# Is this "slow labour" or am I just being soft?



## blue skies (Jun 8, 2008)

Hi

I'm seeing my midwife on Monday for a sweep but would appreciate your opninion in the meantime (assuming things stay the way they are!). I'm 40 weeks today.

For the past 5 days I've been having on and off "bloody shows" - pink tinged and looks much like fertile CM. I'm also having what I think are "mild" contractions. These are somewhere between a BH and a proper contraction. They render me static - I can _just about_ converse/talk through them, although I have to stop what I am doing and concentrate on breathing/grip something/bend over. They happen in the bottom half of bump, and I've also got lower back ache and a huge feeling of pressure on the cervix. I can feel the pains building, then subsiding. I remember the building and subsiding feeling from labour before, but I had a back-to-back labour and my contractions were excruciating and 6 mins apart from the outset - not like this.

They are not regular - at their peak they have been every 7 minutes lasting 30-40 seconds, but then they go erratic again varying from none for 4 hours, to every 11, 15, 20, 22, 8, etc. They also vary in duration from 15 seconds up to about 40/50 seconds.

Walking about neither speeds them up or slows them down, and they also happened through the night last night, strong enough to wake me up and give me quite a sleep deprived night. I had none from 6am till midday, now they are back with avengance. Paracetamol doesn't do much - takes the edge off the very peak pain, but nothing more.

Just wondering if this sounds like a slow labour type situation. For some reason this time round I'm really starting to fret about giving birth and being stuck in this limbo isn't helping. Can slow labour go on for days and days more, or is it a sign things are moving in the right direction? If I am in slow labour, is a sweep on Monday more likely to be do-able/successful if things are already moving in a favourable way?

Thanks

Sophie


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## emilycaitlin (Mar 7, 2006)

Hi,

It's a bit of an old wives tale that you can have slow labour. What we tend to find is that women experience this for a few days, it stops, then starts, one of the times that it starts, it won't stop, and will progress into labour. It is very uncomfortable, so do what you can to east it, whether thats painkillers or a warm bath.

Hopefully these will have got your cervix ready if not got you into labour!

All the best,

Emilycaitlin xx


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