# Long and Painful Latent Stage



## MummySka

Hi, I'm due on Sat 6th August but contractions started on Monday which I thought was great. They started at 4 minutes apart and built up over the night. We called the hospital and they said to come in. I was only 1cm dilated so sent us home.
By 4am the contractions were only 1 minute apart and were lasting a minute so we went back to hospital...still only 1cm!
I managed to get 3 hours interrupted sleep that night. Tuesday the contractions were still going anf by 4pm they had built back up again and were lasting just under 2 minutes and were between 30-45 second apart so we went back to hospital thinking something must have changed...only 2 cm dilated... after almost 24 hours in labour.
They did a membrane sweep which wasn't pleasant and sent us home. The contractions got really back and were lasting 2 minutes and were still really close together. These were the worst yet, then at 9pm they just stopped!! I was furious! I felt like I had wasted 2 days of really bad pain!
I decided to sleep and woke up about 6 times in the night still having contractions then yesterday morning they started again as soon as I went for a walk. They buit up quickly and got so bad that by 5pm again I had to go back to hospital. The contractions were still lasting 2 minutes and were only about 20-30 seconds apart. These were the worst ones so far. About an 8.5 to 9 out of 10 pain for me. Guess what...STILL ONLY 2CM!!!! I cried my eyes out. There was some progress such as the baby had moved down, my cervix had softened and had shortened a bit but all I wanted to hear was 3 or 4 cm so I knew all that hard work for 3 days wasn't wasted.
I've slept for about 7 hours but woke up a lot having contractions during the night. I am still having tightenings and will go for a walk to get things going again when my other half wakes up. 
Has anyone else had an experience like this? I'm exhausted and fed up of being in such intense pain with no baby to show for it. I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle. The contractions are consistently building up in pain and distance apart, except at night and I just want this stage to be over...1 more cm and I'll be in extablished labour.
Please tell me someone else has had or is having a similar experience because at the moment I feel like I'm alone and I'm so disheartened!


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## Cangaroo

My contractions started at 2am on the Sunday morning, and were at least every 5 no.irrational from 6am. They stayed at about the same level until Monday afternoon, when U finally went in. I was still only 3cm by this point. So disheartening! As I hadn't slept (or even eaten as I was vomiting so much), they gave me pethidine so I could sleep. It worked for a whole, but I still spent much of the night pacing around the ward. By ghe next morning, I was 6cm, so was finally allowed to use the pool and have gas&air. It was great! I got all the way to 9.5cm, but she got stuck so I ended up with a section. But that has nothong to do with the long latent stage. Don't give up hope! Eat if you can and sleep as much as you can (although I know it's hard and I couldn't do either!). You'll get there and it'll all be worth it in the end.


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## Lunaty

Hi ladies,

just a quick suggestion, have a read and see if soem of these technique may help?! A lot of the time when labor stalls and goes on for so long it has to do with the baby trying to turn a bit or not presenting properly!

it cant hurt to try some of them and see if it makes a difference :thumbup:

I feel for you though, it must be utterly exhausting!

https://www.spinningbabies.com/techniques


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## Cangaroo

My contractions started at 2am on the Sunday morning, and were at least every 5 no.irrational from 6am. They stayed at about the same level until Monday afternoon, when U finally went in. I was still only 3cm by this point. So disheartening! As I hadn't slept (or even eaten as I was vomiting so much), they gave me pethidine so I could sleep. It worked for a whole, but I still spent much of the night pacing around the ward. By ghe next morning, I was 6cm, so was finally allowed to use the pool and have gas&air. It was great! I got all the way to 9.5cm, but she got stuck so I ended up with a section. But that has nothong to do with the long latent stage. Don't give up hope! Eat if you can and sleep as much as you can (although I know it's hard and I couldn't do either!). You'll get there and it'll all be worth it in the end.


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## MummySka

Thanks ladies.
That is a good website. I've been naturally falling into a couple of those positions with the pain which is good. The baby is definitely engaged though so not sure that is what is holding things up.
I had a really slow day of contractions yesterday. They were still consistent times apart but a lot of them weren't very painful. They got quite bad towards the afternoon. I went back to sleep last night and woke up in the middle of the night having bad contractions which are continuing this morning so things seem to have heated up.
I'm hoping this will continue today and maybe we'll get this baby out!
I'm trying to be more positive!


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## Lunaty

MummySka said:


> Thanks ladies.
> That is a good website. I've been naturally falling into a couple of those positions with the pain which is good. The baby is definitely engaged though so not sure that is what is holding things up.
> I had a really slow day of contractions yesterday. They were still consistent times apart but a lot of them weren't very painful. They got quite bad towards the afternoon. I went back to sleep last night and woke up in the middle of the night having bad contractions which are continuing this morning so things seem to have heated up.
> I'm hoping this will continue today and maybe we'll get this baby out!
> I'm trying to be more positive!

If you can i woudl thoroughly recommend to see a chiropractor! It sounds to me that a pelvic adjustment may just be exactly what you need to go into 'proper' labor :thumbup:

Try your best to find one that has a lot of antenatal experience, but evena minor adjustment can beenfit you greatly! Ive been seeing mine since a couple of months for sever SPD and im feeling so much better now then what I did when I went to him the first time..

Good luck, truly hope you can get some rest and your beautiful bubba soon!


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## lynnikins

i would highly recomend heading to a lloyds or boots pharmancy and getting a TENS machine it should help massively with the pain , you can also take paracetamol to allow you to sleep at night or get the hospital to give you something 
with ds1 my labour started 9pm on the friday night and he was born 2.45am on Weds so i know what you are going through i only had 4 hours of sleep in that time i was contracting so much and they varied from 2-3 min apart to 10 min apart the hospital gave me co-codamol to take the edge of and allow me to get a little rest.


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