Women who are going to become mothers again or for the third or fourth time are usually well aware of the sensations that accompany labor pains. But sometimes they simply cannot identify them and distinguish them from training ones, since the contractions themselves during repeated childbirth have their own distinctive features.
In this article, we will tell you how contractions begin in multiparous women, when it is time to go to the hospital and how to relieve discomfort.
Rebirth - what are the differences?
During the second or third pregnancy, it is always much easier for women to understand the essence of the changes taking place in their body. Childbirth experience is an important acquisition that is not forgotten, even if the time interval between pregnancies is many years. Usually, such women do not have any panic when false contractions appear, and they can quite easily understand that precursor contractions have begun.
But one important feature must be taken into account - training contractions during repeated pregnancy begin much later than while waiting for the first child.
If in primiparas, short-term uterine spasms, which are considered the preparatory work of a woman's reproductive organ before childbirth, sometimes begin after the 20th week of pregnancy, then in the second birth, false contractions can only be counted in the third trimester. Sometimes they do not happen at all, and only a few weeks before childbirth, slight sensations of tension in the walls of the uterus may appear, which will appear periodically.
False contractions, or Braxton-Hicks contractions, with repeated pregnancy, often start and just a few days before childbirth and almost immediately turn into the category of precursor contractions, which occur against the background of pre-maturation of the cervix, its softening.
Such a late appearance of sensations can be explained by those physiological changes that occurred in the tissues of the uterus during the first pregnancy and childbirth. During repeated pregnancy, the uterine muscles are more stretched, elastic, the cervix is not as tight as in primiparous, and therefore the abdomen in multiparous grows somewhat faster, and many internal processes associated with preparing the body for the upcoming birth are less painful, and sometimes even generally imperceptible.
When the harbingers reach their climax (and this happens just a few days before childbirth), theoretically, some women begin to consciously feel them.
At the household level, this means that you need to prepare for childbirth, collect the necessary things, documents, multiparous needs in advance. With a high degree of probability, there will not be such a large amount of time for preparation, which she had during the first birth, the second or third time.
Doctors usually recommend preparing everything necessary for childbirth from 36-37 weeks of pregnancy, and this will significantly facilitate the task of the woman in labor when the real true contractions begin.
Start
Training contractions and harbingers are never systematic and do not have a periodicity.
Before childbirth, they occur spontaneously, moreover, they can return both after half an hour and after a few hours, and this is considered completely normal. Much of the precursor sensation depends on how quickly the cervix prepares to open. The opening itself begins with the first labor pain.
It is possible to distinguish it from false precisely by its regularity, cyclicality and a certain pattern.
Even if the precursor contractions of the uterus were poorly expressed or went completely unnoticed, then labor pains are difficult to confuse with anything else. They always repeat in time, last a certain number of seconds and the breaks between them are gradually reduced, while the spasm itself becomes more protracted.
If the mucous plug has come off, this does not mean that the woman is giving birth.
In primiparous, the plug usually separates from the cervical canal as the canal expands during cervical maturation 1–2 weeks before delivery or even earlier. With repeated childbirth, the discharge of the cork is a signal that childbirth can be expected within 1-3 days, or maybe in a few hours. You just need to carefully monitor your condition.
The very first contractions, the first signs of labor in the second pregnancy, usually last 15-20 seconds with an interval of 30 minutes between them. Painful sensations, as in the first birth, are observed in the back, lower back, with the subsequent transition to the abdominal cavity and lower abdomen. But it should be borne in mind that the painful sensations themselves during the second childbirth can be much more blurred, smoothed, and therefore the woman may not recognize the onset of labor.
In any case, you just need to correctly count the duration of contractions and note how many repeated contractions appeared. It is this pattern that should lead a woman to the idea that childbirth is still beginning.
Some multiparous argue that the very beginning of labor was not noticed at all. Even if it happened at night, it's okay. Nature has foreseen everything so that a woman does not oversleep an important moment, and therefore, when the contractions intensify, she will definitely wake up and be able to calculate their frequency.
At the first birth, doctors recommend going to the maternity hospital, when the rhythmic contractions of the uterus are repeated every 10 minutes.
It should be noted that during the second birth, all stages of labor are faster, and therefore it is better to arrive at the obstetric institution in advancewhen the contractions are stably repeated once every 15 minutes.
If the first birth was long ago and the sensations were "forgotten", you can use the achievements of modern technical progress.
Today, there are special applications for smartphones that will count the contractions for you and determine for themselves whether it is childbirth or not, it is time to go to the hospital or the alarm is false. You just need to launch the application and mark the onset of unpleasant sensations in the lower back or abdomen, and then press each time as soon as it seems to you that the spasm has recurred. The programs are freely available for free. The contraction counter is convenient and modern, but sometimes it makes mistakes, and therefore it is better to control your condition on your own.
