I was in prelabor for so long before Alex was born. Almost two weeks, I think. It was so frustrating and exhausting, and I really worried that the reason why I was in prelabor for so long was that I wasn't going to be able to labor and birth normally. Which is all just to say: yeah, I get how stressful and difficult this is. I'm sorry.
One thing that helped me was reminding myself that prelabor does accomplish some of the work of labor - just slowly and incrementally. Every milimeter of dilation and percentage of effacement that happens now is dilation and effacement that doesn't have to happen during labor proper. I was 3.5cm by the time real labor started, and then I went from there to 10 in five hours. So I guess yay for prelabor, in that regard.
I have one more week and then it's Cervidil and Pitocin
I doubt you'll go for another week if your symptoms are like this, but if you do, remember that Cervedil and Pitocin aren't necessarily a package deal. (For example, I had Cervedil and then chose to let my midwife rupture my membranes when the Cervedil contractions trailed away 12 hours later - no Pitocin was ever needed.) Cervedil and Pitocin have hugely different protocols that come with them - with Cervedil you usually don't have to have an IV, stay in bed, have continual monitoring, have intensely painful contractions which might require an epidural, etc. So even if you do wind up having to do something to help labor along (and I doubt that you'll make it all the way to 42 weeks), it may not need to be the full-scale event.
(Just something to consider. For example, if your OB requires Pit at 42 weeks, you could suggest trying Cervedil at 41w6d, and giving it 24 hours to work.)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-04-15 02:28 pm (UTC)One thing that helped me was reminding myself that prelabor does accomplish some of the work of labor - just slowly and incrementally. Every milimeter of dilation and percentage of effacement that happens now is dilation and effacement that doesn't have to happen during labor proper. I was 3.5cm by the time real labor started, and then I went from there to 10 in five hours. So I guess yay for prelabor, in that regard.
I have one more week and then it's Cervidil and Pitocin
I doubt you'll go for another week if your symptoms are like this, but if you do, remember that Cervedil and Pitocin aren't necessarily a package deal. (For example, I had Cervedil and then chose to let my midwife rupture my membranes when the Cervedil contractions trailed away 12 hours later - no Pitocin was ever needed.) Cervedil and Pitocin have hugely different protocols that come with them - with Cervedil you usually don't have to have an IV, stay in bed, have continual monitoring, have intensely painful contractions which might require an epidural, etc. So even if you do wind up having to do something to help labor along (and I doubt that you'll make it all the way to 42 weeks), it may not need to be the full-scale event.
(Just something to consider. For example, if your OB requires Pit at 42 weeks, you could suggest trying Cervedil at 41w6d, and giving it 24 hours to work.)