I have a question about labor and contractions!?

Question

I had to go to labor and deliever the other night because my husban and I had sex and I guess sperm has a hormone in it to cause some women to contract. When they had me hooked to one of those contraction and baby heart beat monitors there was a number on the contraction side that was like 176 I was just wondering how high it went and if that was even bad contractions or not. I am planning on doing labor all natural and was wondering if that was like a number in how intense the contractions were!?

Answer 1

My best advice to you is to ignore those numbers. It sounds like you're trying to gage the pain of full labor contractions? Honey, don't even think about it that way. If you are relaxed and focused on your work, your labor will go as planned. If it doesn't, that's OK, but you need to remain rested, and relaxed. The key word is relaxed. I like to start at my scalp, relaxing one muscle group at a time with each exhale. I move down my body until I'm as limp as a rag doll.

Another visualization tool that helped me is a blooming flower. You want your cervix to open like a flower, so you can chant "flower" with every exhale. Picture your favorite flower opening up. You can start that right now.

You don't have to let them put you on a monitor. If you want a monitor, you can ask for telemetry so you can at least get up and move a little. You don't have to comply with vaginal exams either. It's totally your choice. I found that the exams and monitors caused me to tense up, so I stopped allowing them. Maybe it will help you to assign a number to your progress--we all do this differently!

Best wishes to you. I believe that you can have a natural birth. It's an awesome experience when your body takes over and your baby gently emerges. It's life-changing.

Answer 2

The monitors at the hospital do not read out liek you think they do. For example, when I went to L&D when I was pregnant, I was having a HARD contraction every 2 minutes for 4 hours. They looked liek they were off the charts on the monitors and the print outs. I asked the nurse lady if those were considered "big" contractions, and she said that those monitors do not tell you how 'big' the contraction is, it simply tells them how long the contraction is and how far inbetween them. The lines going up and down (looks liek mountains) is just calculating the length of the contraction, not the severity of it.
The number you are talking about is not a high number. My nurse told me that for cervical change to occur you need to have that number over 200, which yours isnt. So I am willing to bet that there was no cervical change made, or not significant enough to keep you in and have the baby....hence why you are typing this.
There is nothign you can really do to MAKE teh contractions over 200, it is all abotu when your body is ready to do it, and what the baby is doing in there.
You an not gage the pain of those contractions to 'real labor' contractions...real labor contractions feel sort of the same, but stronger (in order to cause cervical change to dilate and efface). Some women have braxton hicks contractions that are painful to them, but real labor contractions arent too bad. It is on an individual basis, and what your body does with the contractions.
Just rememebr to relax through them and focus. Do nto worry abotu the number on the screen (besides it not indicating the intensity of teh contraction, it will not keep you focused enough). Just focus on letting your body feel the pain and let the pain wash over you..and BREATHE....do not tense up.

Good luck.

Answer 3

Wait a second; you say you are going ALL natural and then you talk about being hooked up to a machine. I had natural childbirth; I had no electronic monitor or machine that I was hooked up to. The doctor used a fetascope to hear the heartbeat. I was even allowed to eat when I was in labor.
Natural means more than just no pain medication.