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Symptoms of preterm labor

Q: What to do if you have symptoms of preterm labor?

A: Call your health care provider or go to the hospital right away if you think you are having preterm labor. Your provider may tell you to:
  • Come to the office or go to the hospital for evaluation.
  • Stop what you are doing and rest on your left side for one hour.
  • Drink 2–3 glasses of water or juice (not coffee or soda).

If the symptoms get worse, or don't go away after one hour, call your health care provider again or go to the hospital. If the symptoms go away, take it easy for the rest of the day. If the symptoms stop but come back, call your health care provider again or go to the hospital.

When you call your provider, be sure to tell the person on the phone that you are concerned about the possibility of preterm labor. The only way your provider can know if preterm labor is starting is by doing an internal examination of your cervix (the bottom of your uterus). If your cervix is opening up (dilating), preterm labor could be beginning.

You and your health care provider are a team, working together to have a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby. Your team works best when both of you participate fully, so your knowledge about preterm labor can be essential in helping to prevent a preterm birth. Talk to your health care provider about all of this, and be sure to keep all of your prenatal care appointments. Preterm birth is one of the complications of pregnancy that health care providers are working hard to eliminate. Your participation in this effort is just as important as theirs!

— Courtesy of the March of Dimes

Complications in the premature newborn

Q: What complications do pre-term babies face?

A: Some premature babies face serious complications, including:

  • Respiratory distress syndrome, which is a serious breathing problem that affects mainly babies born before 34 weeks of pregnancy.
  • Bleeding in the brain, called intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), which is most common in babies born before 32 weeks of pregnancy. It can cause pressure in the brain and brain damage.
  • Patent ductus arteriosus, which is a heart problem that is common in premature babies. Untreated, it can lead to heart failure.
  • Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), which is a potentially dangerous intestinal problem.
  • Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), which is an eye problem that occurs mainly in babies born before 32 weeks of pregnancy. In severe cases, treatment is needed to help prevent vision loss. We have made progress in learning about the routes that lead to preterm delivery. But we have a long way to go in developing treatments to prevent it.
  • Researchers agree that we need to develop better screening tests to identify women destined to deliver early, and treatments that can be used early on to interrupt the cascade of events leading to prematurity.
— Courtesy of the March of Dimes
 

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Encouragement + An Assist = Success

Nine days past her due date, Sara Howe was awakened at 3:00AM when her water broke. Thrilled that the long wait was finally over, Sara and her husband David packed up and headed to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center. By 5:00AM they were comfortably settled into one of PeaceHealth Southwest’s Labor Delivery Recovery and Postpartum rooms, ready for action. But four hours later, Sara contractions had still not progressed so her midwife started her on Pitocin. Soon the contractions kicked in and Sara was well on her way.

At around eight o’clock the next morning, it was time for Sara to start pushing. So she pushed. And she pushed, and she pushed, and she pushed. "The first few hours of pushing went by without me realizing the time," remarked Sara. "But around the fourth hour I started to wonder if I was still making progress. That is when the encouragement of my midwife, husband and the PeaceHealth Southwest nursing staff kept me going. It was like I had my own cheering section."

Unfortunately, even with all the support and encouragement, Sara’s labor was not progressing because her baby’s head was tilted in the birth canal. Neither Sara or her midwife wanted her to have a Cesarean section after all that work, so her midwife suggested an assisted delivery. Read more >

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