STAY HOME...UNTIL WHEN? EARLY LABOUR DECISIONS

THE CASCADE OF NON-INTERVENTION

·       Reminder:  these are general thoughts and may not apply to you specifically. Your individual health circumstances or birth plans may exclude you from the audience that I am speaking to. Be an active participant in your own health care and consider whether this advise applies to you or not.

When you are in early labour at home, you will be thinking a lot about when the best time is to go to the hospital. Consider this: One of the best things you can do to help yourself have a smooth and physiologically normal birth is to stay home as long as you can before going into hospital to be admitted.

Remember:

 the longer you stay home—

the more time your body has to do what it needs to do—

the less opportunities for interventions to be suggested and implemented-

The less side effects or consequences from those interventions.....

Health care providers will want you to be in Active labour when you come into hospital.

ACTIVE LABOUR- This is the middle part of Stage 1 labour. It comes after Early Labour. Contractions are regular, moderate to intense in sensation and are happening at about 3-4 min apart. You can track your contractions by downloading a contraction timer app and keeping an eye out for the pattern that you are experiencing.                                                                                                            Your cervix is dilated between 4-6 cm. Healthcare providers vary on how much dilation = active labour. Your care provider will do a cervical exam to determine dilation.

Midwives will give you specific guidelines as to when to page them and, when to leave to go to the hospital at which point they will meet you there, speak with you and do a cervical exam to see if you are in active labour. The most helpful part of this is that you get to speak to your HCP before leaving your home- getting reassurance that the time is right- or not!

Your OB will also tell you a general time for when you should come in to hospital. This info may be given at one of your last prenatal appointments. You will need to remember this information and make your own decision while you are home in early/active labour as to when you should head out. It can be discouraging to go into the hospital in what you think is labour, only to be sent home to wait some more.

Action: call the L&D  at your hospital, ask your midwife, or ask your OB when the is the latest time they would have you come into triage. Ask for this information at about 38 weeks gestation. File it away BUT remember it on the day that labour starts.

Shameless Doula Plug- Speak with your Doula about this. A good time to have this conversation is during one of your prenatal visits. Determine together what signs will indicate that it is time to go.  Ask for suggestions for a good Contraction Timer app. They will most likely recommend that you check with your HCP to confirm but your doula has good knowledge and experience with this.