Feelings in the abdomen during contractions. Last contraction: contractions of the postpartum period

Pregnancy is an important and responsible stage in a woman’s life, because it is full of new sensations, fears, events and worries. This process is especially exciting for those who are pregnant for the first time, because everything that happens is unfamiliar and new to them. Especially often, expectant mothers worry about how to determine that contractions are starting, what sensations do you experience? There are some signs by which you can understand that the birth process will begin soon.

How do you know when contractions are starting? What sensations await a woman?

Bearing a child under your heart to the expectant mother There are a whole nine months ahead, but as soon as she learns about her delicate situation, a lot of questions arise in her head: “How does the birth process occur? How do contractions manifest themselves? What sensations accompany them? What to do if labor begins?” It happens that a woman is completely unprepared for childbirth. To prevent this from happening, you need to prepare for this event in advance and learn more about it. For example, symptoms such as increased urge to go to the toilet, prolapse of the abdomen, uterine contractions, variability in appetite and mood, and the release of a mucus plug may indicate that labor is about to begin.

Contractions are the main harbingers of labor

A distinctive feature is contractions during pregnancy; these sensations cannot be confused with anything else. With their onset, as a rule, there is a release of contractions - this is a contraction of the muscles of the uterus, while a gradual opening of the uterine pharynx occurs, which contributes to the advancement of the child along the mother’s birth canal. A nagging pain appears in the lower abdomen, it looks like painful sensations during menstruation. You can also feel how the fetus is pressing on and at the same time you can feel a tingling sensation in this area. It should be noted that the sensations during contractions are individual for each woman: some experience pain mainly in the lumbar region, for some it grows in the uterus itself, and others compare it with the pain that accompanies menstruation.

Contractions: what sensations are possible and what to do if they start

It has been noticed that the more a pregnant woman fears the onset of labor, the more painful her contractions are. Therefore, the expectant mother can be recommended to start preparing for labor activity, study the literature on the topic in advance, learn to breathe and relax correctly. In addition, today there are many special courses that prepare women for an important process in their lives - the birth of a baby, and tell how a woman in labor feels during this process. So, what to do if contractions begin, and how to facilitate this process?

• As soon as painful sensations appear that foreshadow labor, it is better not to lie down, but to move actively, this will help the cervix to open faster, which means the duration of labor itself will be reduced.
• You must try to find a body position in which it will be easiest for you to endure contractions, and the position can be whatever you want, even if you want to shift from foot to foot. This is quite normal and there is nothing to be ashamed of in such a situation.
• Between contractions you should try to relax as much as possible.
• Massage of the spine in the sacral region helps a lot, it has good effect both at the very beginning of the contractions and throughout the action of the expelling forces.
• Don't forget about correct breathing, the medical staff who will be nearby will tell you how to do this.
• And finally, the most important thing: you need to think about the baby who is about to be born. Calm down, think that soon all the torment will end, and you will meet the baby whose appearance you have been waiting for so long. This is worth the patience.

Many expectant mothers are concerned that they will not be able to recognize the onset of labor in a timely manner. Therefore, they are concerned about what sensations arise at this moment. How not to confuse false contractions and the beginning of labor? What pains arise at this most cherished moment of the birth of a child?

The expectant mother should know the answers to all questions.

Before starting to describe contractions, every mother should know what they are.

Contractions are a kind of contraction of the muscles of the uterus with its further relaxation. At the very beginning of labor, contractions begin to intensify, which allows the baby to move along the birth canal.

Every woman's body is unique. Therefore, all sensations during contractions will vary. Also feelings during birth process, a component of which are contractions, is different for each organism. But what unites them is a wonderful result - the birth of a new person.

The contraction begins at the upper point of the uterus and gradually spreads throughout all its muscles. In general, such sensations resemble tension in muscle fibers, which gradually begin to weaken. At the very beginning, the onset of contractions is rarely painful. Rather, to a greater extent, for a woman in labor it is a feeling of discomfort.

In some pregnant women it is accompanied the beginning of contractions feeling pain in the lumbar region. Most often, this is caused by the baby turning his face towards the spine and moving occipital part heads.

