If your waters break but contractions don't start.................................

[weepootle]

how long do your hospital leave you at home before bringing you in?

I ask because MW told me yesterday that I would be left for 4 days to see if contractions started before being brought in to be induced .

With dd1, (born in different area) I had to go immediately to hospital when they broke (contractions or not) and stay there until it all started as I was told I had to be in a sterile environment once they'd broken.

[weepootle]

Oh, they haven't broken yet btw - just expecting it to happen that way since it did last time.

[2pt4WiseMen]

With DS1 they said 24 hours but I went in after 24 hours and ended up waiting a good extra 24 hours for them to have space on labour ward to induce me!!

[Lulumama]

really ! it used to be 96 hours according to NICE, but recently amended to 24.

have your waters gone or is this hypothetical?

if your waters have gone, no sex ! but nipple stim can help to bring on ctx and most women will start to contract anyway

[weepootle]

Really lulu? Don't know what NICE means but does it cover whole of UK? Surely this should be a standard time then?

Hypothetical btw.

[nuttygirl]

NICE = national institute for clinical excellence

[ten10]

It depends on if the hospital/mw give you an internal exam after waters have broken, as then there is more of a problem with infection, so they will induce almost imediately

I was PROM (pre-rupturing of membrane)
and they didn't give me an internal exam, and told me to come back in after 72 hours if nothing happened naturally,
nothing did so was booked in to be induced,
during and after birth I was given antibiotics just in case of any infection, but everything was fine, DS was perfect.

(72 hrs was what they told me was procedure but this was nearly two years ago so may have changed.)

[CatIsSleepy]

when my waters broke my hospital told me to come back in 48 hours to be induced if labour hadn't started naturally

[mejon]

Mine broke in the early hours of a Wednesday morning and if I hadn't gone into labour by mid-afternoon on the Thursday, I was to go in to be induced so around 36 hours I think. This was 2.4 years ago. Luckily my contractions started mid-morning on the Thursday so didn't need to be induced. I wasn't given any antibiotics but we were both kept in hospital for an extra night to make sure neither of us had an infection.

[FruitynNutty]

I was told to go straight in. I had to be induced in the end as I had no contractions what so ever. DS was 12 days overdue though so maybe that's why I had to go straight in?

[Rhian82]

Mine broke without contractions starting, and the midwife said I would be brought in for an induction if they didn't start by 96 hours. It varies from Trust to Trust though.

(and I went into labour at 20 hours )

[Lionstar]

I was given 48 hours to attempt my homebirth, but in the end had to go in to be induced as contractions never really got going (was 37 weeks).

[LittleMonkeysMummysAXmasFairy]

Mine broke at 9am in the morning. Had to go in for an hours assessment and then sent home again - had to go back the next morning to be induced. As it was I then spent another 24hours in the hospital waiting for a bed in the labour ward so I could be induced!

[Tinasan]

I was given 48 hours (Ten10, I did have an internal examination at the hospital to confirm they had broken, so think what you suggest may be a policy in only some hospitals). They did say it was up to me, if I really wanted they would start to induce me, but the obst. said that 95% of women would go into labour on their own within 48 hours - which was true in my case! Good luck.

[LenniEd]

Mine broke at 5am on xmas morning 2years ago and I was told to come in and was checked (internal to see if they were broken + swabs for infection). They couldn't be sure if gone or not despite me leaking like a tap there wasn't anything obvious when checked, apparently can be difficult to tell, so sent home and given usual advice (no baths, no sex, had to monitor and record temp). Back next day and 2nd internal confirmed that they had gone - kept in and told 72 hours to go into labour otherwise induction (total would have been 96 I guess as had gone previous day). Active labour started 61 hours after they went so I would have been one of the 5% who didn't make the 48hr window. DD delivered 83hrs after they went and registrar was getting very twitchy to say the least.

Can honestly say I was entirely unprepared for how much I leaked in those 3 days and it wasn't pleasant, couldn't sleep at all - in some ways would have rather been induced at the start of it all. Lulumama and Mars got me through it though

[Ebb]

My waters went about 9pm on the Saturday and was called in to have a trace and swab. Was told I could either be induced the following morning or wait and see and come in by 9am Tuesday morning if I hadn't gone into labour naturally. Contractions started 2.30am Sunday morning and Ds was born at 10.20am. Was 6 months ago at Southmead, Bristol.

[Mung]

Mine went at about 11pm on a Sunday and I was taken in for induction on the following Thursday. Nothing happened until late that evening and DS was born by C-Section on the Friday morning.

When I had DD the consultant said that in the area where I live now they wouldn't have left me that long.