent her home because they said that her water had not broken and she was only 1 cm dilated. She went back to the hospital last night when the contractions became only 2 minutes apart. Since she was only 3 cm dilated, they sent her home again. They have been giving her morphine for the pain, but it's not really helping her. She does not drive and is alone in all of this. It does not sound right to me that they would send her home with contractions that close and 3 cm along. I went from 1 cm to fully dilated in like 15 minutes with my son. Anything could happen at anytime right? I guess I'm just a little worried since she's by herself out there. Anyone experience this? Please reassure me that this won't put stress on her or the baby!
Thanks for all of your help!
Ladies, thank you so much for your responses! After we both calmed down a little bit, she ended up going back to the hospital and they finally admitted her last night. She had a healthy, beautiful baby girl this morning at 6:25am (pacific time). Both mother and baby are well. Thank you all for calming my nerves!
It doesn't sound right. Is there another hospital she could go to? I never heard of anything like this. When I had my son, it took all day, finally they induced labor. My water didn't break on it's own either, the doctor did it. I would get her to another hospital. It also worries me about a heavy drug like morphine with a baby.
This is common in a baby that isn't 'lined up' well, particularly if the baby is in a posterior position (facing up toward mom's front instead of back. Unfortunately unless she has a doula or midwife or skilled L&D nurse experienced with helping babies change their position, there isn't much to be done and these days women with posterior babies who deliver in the hospital often do so by C-section. There are a lot of techniques to help the baby rotate (sifting, open-knee-chest, stair climbing) but I'm not sure how you can help at this point. I wish her the best...D. (Founder and Director, BabyBodyBirth.com)
Hi J.,
I just wanted to say, don't worry. Your sister and the baby will be fine. I had contractions every 5 min (60 sec long) for 6 weeks before I had my son and was 3 cm the whole time! They admitted me at 4 cm when the contractions changed (they were every 3 min for the last few weeks) but they started to come in my lower back and lasting longer, that is when I went in for the last time. I am 32 weeks pregnant again, and having contractions already (not Braxton-Hicks). I love and trust my doctor and she explained some people have over-sensitive uteruses and that I happen to be one of them! I would say to tell your sister not to do anything to try to bring the labor on, it only makes the contractions worse and they don't seem to cause any progression at this point. I completely understand her frusteration right now, but the contractions are going to get A LOT worse and learn to get used to these and the next ones will be better. When they admitted me, I stayed at 4 cm and 3 min for 8 hours before they decided to break my water, that is when my labor really progressed, so my point is, she is going to be more comfortable at home and not to worry about the dilation or the contractions being close. They will both be fine. One thing that helped me was to not think "oh no here comes another one" but to think about a wave, how it comes on slowly and reaches a peak then it is going to go away...thinking positively REALLY helps to deal with the days and days of contractions! The baby will be here sooner than you both know it!
I hope she has had the baby by now?
At any rate...what you were describing sounded to me a lot like a poorly positioned baby. As a childbirth instructor/doula, I would be encouraging a mom like this to crawl on hands & knees (might need someone to press on her sacrum, as she might feel a lot of uncomfortable pressure there in hands & knees), do some deep lunges, and in general keep moving. Check out www.spinningbabies.com for some more suggestions.
Hope you are enjoying being an aunt!
(P.S. LOL! Just read that Dawn beat me here...)
tell her to call her OB first and not go to the ER.
remind her that she can call 9-1-1 if needed; good luck, it won't be long now
I was admitted when my contractions were 3 min apart and 4 cm. I do wonder why she wasn't admitted. I would have her contact her OB.
