What If I Am Not Dilating During Labor?

The big day has finally arrived. The day that will take you from pregnancy to parenting. It is an amazing feeling to be so near to finally meeting your own flesh and blood.

Therefore, when you first start to feel the pain of childbirth, you get a mixed reaction of both joy and anxiety. Slowly you begin to feel the pangs of birth and as time goes by, you wonder why you are not dilating enough, even though you are now in labor.

This phase of labor, when the cervix is less than 3 cm dilated, is very slow. However, you should remember that dilating is not everything. Have a look at what the experts have to say about this situation.

Expert opinion

Annette Briley, a research midwife for the baby charity Tommy’s, has this to say. At this time, the cervix not only opens but it becomes paper thin. It is possible that you had a really thick cervix and you have gone from that to a really thin cervix. Therefore, even if you are not dilating, you have come quite some distance.

Dr. Virginia Beckett, consultant obstetrician at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that normally they would recommend that you wait if you are still in the early phase of labor and your water has not yet broken. Of course they understand that it is frustrating. However, it is best that they do not intervene or you  might end up not having a natural delivery.

Expert advice

Dr. Beckett says that if you are in active labor, that you are more than 3 cm dilated and are still not dilating steadily, you will be offered the option of medication to speed things up. Dilating steadily involves dilating 1cm per hour.

Sometimes it occurs that you are in active labor, your water has broken and yet you are not dilating. If this is the case then it is possible that the baby is in a difficult position or that you are not having strong enough contractions.

Using a Syntoconin drip will increase the strength of the contractions. This will also help the baby to turn if he is in a difficult position.

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