For a woman giving birth for the first time, such sensations are unfamiliar. But pregnant women who have already walked this path will not confuse this condition with anything. As already noted, each woman experiences contractions differently. Some feel muscle relaxation, some experience lower back pain, while others experience all the symptoms and sensations of menstruation.

During this period, contractions do not cause the woman much anxiety, so it is better to relax and try to rest before the upcoming birth. For quick and correct appearance The mother will need to give maximum effort to bring a child into the world. After all, the speed of progress largely depends on the woman herself.

But what unites them all is regularity. The first contractions can occur at intervals of half an hour or more. Gradually the gap between them will decrease.

• Regularity of occurrence;
• Constantly decreasing the interval between each contraction;
• There is a gradual increase in pain.

The fights just before childbirth gradually become much more intense and longer. At first they are mild in nature and last a short time. The pain increases and is felt more intensely, and the contractions become more and more prolonged and painful.

Just before birth, contractions last about a minute, and the intervals between them become short.

Almost every woman periodically begins to feel attempts, she wants to constantly go to the toilet. As many mothers say, this feeling cannot be confused with anything; you always get the feeling that a watermelon will appear as a result.

Many mothers who have given birth say that their uterus turned to stone during labor. This can be easily felt if you place your hand on the surface of the abdomen. Before the birth process begins, pain is felt, mostly in the lumbar region and lower abdomen.

Contractions during childbirth are very rapid and the most painful. Even though some claim that for them there was no severe pain, just a feeling of discomfort, like during menstruation.

But still, one or another painful sensation will be present in everyone, this is natural and normal. Only during childbirth can pain be aggravated by improper preparation of the mother and her behavior.

During childbirth, contractions become as intense as possible. When the uterus is fully dilated, contractions begin to follow one another. The period of relaxation becomes almost unnoticeable. Under the influence of emotions, often, a woman can no longer simply notice him. It seems to her that a new contraction begins immediately after the end of the previous one.

Most often, during strong contractions, a woman has the desire to push. Such attempts in response to contractions they talk about the final process of contractions - expulsion. The pain in the lower back and lower abdomen begins to subside. And all the painful sensations move to the perineal area.

Throughout pregnancy, a woman may feel mild contractions that occur during physical activity or sudden movements. Closer to childbirth they may intensify.

Also, shortly before giving birth, a woman may experience training contractions. They are often called false. Many are afraid that they cannot be distinguished from the real ones. But don’t panic, as such concepts are difficult to confuse.

From the reviews of women who have already given birth, for example, relatives or friends, you can get an approximate picture of the sensations during false contractions. During the occurrence of such contractions, discomfort may be felt in the lumbar region and lower abdomen. As many say, training contractions very similar to the symptoms that are present during menstruation. Gynecologists very often warn women during consultations that false contractions can also appear during sleep. The child is usually calm in such situations and his activity is not felt.

In most cases, maternal instinct tells a woman that she should not worry. And the contractions themselves last no more than a minute. Most often they occur about a month before upcoming birth.

More details description of sensations You can learn about each type of contraction by watching the video:

In conclusion, I would like to note that the expectant mother should not get too carried away with particularly scary options for describing the upcoming birth. According to experienced obstetricians, severe pain occurs in women who are tense, in constant fear and do not adhere to previously received recommendations on behavior during childbirth.

It is necessary to go to give birth with good mood, being emotionally attuned, because the birth of a child is a great joy.

Do you understand what contractions feel like? You can read about the experiences of others on the forum. Leave your opinion or review for everyone.

Why do contractions hurt?

The uterus consists of three layers of muscles (outer, middle and inner layers), which during childbirth begin to work harmoniously, harmoniously, but at the same time polarly (some muscles tense, others relax). For the expulsion of the fetus to proceed normally, the internal muscles must be relaxed and the external ones must contract. However, it often happens that women, with their worries, fears and poor preparation for childbirth, force those muscles that are prescribed to relax during contractions to contract. This causes severe pain. In the case when the expectant mother does not resist childbirth and does not try to control the process from the inside, the sensations become more tolerable, reminiscent of a spasm.

