Hi everyone my name is ilao and I'm a registered Midwife and a childbirth education instructor I practice Midwifery in a very large Urban setting in Canada and I have two lovely children at home so this is all familiar to me as a parent for the second time around in addition to my clinical practice I love educating family and caring for them throughout the prenatal period birth and the postpartum today I'm going to talk to you about early labor and what that looks like so let's get started there are three stages to labor in the first stage that cervix is going to shorten thin out get nice and soft and Squishy and eventually dilate all the way to 10 cm in the second stage we push our babies out through the birth canal until they're born in the third stage which is by far the shortest we push the placenta out until the placenta is born so what does early labor look like it can be on again off again irregular tightenings contractions mild contractions that will eventually get closer together longer and stronger throughout the course of a day or even sometimes several days a change in position walking resting eating drinking can also change the frequency and intensity of the contractions but generally they're going to be very irregular quite short fairly mild and difficult to time early labor starts from the onset of contractions all the way until your cervix is dilated approximately 3 to 6 cm open during this phase the muscles of the uterus press down and help the cervix get softer stretchier shorter and thinner around baby's head eventually nice and snug just like you're putting a turtleneck on once that cervix is fully dilated all the way open to 10 cm and it's just baby's head it's time to push in early labor you might feel talkative excited you might feel some mild menstrual type cramping and eventually the contractions will get stronger and more intense it's a good idea just to go about your day read a book distract yourself stay hydrated make sure you're getting enough fluids have a bite to eat and keep that energy up it is a marathon not a Sprint other things that we can do in early labor is a nice warm bath taking some Tylenol and most importantly if it starts in the nighttime you want to prioritize your sleep so that might not mean sleeping through the night but having a few minutes here and there in between contractions can be restful and help along the way another thing that you could consider in early labor Is frequent position changes as baby navigates their way through the pelvis as you progress through your early labor you will have hormones flow flowing through your body and increasing those are oxytocin some prostaglandin and some endorphins this is a great opportunity to practice slow deep breathing staying calm staying relaxed letting that body do what it needs to do eventually those contractions are going to be very frequent and when contractions are 5 minutes apart strong and Lasting 60 Seconds this is a great time to check in at the hospital the reason we give you this information is because we don't want you to go too soon and then be sent back home that being said if you live quite far away from the hospital or it's the middle of a blizzard or a snowstorm relocating a little bit closer to your hospital is not a bad idea as you get closer to your due date a few points to be mindful of during early labor so if you are at home and your baby has been moving normally whatever is normal for you wonderful if you notice baby is moving less than six times in 1 hour and you have tried having something to drink a little bite to eat and your baby is still not active always check in with your health care provider or present to hospital if your water breaks or if you notice fresh red bleeding always go to hospital that brings us to the end of this section I hope you found this video helpful and the information useful we have a lot more videos in this series so please do check them out and we'll see you next time