When to Go to the Maternity Hospital?

There is time when a woman does not find it easy to determine whether or not she goes into labor and whether she should go to the maternity hospital, or it is too early. Yet, there are some signs that prompt the right time.

The Mother’s Feeling

During the last weeks before delivery, you will probably look forward to having a long-awaited and anticipated baby. Preliminary calculations do not tell you the exact date of birth and time of birth, since it is normal to give birth to a baby from the 38th to 42nd week of pregnancy.

Physical Changes

However, shortly before the birth there happen physiological changes that can uniquely prompt that it won’t be long before the baby is born. Shortly before the birth, your stomach should fall a little because the baby’s head falls deeper into the pelvic ring. It can occur approximately 1-2 weeks before delivery, but it can occur just before it as well.

Most likely, you will feel somewhat relieved breathing, and the gynecologist will mark uterus prolapse. Shortly before delivery, you will feel Braxton-Hicks contractions, during which the uterus is “trained” before delivery.

Some women feel more pain in the lower back, and some clearly feel how the baby’s head presses on the cervix. In most cases of the first birth, the frequency and strength of contractions grow very slowly, so you have to be patient, to wait until it is time to go to the hospital. Many pregnant women find that it is easier to relax and rest at home, so that labor will be easier and less painful. But you can stay at home only if you have your first baby, and the amniotic bubble is still intact. From the moment the contractions are repeated every 10 minutes and last for at least a minute, you need to go to the hospital.

Signs of Labor

The main sign that you are about to give birth, and that it is time to go to the hospital, is the departure of amniotic fluid. The amniotic bubble is torn, and the liquid flows out. The process is completely painless, and depending on where the opening in the amniotoc bubble is, amniotic fluid will either spill out in the literal sense, or the liquid will trickle drop by drop. Even if the amniotic fluid has left before the contractions, go to the hospital immediately. Since the barriers that protect your baby from infections have already been destroyed, the best decision from now on would be to stay under the supervision of specialists.

At first it is difficult to recognize real labor contractions and not to mix them up with Braxton-Hicks contractions. However, when the contractions become more frequent and more intensive, making you feel more and more worried, it is a sign that you are going into labor.

Prenatal contractions are gradually perceived as recurrent bouts of pain, accompanied by pain in the lower back, thighs, calves, and rectum. The mucous plug, which would close the cervix during pregnancy and protect the child from infections, comes out, signalling that the cervix is ready for labor. Slightly pinkish secretion, consisting of the mucous liquid with a small amount of blood, may appear two weeks before the birth, but very often the mucous plug comes out just before birth.