Classic labor always starts with contractions. But if the water has departed or blood discharge has appeared, this is also a signal of the onset of labor, however, complicated. In this case, there is no need to wait for contractions. You should immediately call an ambulance and go to the hospital as soon as possible.
Features:
The first phase of contractions is the longest. It is called latent, because while the generic signs are hidden.
The cervix begins to open and should open 3-4 centimeters in about 7-8 hours. In primiparas, this process takes much longer.
Considering that the very first sensations can be missed and not noticed, from the moment contractions are detected and measured, a multiparous woman has about 3 hours to get to the hospital in full combat readiness.
There is no need to be afraid - the painful sensations in the latent period during the second or third birth are not as strong as the first time, and this is due to the elasticity of the cervix and uterus, as well as the better psychological readiness of the woman in labor. The cervix opens better, it is not as tight and strong as in primiparous, the opening is faster and easier.
Already in the hospital, a woman is waiting for the second phase of contractions - active contractions. Contractions become stronger, more frequent and eventually lead to an opening of the neck up to 7 centimeters. With the second birth, this period lasts from one and a half to 3 hours.
The most painful and difficult contractions are transitional. They are the final stage of the fights and symbolize the "decisive push" to pushing. In the second birth, such contractions last a minute each and are repeated every 1-3 minutes. The period is difficult, but usually short. Full dilatation of the cervix occurs most often within 15-30 minutes, and in primiparous this period can last up to one and a half hours.
How long the attempts will last, no one knows, but usually during the second birth, the final expulsion of the fetus from the uterine cavity takes a little - 10-30 minutes. However, the placenta can be delayed, and the last part of labor in mothers with experience lasts longer than in primiparous.
If the second birth is easier than the first, and numerous reviews of women confirm this, then the question involuntarily arises as to how safe they are. The likelihood of complications remains at the same level, experts say. Birth weakness, when the contractions suddenly stop or become weak, of course, is less common in multiparous, but the likelihood that the water will go away prematurely or the cervix is injured due to the rupture of old scars increases.
The likelihood of birth trauma depends little on the number of births in a woman, but nevertheless, it is less common with a second birth, since a woman usually imagines how to behave in childbirth so as not to harm the child.
Memo for giving birth again
- If the doctor recommends going to the hospital in advance, you do not need to refuse, especially given the high likelihood of quick and even rapid labor. Even if you don't want to leave the first child, you need to understand that the second baby now more than anyone else needs a prudent mother's behavior.
- If the pregnancy proceeded with pathologies, it is also worth going to the hospital in advance. Carrying pathologies are completely unpredictable during childbirth.
- When active contractions appear, you need to breathe correctly - take slow and deep breaths and even slower exhales. This will relax the muscles, relieve pain, because endorphins, which are produced in the body when oxygenated due to deep breathing, have an excellent "side effect" - they relieve pain.
- Poses for easier waiting out of the bout are already familiar to multiparous. A woman usually quickly finds the position in which it is easier for her to endure labor pain. Use the postures that have helped you before, and massage and self-massage the sacral region.
- You can only push after the appropriate command from the obstetrician. Independent and unauthorized attempts can lead to multiple ruptures of the genital tract, cervix, birth trauma to the head and cervical spine of the baby.
- If there is a desire to empty the intestines, it means that the uterus is completely open. It's time to call an obstetrician or doctor and move to the hospital. There is no need to endure and wait, since the generic process is shortened in time. And from the moment the desire appears to go to the toilet in a big way until the birth of a baby, it can take only 10-20 minutes.
- The cry during childbirth takes away the strength from the woman in labor and the oxygen from the baby. You can moan, you can sing, but you shouldn't shout.
- All norms and terms, duration and duration indicated in this article, as well as in any medical literature, are averaged. In each case, the periods can be longer or shorter.
Reviews
According to the reviews of women in labor, sometimes it is not possible to recognize contractions, and women either come to the hospital in advance, or even when there is no doubt, but by this time the multiparous already have a rather large opening of the cervix. The fact is that a pregnant woman intuitively expects the same sensations as the first time, and most often they are completely different.
Correction for the relative speed of each of the stages must be done.
Also, don't trust your sensitivity. Some mothers point out that even the pains were completely different and began not from the back, but from the lower back.
And therefore, only the correct measurement of the frequency and cyclicality of the repetition of sensations can help to understand what is happening and make it to the hospital in time.
The specialist tells about the differences between the second birth and the first in the following video.
