Labour, is the process of your body getting ready to give birth. Contractions during labour work to thin (efface) and open (dilate) mom’s cervix, so baby can enter the birth canal. Labour is divided into three sections:
- early labour
- active labour
- transition
Your contractions may be very irregular and short at the beginning. This is ‘early’ labour. Most women can spend their early labour at home, going about regular activities and resting when they can. If it is night and you can sleep through contractions, it is a good idea to rest, since you don’t know how long your baby’s birth will take.
As the contractions get stronger, longer and closer together, you’ll know you are really in ‘active’ labour! In this phase mom will usually have to stop what she is doing during a contraction, and really focus on breathing and releasing any extra tension. Her body will be doing hard work, and she will become more focused and serious. Often, the comfort measures that helped earlier, are not as helpful now and the mom and support person will need to try other positions or techniques to help mom release tnesion in he body, as the strength of the contractions increases.
At the end of stage 1, the uterus is working even harder to finish dilating the cervix to 10 cm. At this time, contractions can last 90 seconds or more, are even stronger than before, and can occur every two minutes or so! This is sometimes called the “Transition” phase, and while it is often the most difficult time in the First Stage, it’s also the shortest! Mom is tired, and may also feel nauseous, shaky, sweaty and have a lot of low back pain as the baby starts to move down. Her membranes may rupture at this time, if they have not already done so.
TAKE NOTE: In between the contractions, mom will have no pain, so often she will just fall to sleep for the time in between each contraction, it is normal in this transition phase, for mom to have 20-31 seconds of rest then to have another contraction again, which might last up to as long as 90 seconds! Mom’s body wants to bring this baby to birth soon, and so is working very hard to make that happen quickly.
The labouring mother can act quite differently during transition. She may get angry, weepy, feel panicky, and need lots of reassurance that she CAN get through this intense phase of labour. She may lose her focus, and not really know what she needs to keep her comfortable during contractions. Whatever the partner was doing to help the mom before may not help now, and she may let you know it in no uncertain terms! It’s important not to take anything she says at this time personally! Just keep remembering that with each contraction, this baby is one step closer to birth!