Delete your contraction timer!

Whether you find it useful or not, it’s undeniable that actively timing your contractions can have a detrimental impact in your labour.

Essentially, it doesn’t really matter how far apart your surges are. Your body isn’t a machine that works like every other machine out there.

We have been at births where surges were 7-10 min apart and the baby was born in less than an hour. We have also been at births where surges were 2 min apart and it was a good time before the baby was born.

Our question is always the same “HOW DO YOU FEEL?!”

Our observations are always the same…. what noises are you making? How’s your mood? Are you present or does it look like you’re well on your way to labour land?

Sure your hospital trust will want to know how far along your surges are, but the moment we stop listening to out intuition and start looking at a timer, we are already interfering with birth.

Your options are:

⏰ Not timing them at all and trusting your gut of when and if you need your health care provider’s assistance/presence

⏰ Ask your birth partner (s) to time them for ya

⏰ Leaving yourself a reminder that numbers don’t matter. Whether they are times or dilatation, your body was designed to birth your baby.

In a labour that started spontaneously and is not being augmented or interfered with, know that things are likely to progress as they are meant to.

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