Tips for Dealing with Prodromal Labor
Don’t you mean pro-DRAMA-l labor?? 😂
But seriously, prodromal labor can seriously be a bitch. All the starting, stopping, no cervical dilation, and even exhaustion sometimes can make it a real fucking downer.
Even as I’m typing I have a client currently going through prodromal labor (and has been for about a week) and we’re just doing our best to not get worked up over it and allow their body to do what it needs to.
Prodromal labor doesn’t mean your body isn’t doing something.
It’s very much doing something, just not necessarily in a way that a baby will be imminently born.
Prodromal labor is your body’s way of practicing and making sure it knows what to do for the “real” thing. It’s figuring out all the muscles and how to make them work together. But it doesn’t make it any less irritating if it’s something that is persistently starting, stopping, and/or intense.
It may also be trying to get your baby into an optimal position if they’re acynclytic (their head is angled in your pelvis).
Many times prodromal labor will begin in the evening and fizzle out in the morning, meaning sleep may be hard to come by.
What sucks about prodromal labor is that many times surges will mimic “real” labor with them getting longer, stronger, and closer together however there won’t be any cervical change. Making it sometimes difficult to differentiate between prodromal and “real" labor.
tips.
However, what works for “real” labor will work for prodromal labor as well!
Ignore them as long as you can.
Rest/sleep as much as you can. When you’re laying down make sure you have a pillow between your legs.
Take a shower/warm bath.
Make sure to stay hydrated and eat.
Use movement to cope through a surge if it’s intense (walking, rotating on a birth ball, dance, etc).
Surrender. To whatever your body is doing. Let the surge rollover your body and wash away when it’s done. When we tense up, any intensity will be magnified, it’s called “fear, tension, pain” cycle.
at the end of the day.
Really the only way to check if it’s the “real” thing is a cervical check to see if it doesn’t fizzle out in a few hours, you’re dilating, or a baby is born 🙃
Fucking irritating right 😂
There isn’t really a way to tell if you’re going to have prodromal labor at the end of your pregnancy/gestation unfortunately. However it’s not all frustrating! In my experience (and many other birth workers) a person who has prodromal labor more often than not has a quicker labor/birth experience. Now I’m not talking like start to finish it’s like 3 hours long, but on average a first time birther will be in labor around 16 hours (again in my experience it’s closer to the 20-24 hour mark) but you can cut a few hours off that with all the practicing from prodromal labor! Again, this isn’t evidenced based, just mine and colleagues personal experiences 💕