Throughout the third trimester of pregnancy, a primogenous woman is worried about one important question: "How to recognize contractions?" It seems that such a moment is difficult to confuse with anything, but it is not.
Training, or false contractions.
Starting from the second half of pregnancy, a woman may experience some discomfort associated with the so-called “false contractions”. They are not harbingers of childbirth, but only in a peculiar way train the body of a pregnant woman before real labor pains or warn a future mother about her incorrect behavior. Training fights are irregular, and in most cases do not cause a woman much pain.
How do you know that a fight has begun?
Most often, training contractions begin from the 30th week of pregnancy. This is where the question arises, how to recognize labor pains, distinguishing them from false or training. Labor pains have their own regular cycle. The uterus enters tone for up to 15 seconds, after which it relaxes for 15 minutes. In this case, a woman in labor, as a rule, feels a pulling pain that goes away along with her tone. In addition to the uterus, contractions are felt in the lumbar region. The pain can be either "aching" or similar to a sharp flash. Further, the duration of the bout increases, and the interval between them decreases.
It is worth noting that the transition from a short-term bout to a full-fledged birth can be about 16 hours in a primiparous woman. Therefore, if a pregnant woman felt a pulling and regularly recurring pain, then she should not neglect the visit of an obstetrician-gynecologist who will accurately determine the nature of the fight.
Signs of the onset of true labor pains.
The above process is not the only sign of the beginning of the first stage of labor. There are two more indications of how to recognize contractions.
The first of them is the discharge of the cork - a transparent mucous clot with possible blood impregnations. However, the cork may depart a week before the start of contractions. Therefore, if this happens, and the contractions do not begin, you must consult a doctor.
The second sign may be the outflow of amniotic fluid. In the period from 37 to 42 weeks of pregnancy, this process is physiological. As a rule, in this case the period of contractions begins, described above. When amniotic fluid is poured out before the onset of labor, the woman in labor feels stronger later on. At the same time, the duration of the bout can immediately start from 30 seconds, and the interval between them can be reduced to 5 minutes.
Some reservations
Many fear that they will not be able to answer the question for themselves in time: "How to recognize contractions?" At the same time, fears are to some extent justified. The pains that they bring allow you to feel the contractions. But for some women in childbirth, the pain threshold is quite high, and they understand that contractions began when the cervix dilates from 5 to 8 cm.
In addition, cork discharge, as well as amniotic fluid flow, can occur when the woman in labor is in the shower. In this case, how do you know the contractions? Everything is quite simple. Being in the last trimester of pregnancy, the expectant mother should clearly listen to her body, noting the slightest change. Labor pain is inevitably accompanied by a gradual increase in pain at the peak, and the uterus contracts more. And, therefore, it is not difficult to recognize the contractions both for the primogenous and for the woman giving birth again.
As a rule, the question of how to find out that contractions have begun only occurs during the first pregnancy. The female body will remember all those feelings that he experienced during the first birth, and subsequently with ease it will be possible to distinguish labor contractions from false ones. Therefore, during the first two trimesters of pregnancy, it is advisable to familiarize yourself or refresh in memory the information on how to recognize contractions. Only in this case, the first period of labor will be perfect.