What determines the pain of contractions?

In many ways, the sensations depend on the position of the baby in the womb, the period of birth, the presence or absence previous experience natural birth, level of physical and emotional fitness. For example, it is known that the expectation of pain and fear of childbirth can turn the experience of childbirth into the most terrible hours in a woman’s life. This vicious circle sensations when a woman is afraid of pain and therefore feels it more acutely, was described by Dr. Grantly Dick-Read and was called fearful-intense pain syndrome.

What types of contractions are there?

1. Training contractions, or Braxton Hicks contractions, appear around the middle of pregnancy. It is believed that they prepare the pelvic organs for the birth of a child. Such contractions are usually painless and do not lead to the onset of labor.
2. False labor contractions may appear several weeks before birth. They differ from real ones in their chaotic nature and in the fact that they pass if a woman takes a different position or begins to move.
3. Real labor pains can begin a day before birth (for first-time women) and differ from all others in that:

- become more intense over time;
- do not weaken or go away due to changes in body position;
— aligned in rhythm (you can track equal time intervals between contractions);
- last from 30 to 70 seconds;
- may be accompanied by stomach pain, diarrhea or nausea.

What happens during contractions?

Contractions are a big and important work, preceding the birth of a child. During contractions, the muscles of the uterus contract, which push the baby down the birth canal, and the cervix opens so that the baby can come out. Both processes are interconnected: some muscles seem to wrap around the uterus in a circle, and some are located vertically. When contraction occurs, the first push the child, and the second are responsible for opening, as if pulling the neck.

The first stage of labor, when dilatation is just beginning, can pass almost unnoticed for many. The contractions are not yet intense and feel more like discomfort than pain. However, for some women in labor these sensations seem very vivid and even painful. A warm shower and a light walk around the apartment or corridor of the maternity hospital helps to cope with this pain. Intensify contractions on purpose, for example, by walking up stairs or other physical activity It is not necessary to speed up the process of childbirth, otherwise you risk approaching the active phase of labor without strength.

The active phase of labor will begin when dilation reaches six centimeters. Previously it was believed that to start active phase Four centimeters is enough, but recent research shows that this is not the case. These two centimeters between four and six are considered an important period of childbirth, an intermediate stage between initial stage and the start of “real” labor.

How long do contractions last?

The duration and frequency of contractions depends on the stage of labor at which the woman is.

• The first contractions, which accompany the dilation of the cervix from zero to six centimeters, last from 30 to 90 seconds and can be irregular - an interval of half an hour is quite normal. But when the dilation is at least a few centimeters, contractions will become more regular and the interval will be reduced to five minutes. The period of dilation to six centimeters can last from six to 12 hours.
• When the dilation reaches six centimeters, the contractions will become more intense and painful. They will last more than a minute, and the interval will be three minutes. The closer the moment of full disclosure, the less gap between contractions, and they themselves are longer. So, at nine centimeters, contractions will last for two minutes, and there will be only one and a half minutes for rest. The path from dilatation of six centimeters to full ten will take from five to six hours.
• When the cervix is ​​fully dilated, contractions can last up to two minutes, and the interval between them can be reduced to 60 seconds.
• During pushing it will be easier (many women feel this period as relief): contractions will become intense, but almost painless. They will last from 45 seconds to three minutes, and the interval between them will be three to five minutes. The attempts will take from 15 minutes to two hours.
• Many women don’t even notice the placenta leaving. These are contractions that last on average half an hour. During this time, the uterine cavity gets rid of the placenta and remains amniotic sac. After the baby is born, these contractions can hardly be called noticeable. Doctors may ask the woman to push to help the placenta come out more easily.

What are contractions like?

Some people say that the first stage of labor feels like menstrual pain. You can feel nagging pain in the back and lower abdomen. The sensation may also resemble the urge to defecate and discomfort that you cannot explain. Some women go into labor without even knowing it.

The second stage of labor seems painful to most women, and in addition to pain in the front of the abdomen (if you put your hand on it at the peak of the contraction, you will feel how strongly the muscles contract), women in labor are often also bothered by back pain that does not go away when changing position . When fully dilated, many people rate the pain at 75-80 on a 100-point scale.

