What it is
Signs labor is starting come in two kinds: the ones that mean soon, and the ones that mean now. The soon signs can show up days or weeks ahead. The baby drops lower, so you breathe easier but pee more. You get a burst of energy or an urge to clean. Your stools loosen. You lose your mucus plug, a thick clear, pink, or brown jelly. Bloody show is mucus streaked with blood, and it often comes within a day or two of labor.
The now signs are contractions that build. Early labor is the stretch before 6 centimeters. For a first baby it often lasts 6 to 12 hours and can run a full day. Only about 1 in 10 labors starts with the water breaking, whatever the movies show. Only about 1 in 20 babies arrives on the due date.
What's typical
Practice contractions, or Braxton Hicks, are irregular, mostly in the front, and ease with a change of position, a glass of water, or a bath. Labor contractions get longer, stronger, and closer together no matter what you do. They often start in the back and wrap to the front. An early pattern is every 10 to 20 minutes for 30 to 45 seconds. Active labor looks like every 3 to 5 minutes, lasting a minute, for over an hour. You cannot talk through them. Prodromal labor, real contractions that stop and start for days, is miserable and common and not dangerous. Before 37 weeks, regular contractions are a different story.
What's known
ACOG now calls labor active at 6 centimeters, not 4, because the early part moves slowly and admitting mothers too soon leads to more interventions. Midwives have long taught the same thing another way: labor is here when you can no longer ignore it. The 5-1-1 rule, contractions 5 minutes apart lasting 1 minute for 1 hour, is the common guide for a first baby. Second and later babies move faster, so many providers say to come sooner.
What helps
- Time a few contractions, then put the phone down. Check again in an hour. Watch the trend, not each one.
- Try the change test: drink water, take a bath, lie on your other side. Practice contractions fade. Labor does not.
- Eat something light and rest if it is night. Early labor is for sleeping if you can.
- Tell your partner or doula what you are noticing. Someone outside your body sees the pattern sooner.
When to call someone
- Nowbefore 37 weeks, 4 or more contractions in an hour, period-like cramping, low back ache in waves, or fluid leaking. Call now.
- Now, at any week: bleeding like a period, a severe headache with vision changes, green or brown fluid, or the baby moving less than usual.
- Call now: your water breaks, clear or not. Your provider will want the time and color and will tell you when to come.
- Go in: contractions at 5-1-1, or sooner if this is not your first baby, you live far away, or you are GBS positive.
- At your next visitask your provider their exact when-to-call rules. Every practice phrases them a little differently.
Who helps
Tools: Due Date Calculator · Birth Plan Generator
Related
- Early labor at home: when to go inGetting Ready for Birth
- When your water breaksGetting Ready for Birth
- Braxton Hicks and practice contractionsPregnancy: Your Body
- The stages of labor, plainlyBirth and the First Days
- Short cervix and signs of preterm laborPregnancy: Your Body
- Going past your due datePregnancy: Your Body
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Sources
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists — Patient FAQ on how to tell when labor begins
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine — Obstetric care consensus on safe prevention of the primary cesarean delivery
- March of Dimes — Signs of labor
- NHS — Signs that labour has begun
Sources are named, not yet linked. The steward verifies each one and adds the link.
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