Signs of labour

Everyone experiences labour differently, but it’s important you stay well hydrated, fed, relaxed, and ready to call us when it’s time.

An early sign that your body is getting ready for labour is a show.

Everyone is different. Some mums might see a show a few weeks before labour, some might never notice it.

It’s normal to experience the show along with backache or tightening.

Labour differs for everyone. Sometimes your labour will quickly follow the show, and others might take a few days.

But if you’re unsure, you can call the delivery suite triage for reassurance. The number is in your notes.

Your waters breaking are another sign of labour. Sometimes it’ll happen before your contraction start, but often it’ll happen during labour.

If your waters break naturally, you will either feel a slow trickle or a sudden gush of water that you can’t control.

Once your waters have broken they will continue to flow, so it’s best to wear a sanitary towel.

At this point, call triage even if your contractions haven’t started. The number is in your notes.

Finally, you’ll start to feel contractions. For most mums, they feel like period cramps or a mild tightening.

The strength of your contractions, and how often they happen, may be irregular too. They might come and go over a few days.

When your contractions feel strong, come every two to three minutes, and last up to one minute, call triage even if you’re having a home birth. The numbers are in your notes.

Alternatively, if you’ve booked the birth centre for your delivery, you can call delivery suite or the birth centre. Again, the numbers are in your notes.

Another sign of labour to look out for is vomiting or diarrhoea. Eat what you can and stay hydrated to keep your energy levels up.

Your midwife will listen to and monitor your baby’s heartbeat while you’re in labour.

The way we carry out this monitoring will depend on how well you are and whether you have any medical or pregnancy-related conditions.

If you are feeling well and don’t have any medical or pregnancy-related conditions, we will use a handheld machine to check your baby’s heartbeat regularly.

If we need to monitor you more closely, we will use a bigger machine to continuously record your baby’s hear trate.

We’ll check your baby’s heartbeat at least once an hour. For each check, an independent member of the team will come to review the results.

If we think you and your baby need extra support, the person looking after you will involve a senior member of our team.

We train and assess everyone who checks babies’ heartrates each year.