Pushing is experienced by many as an almost painless experience. During this period, the woman, as a rule, feels an unbearable desire to push (if this desire is not present, the midwife will tell you when to start pushing). When the baby's head erupts, the expectant mother feels a tingling and then a burning sensation in the area of ​​the perineum and the entrance to the vagina. But the pain that was there before is no longer there: the baby’s head presses on the nerves in the perineal area, so natural desensitization actually occurs, that is, a decrease in sensitivity.

How to understand that contractions have begun? What sensations arise? Experienced women in labor say that it is impossible to miss the onset of labor. It is impossible to confuse them with something else. This severe pain in the stomach and lower back. And the sensations during contractions in multiparous women are even more vivid, since their cervix, as a rule, dilates faster.

As a rule, it is described as pain during menstruation, but much worse. Other women describe the feelings of labor as intense bowel distress. The stomach hurts in much the same way when there is poisoning or an intestinal infection. By the way, reading information about how contractions begin in first-time mothers, many write about diarrhea and vomiting, which precede the whole process. They also say that in this way the body is cleansed. Diarrhea does not happen to everyone. But there will definitely be stool before labor begins. Although this does not save you from an enema in the maternity hospital.

Even with the onset of labor, some women’s water breaks, either completely or begins to leak. In this case, regardless of whether there is pain in the abdominal area and other factors, you need to be in the maternity hospital in the next couple of hours. And at the same time, remember the time when your water began to break. Doctors will need this information.

Contractions almost always begin when it’s time to go to the maternity hospital with the release of the mucus plug from the uterus. If this did not happen earlier. The mucus plug leaves the cervix when it begins to lift slightly.

How to distinguish false contractions from real ones by sensation and not worry in vain over “trifles”? Doctors recommend timing the time between spasms and determining the dynamics. If the interval begins to gradually decrease or is at least equal, it is probably time to go to the maternity hospital. Contractions have such a description of sensations. If contractions occur at different intervals, and periodically disappear altogether, you need to calm down and stay at home. These types of spasms do not improve the readiness of the cervix to dilate. In general, they do not affect anything, except perhaps mental condition women worry her. Training contractions give sensations similar to those of labor, only much weaker. Sometimes they can last for hours, and then doctors decide to use tocolytic drugs to relieve them. There is no sense in them, and the body is exhausted.

Even very calm and balanced women experience quite natural anxiety before giving birth. No matter how the sequence of contractions, frequency and duration are memorized in courses for expectant mothers, fear still remains and it is associated with the unknown. What will the contractions be like, how painful will it be, what can they be compared to? We will give answers to these questions in this article.

What it is?

Contractions are the process of tension of the muscles of the uterus, during which the cervix opens. The walls of the uterus at this time exert pressure under which the baby takes correct position based on its presentation, which is optimal for passage through the birth canal after the cervix is ​​fully open.

The sensations during contractions can be different, and largely depend on the period of labor and the individual pain sensitivity of the woman in labor. Those who sell methods of childbirth without pain are somewhat disingenuous, since there are no contractions without pain. Another question is that some women tolerate pain relatively easily, while others endure pain worse.

The first contractions are rare and short. They are called latent. They last no more than 8-10 hours. This is the longest period of labor, and the contractions feel painful.

This is followed by a period of active contractions, when they are repeated every 5 minutes and last up to a minute. This is already more painful, but the dilation of the cervix at the end of the period is about 7 centimeters, and there is very little left before pushing. After 3-5 hours of active contractions, transitional contractions occur, during which the opening increases to 10-12 centimeters, the uterus opens completely. These are the most noticeable contractions, which are protracted, last about a minute each and repeat after a minute, maximum two. This period lasts from half an hour to an hour and a half and turns into pushing when the baby begins its journey through the mother’s birth canal.

It is easy to recognize real labor pains. They differ from false and training ones in that they are repeated at certain intervals, develop and intensify.

What to compare with?

