Irregular or not, painful or painless, frequent or spaced? The contractions are perceptible between the 4th month and the last quarter of pregnancy. How to differentiate pregnancy and work contractions? How to manage them? Lighting of Isabelle Derrendinger, Director of the Nantes wise wise school.
THE pregnancy contractions are not systematic in all future mothers. Some feel them more frequently, while for others, they are rarer, even nonexistent. But what exactly is it? How painful are they? How to decode them and how to learn to manage them? Answers and advice from Isabelle Derrendinger, midwife and director of the Nantes midwives school.
Pregnancy contraction is a uterine contraction that is called contraction of braxton-cashwhich refers to the first doctor to have described them in 1872. “Over the pregnancy, the uterus is a muscle that will be stimulated because it develops. With a length of 4-5 cm on average (size of a fig approximately), it can reach 32 cm on average at the end of pregnancy. This development of the uterus means that muscle fibers stretch and that they harden and it is this process that generates contractions. The latter mean that the baby moves in the belly and that he is pressing his head in certain places where there are many nervous terminals. If you put your hands on your belly, you will feel that it hardens“explains the expert. These are mainly contractions very irregularinfrequent (less than ten per day on average) and which do not influence the cervix.
Generally, Contractions can occur during the last trimester of pregnancy. But they may appear before, between the fourth and the sixth month of pregnancy for example. Some women never feel contractions during their pregnancy or at very specific times: when they are standing for a very long time, during a long trip by car, in public transport or after an intense effort for example. The fact of sitting or resting generally attenuates contraction. Avoid lifting too heavy weights and trampling: this would increase the tension of the muscles of the abdomen and the uterus and could promote the appearance of contractions.
For most women, the contractions that take place during pregnancy are rarely perceived as painful. They have nothing to do with uterine work contractions. They are more like a contraction of the abdomen, but without it being painful. They can be compared to menstrual pain, belly tightness or spasms for example. Some women may also have the impression of having a breath (respiratory discomfort) for a few seconds, while others will have contractions accompanied by low back pain. Indeed, we do not have the same pain tolerance. On the other hand, “I encourage the pregnant woman to consult her doctor or midwife from the moment her contractions are painful – where accompanied by blood losses – because they can possibly be evocative of a threat of premature delivery or even ligament pain. In these cases, the pain will be more permanent and more targeted in the pubis unlike the pregnancy contractions that come and leave. The doctor will then be able to offer him suitable treatment“, advises the specialist.
The only way to relieve your pregnancy contractions is to relax and wait for them. “”You can do relaxation exercises and take time to rest. Pregnancy contractions, rarely described as painful, do not justify taking spasfon or antispasmodic“, Specifies the midwife. To alleviate the discomfort and discomfort linked to pregnancy contractions, the most effective is to drink a lot of water because the uterus tends to tense more when you are dehydrated.”Lie and relax as much as possible. You can also take a hot bath that will relax muscle contractures from the uterus“, advises the midwife.
Work contractions are different contractions from those that have been perceived during pregnancy. As their name suggests, they arrive at the end of pregnancy and are, for the vast majority of women, painful and more and more frequent. They will become regular (a contraction every 3 minutes on average) and will generally last 30 seconds to 1 minute. Their arrival means that the work is started. Not to be confused with the contractions of “false work” which are bearable, irregular and more spaced (every 30 minutes on average). On the other hand, the appearance of these contractions proves that the baby is positioning himself well and that the “real” work should not be long.
| Pregnancy contractions | Work contractions | |
|---|---|---|
| Frequency | Irregular, arise randomly depending on the female | Regular and more and more frequent as you approach work (a contraction every 3 minutes on average) |
| Pain | Little or no pain (varies depending on women) | Increasingly painful and will last a good minute on average |
| State of the cervix | No change of collar | The collar expands more and more up to an opening of 10 cm to allow the baby to go out |
“”After childbirth and when the baby was born, uterine contractions can reappear 15 to 20 minutes after childbirth, the young mother will still have to do a few outbursts to expel the placenta“, Explains the specialist. Upon returning from diapers (the period of about 6 weeks following the birth of the baby), women can also feel uterine contractions, pain comparable to rules of rules (abdominal spasms). This is called trenches which allow you to close the vessels of the uterus which had developed during pregnancy, and which help the uterus to regain its original size. Can last 3 days to a week, these contractions also make it possible to clean the small debris and clots present in the uterus and thus avoid the risk of hemorrhage.
