Signs and Progress of Labor

by Kim Neyer | More from this Blogger

23 Oct 2010 08:19 PM

If you are going through your first pregnancy, you may wonder from time to time what it will be like when you finally reach your due date. One of the biggest questions women have is how they know when the baby is about to come? How do the doctor's know?

When you take your childbirth class, you will probably spend a lot of time talking about the signs of impending labor, as well as the signs of labor progression so that you will have a good idea of where you are each step of the way. Each stage of labor is often characterized by typical symptoms and feelings. For example, it is not uncommon for women to become sick or shiver while they are in transition. Transition is the stage of labor when you are just about finished dilating and you are about to begin pushing. Your body is transitioning from one type of contraction to another, and for some reason, some moms just begin to chatter like they are at the north pole! Others find themselves throwing up. Either way it doesn't surprise the doctors, but when I started shaking from my fingers to my toes, I certainly did not understand what was happening! Next time I'll know that is my sign that the baby is very close to arriving.

The doctors use more scientific signs like time between contractions and how dilated you are to determine how close you are to delivery. I'm sure you have heard people talk about labor and centimeters. They will say things like, "she is 8 centimeters." Just go ahead and relax because they will not be sticking a metric ruler up there to see how dilated you are. (If you are wondering what dilation actually means, check out the related articles below.) Instead, the doctor or nurse inserts two fingers into your cervix and opens them. They estimate how far apart their fingers are in centimeters. It can be uncomfortable if the doctor or nurse is not gentle, but it's likely that you will already be in some degree of pain, so in some cases it might seem like nothing at all.

Despite all the signs you will read about in your baby books and hear about from your doctor, even your doctor will tell you that there is no set time once you see a certain sign. For example, just because your water broke, doesn't mean your baby is going to be born in the next 6 hours. As much as you hate to hear this, because I know I did, your baby will arrive when he or she is ready.

Related Articles:

Effacement and Dilation Explained

Can You Bring on Labor?

How to Cope with a Slow Labor

Learn more about Kim Neyer

Kim is a freelance writer, photographer and stay at home mom to her one-year-old son, Micah. She has been married to her husband, Eric, since 2006.

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