Often women compare the initial contractions with pain during menstruation, with the ebb and flow of the sea surf. Indeed, contractions are similar to this in their rhythm - the uterus tenses and relaxes. Spasms occur at certain intervals, in between them you can relax. Naturally, The longer the rest period at the very beginning, the easier it is to endure a short spasm.

Labor pains are similar to pain during menstruation only in location. Aching pain begins with the onset of uterine tone in the back, smoothly descends and envelops the lumbar region, lower abdomen, and spreads throughout the entire abdominal wall. Then relaxation occurs in reverse order.

Pain - what is it like?

It is believed that pain during childbirth is of psychogenic origin, because there is no nerve endings. The main reason Experts call painful contractions overexcitation of the nervous system. Therefore, women who remain calm have a good idea of ​​what exactly is happening in her body at one time or another during labor, give birth easier and faster, and claim that they did not experience exorbitant unbearable pain.

It should be noted that pain is a very subjective concept. What is unbearably painful for one woman in labor is quite bearable for another. It all depends on the pain threshold - the individual threshold, beyond which the human nervous system simply stops perceiving pain as pain.

In world practice, there was a proposal to measure pain in dol. These conventional units make it possible to determine the threshold values ​​of pain from a particular impact, but, alas, only for a specific person. On average, pain at the very peak of labor, during the transition from contractions to pushing, is estimated at 9-10.0 dol.

To understand whether this is a lot or a little, a woman needs to know that the average limit of patience, beyond which the perception of pain as such ceases, is 10.5 dol, that is, labor pain is at the limit of human capabilities.

The experiment was carried out in 1948 in one of the American clinics, where 13 women in labor had drops of boiling water dripped onto their skin between contractions. It was then that it turned out that the burn, which was previously considered the most painful, was not at all like that - childbirth would be more painful. Many women did not react to a drop of boiling water after a contraction, but not all. And this proves that the pain threshold is different. Those who felt hot water, had pain that was below 10 dol, although they were at the same stage of the labor process.

There is no consensus on these units of measurement, and there is an assumption that they are so subjective that they cannot serve as a single measure of pain. If we talk about some kind of scale on which one can evaluate labor pain and pain during real contractions, then it is easier to focus on the usual 10-point scale with a (significant!) adjustment for individuality.

Thus, surveys conducted in several clinics in France, Great Britain and Canada, when women were asked to describe pain in numbers after childbirth, showed that First stage Many people rate birth as 0-2 points. Active contractions received higher ratings from women in labor - 5-7 points. Transitional contractions - up to 8-10 points. But an hour after giving birth, women rated their well-being as 1-2 points on a ten-point pain scale.

If you want to determine your own pain threshold before childbirth, you should ask any anesthesiologist to test you using a special algesimeter device - this is the only more or less exact way understand what your pain sensitivity is. All people are divided into four types of sensitivity and susceptibility to pain.

What affects perception and how to alleviate it?

As already mentioned, it's all about nervous system women. Pain is a controlled process, which is why yogis and soldiers special purpose they know how to regulate their own pain, walk on glass, and not feel pain from a burn or cut. A woman, of course, is not a yogi or a special forces intelligence officer, but absolutely any woman in labor can learn to perceive pain correctly and reduce it.

On this for a long time explanatory work was founded, which in Soviet antenatal clinics carried out with all pregnant women. The development of a method of pain reduction belongs to Soviet scientists; it formed the basis exclusively for all international methods of pain reduction.

The right attitude includes auto-training, meditation training, self-hypnosis, breathing technique and muscle relaxation techniques. Calmness and confidence that female body has enough natural wisdom and strength to give birth to a child. It's true.

From the first contractions you need to move, do not lie down, inhale deeply and exhale slowly, this will help you relax, and the relaxed muscles of the uterus contract less painfully. If the contractions become active, changing positions will help, some are more comfortable standing, some are sitting on a fitball, some are walking or standing on all fours. It is better to “breathe” during strong contractions shallowly (“doggy style”), and when pushing, it is important to take in air and hold your breath, “squeezing out” chest baby out.

Pain is increased by fear, panic, screaming, moaning, hectic spontaneous breathing, lack of contact with medical personnel(the woman does not listen to the obstetrician’s requests and does not fulfill them).