Signs of Labor
There are several signals your body will give you to let you know you are preparing for pregnancy. Understanding the signs and symptoms of labor will help prepare for a healthy birth.
Leaking or Vaginal Discharge
You may experience discharge of mucus, the small amount of thickened mucus that has sealed your cervical canal during the last nine months as you get closer to labor. The mucus may be brown, pink, or red blood. However, having sex or vaginal examination can disturb your mucus plug cause you to see some blood-tinged discharge, even when labor isn't going to start in the next few days (source).
Cramps
In the last week of pregnancy, cramping may be a sign that labor
is almost ready to begin. At the start of labor, you may have strong cramps
that come regularly every 5-10 minutes and feel like a bad backache or
menstrual cramps. Backache and leg cramps may also occur. As the baby drops
into pelvic inlet, he or she will put pressure on your nerves which can cause
cramping in your legs (source).
Contraction
Many women will have contractions throughout the end of their
pregnancy. As labor progresses, contraction will increase in strength,
frequency, and duration (source).
There are two absolutely clear signs that you are in labor:
contractions that become longer, stronger, and closer together with the passage
of time and the breaking of the bag of waters.
When you're in true labor, you will feel the contraction in
abdomen, the back, or both, and they will be painful and strong. The best way
to be sure whether your contraction is progressing is to time them. Contractions
are dilating the cervix by the time they average one minute long and five
minutes apart (source).
Water Breaking
Labor usually begins shortly after rupture of your amniotic membrane. Water breaking may feel like a gush of water or a small trickle. You may even think you have urinated on yourself (source).
If you are close to your due date, your water breaks, and you don't go into labor on your own within a relatively short period of time, you will need to have labor induced.
Be sure to tell your health care team if your "water" isn't clear. If your amniotic fluid is greenish in color or smells bad, it could signal either an infection or meconium (essentially baby feces), either of which could cause problems for your baby (source).
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labor,
signs of labor
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