Thread: Did you waters always break in labour

I think generally there is a pattern but would love to see if you can prove me right!
Thanks !

First labour waters broke when I was having regular but not massively excruitiating contractions - I was still under the impression that they were bad Braxton Hicks until my waters went - was 4cm when I got to hospital 30 mins later.

Second labour- had 2 weeks pre-labour ish contractions (took 2 weeks to go from 2cm to 4cm) - had ARM at 6cm after it took 6 hours to go from 4cm to 6cm - membranes bulging but would not rupture and I wanted to try to speed up labour to avoid second section, without using drugs to speed it up.

Flo, ARM. Ana I think they broke when she crowned.

It would be interesting to have a poll on who had ARM and who didn't.

This is my only problem with my labours - I had to have my waters broken for me. In both labours it was slowed because my waters wouldnt break they were manually broken after a lot of physical exertion and pointy sticks from the midwives. :thumbsdown
Pupuce do you know if some amnionic sacs are tougher than others?

Pie - I had ARM as part of my induction. For ages they were unable to do it though, and Mollie was finally born with little scratches all over her head

I don't know if some sacs are stronger than others but babies can be born in their sac.
I have a bit of a bug bear with the "my labour slowed down because my waters would not break"... Independent MWs usually do not break waters.... I think it is un-necessary to do an ARM and can lead to problems such as meconium in waters and distressed babies. My opinion only.

:confused I've voted but in truth, I didn't know they had :shrug. Kind of thought I'd have realised but there you go.

I'd had 55 hours of strong but irregular contractions (OP presentation) when I had an antenatal and broke down (tired and desperate by then&#33 the midwife asked if I'd like her to do a sweep to try and bring things along. I agreed so she internally examined and commented that did I know my waters had gone. She was feeling baby's head not membrane, and I was about 4 cm so then I was classed as being in labour. I voted that they went before labour then, but I was having contractions and I truly do not know when they went :shrug

How can you not know your waters have gone?

By my second labour I knew my body very well and I knew the baby wouldnt come out unless the sac was broken. I stayed at the same stage of "they are ready to break!" for about 5 hours, nothing was budging. The m/w was against breaking my waters but when she finally managed to break the sac she said that we had definatley done the right thing.
:shrug

mine broke spectacularly after about 3 hours of contractions,with a very painful contraction, then things got very intense and i think they marked the beginning of the transition stage