u/Mean-Year4646

Bro 😭😭😭 this sucks! Last night I had another round of prodromal labor and I really thought it might be time and then once we got to 5 minutes apart they just petered out to nothing once again :( I had a good long sob about it to my husband. I feel like I’m never going to go into labor, I feel totally hopeless, and the suspense and bouts of prodromal labor are killing me :( This is making me so depressed

Edit: Everyone is downvoting my comment about how my midwives use Castor Oil as an induction method and saying I shouldn’t be going to my birth center if that’s the case, but my midwives are Certified Nurse Midwives. They all have medical degrees and at least 25 years of experience. My midwife specifically, the lead midwife at the practice, has a doctorate and has delivered over 2,000 babies and has had only one loss. They work under the supervision of my city’s Maternal Fetal Medicine, one of the best in the country. People come here from other states to receive care from the MFM practice they work under. They would not do anything to put me or my baby in danger. I’m under legitimate medical care

And no baby :( I got a pelvic exam/cervical check on Saturday and was not dilated at all, but the midwife did say my cervix is very soft. Baby boy was at -2 station.

I’m so sore and starting to feel desperate to go into labor, especially since I can’t be induced at the birth center so there’s a time limit on me going into spontaneous labor. Help me! I’m having sex every day at least twice a day, I’m using my breast pump 3 times a day for 15 minutes as my midwife suggested, I’ve been eating 6 dates a day every day for 3 weeks now, I’m guzzling red raspberry leaf tea, I’m doing the miles circuit (baby is already head down and anterior and has been since 28 weeks), I’ve been doing evening primrose oil vaginal suppositories at night for 3 weeks, I’m using the birth ball daily, I’m seeing a chiropractor, I’ve gotten a massage, I feel like I’ve done everything!

What put you into labor? I’m open to even the most unhinged suggestions. Please help me get there!

38+5 and desperate to go into labor. Baby is in the correct position and dropped into my pelvis and it is making me SO sore. Like I can barely walk because my vulva is so sore and swollen (sorry if that’s TMI) and my round ligaments are in so much pain I have literally woken up screaming from moving the wrong way in my sleep. Also I’ve been having prodromal labor off and on for almost two weeks now. I’m ready. I’m doing all the things to help labor in its arrival (evening primrose oil, dates, sex, miles circuit, etc.) but nothing is happening yet.

I think the key for me might be relaxing and getting my oxytocin levels up. I’ve read on here that a lot of people have gone into labor after a pedicure, which sounds lovely, but a full body prenatal massage also sounds pretty dang relaxing. I can only afford to do one. Which one should I choose? I realize this likely won’t put me into labor but I need to relax anyway so it’s worth a try. What would you pick? Anyone have luck going into labor with prenatal massage or are pedicures the key?

I’m so upset. I’ve gone into false labor 3 times, prompting my midwives to diagnose me with prodromal labor. It always happens at night and only lasts a few hours. EXCEPT for yesterday. Yesterday, I woke up feeling weird, like a lot of heaviness in my pelvis and an almost sick feeling. By 1:30pm, I started having contractions. 12 minutes apart. I did the miles circuit and went for a walk. By 6pm, contractions were 6 minutes apart. I thought “this is the real deal,” and let the midwives know. Finished packing the bags, bounced on the ball, took a bath. I’m in excruciating pain and I lose part of my mucus plug, but had only progressed to 5 minutes apart by 10pm. Midwife says to take some medicine to help me sleep and that she expects to hear from me in the middle of the night. I fall asleep. I wake up at 3 with severe contractions, but now they’re 7 minutes apart??? Go back to sleep. Wake up at 6. They’re now 12 minutes apart. They’ve been 12-15 apart all day. Totally lost their intensity too, they hurt but they aren’t doubling me over and bringing me to tears like yesterday. I’m SO disappointed. I’m SO mad. I thought I’d have my baby in my arms by this time today.

What do I do???? Has anyone else here had prodromal labor? Is this going to last for days, weeks? How will I know it’s the real thing? I was completely convinced yesterday and so were my midwives. Is there anything I can do to get things going for real??? Any reassurance you can offer that will make this worth it? Please help!!!

Not really a rant, more of a lamentation.

I’m almost 35 weeks and I’m getting so sad that this is almost over. I have really enjoyed being pregnant. The first trimester was hell and I was so sick but I started feeling better around 20 weeks and since then I’ve been so happy to be pregnant. Sure, I have back pain and am uncomfortable and not sleeping well, but I LOVE the way I look! I will miss my belly so so so much :( I also love feeling my baby move and feeling so connected to him in this way. I know I’ll feel connected once he’s out, but sharing a body is so special. I’m honestly afraid that I will feel empty. I’ve lived so long with this squirmy wormy inside of me that I can’t even remember what it feels like to not have a baby moving around in my belly! I’m going to miss it so much :( this is very likely to be my only pregnancy and I’m so devastated that it went by so fast and now the experience is almost over and I’ll likely never have it again. I really will miss this. I wish pregnancy was longer, I feel like it went by in the blink of an eye and that I didn’t appreciate it enough :(

My husband is a PhD student and has been invited to an important conference in Paris. He was invited long before we got pregnant and has spent almost a year preparing his presentation, having meetings about it, and just generally being very excited. He also studied his Bachelors and Masters in Paris and has a sister and uncle there, as well as many old friends he was looking forward to seeing and old hangouts he wanted to visit. Now he wants to cancel the trip.

He wants to cancel because I will be 35/36 weeks pregnant when he goes. Originally he wanted to stay 10 days, then he said he would only go for the 4 days of the conference, now he doesn’t want to go at all. He doesn’t want to go because he’s so nervous about leaving me and feels that he will be anxious and missing me the whole time. He is afraid because recently I had a bad infection that led to some preterm labor symptoms and a positive FFN test and I was put on bedrest. However, I’m doing much better now. I’ve been taken off bedrest and am now on pelvic rest and decreased activity instead, my cervix is closed and 2.5 cm long. I haven’t had any contractions, bleeding has subsided. It seems like everything is calming down and that we’ll make it to full term now that I’ve undergone treatment.

I really want him to go, he’s been looking forward to this for so long and it’s such a wonderful achievement and will be a great thing to add to his CV, and I also want him to have a fun trip by himself before baby arrives! But he is insistent that he shouldn’t go because we live in the US and it’s over 20 hours on a plane and he’s worried he wouldn’t make it back in time if something happened and I went into labor. But I think we’re safe!

What would you do if you were him? Would you go or cancel? If you were me, would you continue to encourage him to go or do you think he’s right to want to cancel?