it can happen either way. . sometimes you can go into labor and be having a bunch of contractions and your water wont break until the nurses breaks it for you at the hospital or your water will break and then after that you start contractions. my water has never broken on its own. with all of my pregnancies my nurse had to break it for me. the only thing that ever happened to me was losing my mucus plug @
My water leaked... I need and there was a whole lotto blood in my pee. .. after that cramping started, by the time I git to the hospital I was having full blown contractions. .. then a couple hours later my water broke...
I was in early labor for about 4 days with decent cramping that dilated me to 3 cent but they had to break my water after I was about 6 cent when they started me on pitocin