How to time your contractions when you are in labour

With an online contraction timer pregnancy or a stop watch you might be keeping a stock when the baby is about to arrive. It does give you a precise idea on when the baby is about to arrive. If you are not able to time them correctly, the chances are pretty high that you might end up spending a lot of time than expected in the hospital. This extra time you can relax in your home or there would not arise any need where you have to proceed to the birthing centre at the nick of time. In recent times with the emergence of an online contraction timer their importance has gone on to increase considerably as well.

You need to have an idea about on how to measure the contractions and then space that does occur between them. This would give an idea to the health care provider on how the pace of labour goes on to proceed.

contractions when you are in labour

The process to start off the contraction timer

Ideally you would need to start the contraction from the beginning to the starting of the next. This is the view point of most of the medical experts. It does point to how far the contractions are between each other. The early contractions that do go on to occur are the pre labor stuff. At the most you can find them around 20 to 30 seconds at the most. The moment it does become a minute and does go on to appear within 4 minutes apart and on a consistent basis is at an hour, then it is the time you are heading towards labour.

What is the length of the contractions?

The moment you happen to be in labour the contractions would last on for a minute. Though you can say that the timing appears to be important so too the intensity levels. You cannot just rely on the timing but the intensity does assume a lot of importance as well. Once you are paying attention to it, do consider the fact whether the length does increase with it.

Is it necessary to head over to the hospital when the contractions do appear 5 to 10 minutes apart?

Just wait for the time when the contractions do become between 5 to a single hour apart when you need to head over to the hospital. Just discuss with the health care provider on what would be the best course of action. It all depends on the individual risk of pregnancy and the approach of each and every doctor is going to be different. In case of first time mothers the process of labor might be a bit longer whereas in case of a second time mother the intensity may vary considerably as well.  The location also has a definite say in this regard. If you happen to live an hour from the hospital then the doctor may ask you to induce labor much earlier having it sooner than latter.