my son stopped moving completely in early labor, it scared me but as far as the epidural I hated it. it only numbed half my body and I felt everything on one side. I felt me rip the baby coming out and stitches. and the contractions didn't hurt me at all. the only reason I got the epidural is cause I knew I was going to tare and I didn't want to feel that. honestly tmi I think the most painful thing was my butt. I got hemroids from pushing so hard and my butt was on fire.

@ghee, nope both my daughters were natural . My son ( first born) was a C section so I had something similar to an Epidural for that

@missa7, did you get the epidural ?

With my first daughter my water never broke they broke it for me but I had very mild contractions ever 5-7 mins for 2 and half hours before going in I was 4cm dilated . Once they broke my water oh my god contractions were painful .She came about 8 hours later . With my 2nd daughter I was just really uncomfortable contractions on and off not constant, went to a regular check up I was dilated to 5cm and got sent to hospital . After being stuck at 5 I finally made it to 6 they broke my water again that is when contractions got super bad and she came an hour later .

only 10% of womens waters actually break on their own! My doctor asks me to follow the 511 rule before coming to the hospital. contractions five minutes apart, lasting one minute, for one entire hour

contractions: cramping in your back and lower abdomen, tightening of your whole belly, pressure in your vagina, all at the same time, lasts for about a minute and get stronger the closer together they get. I also got short of breath when they came on. my water didn't break until I was in the l&d room and 8cm dilated

Me too @jennatess...I was 4cm when I got to the hospital & my contractions were strooong.

Omg , and did you feel contractions at like 1& 2 cm?

4cm. @ghee

@jennatess, how dilated were you when you got to the hospital😁

My water only broke when the nurses broke it. I started with TERRIBLE contractions and was nauseous. There was no leading up to my contractions, they just started out of nowhere and were extremely painful.