Early labour at home – Why you should stay at home in early labour
Early labour at home can feel really daunting as it may be hard to judge when to go to hospital or when to call your midwife for your homebirth. Saying that though, home really is the best place for you in early labour.
What is early labour?
Early labour is when your contractions have started but they may still be irregular in their strength and frequency. Contractions at this point can also be stop start. Sometimes they start and you feel like this is it. Then you fall asleep and wake up in the morning to nothing. This is all part of the early labour process. For some women this can last a few days/week on and off. Others don’t notice this early labour and their labour starts and quickly turns into regular contractions and active labour.
The purpose of early labour for a first time Mum is that your cervix becomes thin as well as starts to dilate. Your cervix in pregnancy is usually about 4-5cm thick It is the part where your cervix is before 4cm dilated.
Why is it best to early labour at home?
What you want for your contractions is a nice dose of oxytocin. Oxytocin is your love hormone and is responsible for contractions. Oxytocin can also be a shy hormone and will leave when there is lots going on. It is at it’s highest where you feel comfortable, think cosy spaces, dim lights and away from strangers, everything that a hospital waiting room isn’t. So when your early labour is starting and stopping, staying in a hospital before labour is established, is most likely going to reduce the effectiveness and strength of your contractions.
Plus, if your early labour is stop/start, then if your contractions do space apart again, it means that you are in the comfort of your home so you can eat, sleep and rest without the distractions of the hospital environment. This will put you in better stead for when your active labour starts.
If you go into hospital for labour and your cervix is less than 4 cms or your contractions are irregular, then the advice you will usually be given is to head back home.
Can I stay in hospital in early labour?
If you would rather stay in hospital than go home, maybe this is because you feel like you need the support or your home is a long drive, then you could speak to the team about staying in a room or on a maternity ward. This may actually make you feel more relaxed if going home seems more of a stressful option for you. You won’t usually have one to one car from a midwife at this point, but a midwife will be around to support you and check in on you. If you have exhausted the non-drug pain relief types at this point, you may want to consider having pethidine or diamorphine to give you some rest.
What does the research say about early labour at home?
Evidence suggests that women who are admitted in early labour are more likely to have a caesarean birth than those women who labour at home in early labour. This could be for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because being in a hospital environment is more likely to increase your anxiety so reducing your oxytocin hormone. This reduction in your oxytocin hormone may contribute to reduced contractions and then increase your chances of being offered intervention. The second reason could also be because you are in hospital, this I itself increases the likelihood that you are going to be offered intervention to speed up the process of labour when it may in fact not be required.
