The beginning of the first birth is an exciting moment about which a woman expecting her first child begins to think long before this event. And the greatest fears in pregnant women are caused by contractions, since they are credited with the most impressive duration and the most tangible pains. Is this so, and what is the frequency of uterine cramps in primiparous women, we will tell in this article.
Start
Labor can begin in different ways. Sometimes the water leaves in the first place, but the classical childbirth, which occurs in about 90% of cases, implies precisely the beginning of periodic and regular contractions of the uterine muscles. The sensation will be as if the lower back and stomach are grasping and after a few seconds it will release. Hence the name of this phenomenon - contractions.
The first real contractions will notify the woman that the cervix has begun to open. All false, training tensions of the uterus, which occurred earlier, were irregular and did not affect the opening of the cervix in any way, occurred autonomously.
To guess that labor has begun, a primiparous woman will be able to by frequency of uterine contractions... This is exactly what you need to watch out for when unusual sensations appear.
How to keep track of the interval?
Suppose that the pregnant woman has already arrived at the due date or there is very little time left before the PDD. The appearance of characteristic sensations should alert her and force her to take up a watch with a stopwatch or launch a special application on her smartphone that will calculate the frequency of the appearance of sensations - a contraction counter.
A contraction is the period between the onset of tension in the uterus. In this case, the abdomen turns to stone, pulling and girdling pains appear from the back to the lower back, to the lower abdomen and up the abdominal wall. It is necessary to measure not only the period from the moment the spasm begins to its end and the complete relaxation of the uterus. You need to pay attention to the intervals between spasms.
So, the frequency of the first contractions before childbirth is 1 spasm in 30-40 minutes. The duration of the spasm is about 15-20 seconds. If, within two to three hours, a woman notes the rhythmic appearance of a uterine contraction, which lasts 20 seconds and repeats every half hour, there should be no doubt that labor has begun.
If there is no bleeding, no water has left, the general condition is normal, you can take your time in the hospital - the first period of contractions, which doctors call latent, lasts up to 10 hours during the first birth. And during this time, the uterus reaches an opening of 3 centimeters - this is about one quarter of full disclosure, but then the process will go faster.
When to the hospital?
It is necessary to go to the obstetrical institution for a woman who is about to give birth to the first when the interval between uterine spasms is 5-10 minutes. Moreover, it is best to go to the ambulance. This transport is equipped with everything necessary to provide emergency assistance to a woman, if required.
Do not wait for such a periodicity and immediately go to the hospital when the water drains, when blood discharge from the genitals appears, with severe dizziness, sudden weakness, sweating and pallor of the skin.
What's next?
Already in the hospital, if a woman arrives on time, active contractions begin. This period will require the mother to apply the knowledge of proper breathing and postures to relieve pain in practice. Contractions become painful, each lasting about 40-50 seconds, and they are repeated every 4-5 minutes. The period can last from three to five hours. During this time, the uterus will open up to 7 centimeters.
The most painful sensations occur during transient spasms. This period in obstetrics is called the pre-press period, or the period of relaxation. Such fights will last from half an hour to an hour and a half. Each will last within a minute, and the interval between them will be about 2 minutes. During this time, the neck will expand as much as possible - up to 10-12 centimeters (depending on the size of the pelvis).
After that, attempts will begin and your baby will soon be born. A woman will be alerted to the beginning of a persistent period or a period of fetal expulsion with an acute desire to go to the toilet and empty the intestines.
But you need to push only at the request of the obstetrician. This will avoid ruptures of the birth canal, uterus, cervix, as well as birth injuries in the baby.
Thus, in total, the period of contractions can take a primiparous woman up to 18 hours. But no doctor will tell you in advance how long the labor will last and what the frequency of contractions will be. The above are only average data. In fact, labor may be faster or weaker, and then the woman will need medical support to increase uterine cramps.
You should not be afraid of childbirth. There are many techniques to make them less painful. These are hypnotic childbirth, and special breathing techniques that will help reduce the pain threshold, and massage of the sacrum and peri-sacral zone, which women can easily do to themselves in between uterine spasms. As a last resort, doctors may use medical pain relief for the most severe contractions.
You will learn more about contractions in the following video.
