Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Nov
16
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“Your Water Didn’t Really Break, You Just Thought It Did…”
“Your water didn’t really break, you just thought it did. If it broke, your contractions would be stronger. Maybe you should go home and come back Monday.” – OB to mother who said that her membranes had released and she was starting labor.
There are 26 comments to this post.
You’d think the OB would care more, since they are so adamant about delivering moms within 12 hours of their water breaking for fear of “infection”
ALSO, with a breech baby, your water breaking can be a trickle that comes and goes, so why did this OB not consider that, too?! Very negligent on all counts.
I still would rather labor at home, though! That order could be a blessing in disguise. The longer you’re at the hospital, the more likely you’ll have unnecessary interventions. 
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Sarah Reply:
November 17th, 2011 at 8:35 pm (Quote)
You know, that whole water breaking = massive infection thing really ticks me off. Every time I hear of another woman being forced into something because “your water’s been broken too long” I start to boil. I spent SEVEN WEEKS with a ruptured sac. Leaking all day, every day. It was twins – one was ruptured, the other not. Water broke right at 26 weeks. We made it to 33 weeks, 3 days. No infection. So don’t talk to me about having to have an intervention for broken waters.
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aviekins Reply:
November 18th, 2011 at 11:02 am (Quote)
*this*
The PROM study of the 80′s (I believe — forgive me for not having the exact citation, etc, handy…. it’s somewhere, but it’s a very strong study from research standpoints) validated that there really was not significant increase in infection/morbidity/complications among women who had prolonged ROM *as long as they were left alone* — the problem is the rush to intervene (and stick those fingers in for vag exams!!) once there is a ROM at all.
Again, I don’t have the actual citation/study at hand, so I’m not 100% on the exact details on this (maybe there is a slight difference in outcomes in one area or other among groups — but the moral of the story is… keep those fingers out of there, and let things progress on their own, if there are no other signs of infection – fever, foul-smelling fluid, etc. Especially as in your case Sarah, those seven weeks were HUGE, weren’t they!!
As for the original poster, I agree that the OB could certainly have been much less of a jerk in his/her response… reassurance may have been helpful, an explanation of what was going on would have been great, but a blow-off and disregard for her symptoms? Notsomuch…
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amanda Reply:
November 21st, 2011 at 7:31 am (Quote)
the common practice for pprom is ‘nothing in the vagina’ – ie: sterile speculum exams to check for fluid to diagnose only and from that point forward, no exams of any kind for *any* reason (barring emergencies like checking dialation if an abruption is suspected and the cervix cannot be seen using sterile speculum alone). this combined with a 10 day course of iv antibiotics, generally has a 30% infection rate for 2nd trimester proms. it is very serious even when people keep there fingers out of there.
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aviekins Reply:
November 21st, 2011 at 7:55 pm (Quote)
agreed – i should have “liked” sarah’s comment and then taken my thoughts to another comment on the thread; i was referencing the *term* PROM study (which was based on pregnancies beyond 37 weeks, not those at earlier gestations) and the outcomes that occurred based after induction or expectant management. (in that study, there was no appreciable difference in maternal infection in either group; maternal antibiotic administration – as well as variables like certain lengths of time post-ROM, presence of + GBS, operative vaginal or c/s delivery, etc – was shown to be an independent predictor of maternal fever and/or neonatal infection … but of course many more studies could dig into why that was seen…)
anything could be serious… but luckily, with happy gnomes and unicorns, it isn’t
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amanda Reply:
November 21st, 2011 at 7:27 am (Quote)
sarah, i’m glad that you had a happy outcome with your pregnancy. but to say that no intervention for pprom is necessary by looking at your situation is likely misleading. i would guess that once you ruptured you were put on hospital bedrest, given iv antibiotics, steroid shots for lung development and monitored at least 3 times a day for infection? the rates of infection with a second trimester pprom are somewhere over 30% and recommendations are that as early as 34 weeks there are not any benefits to continue the pregnancy as the risks begin to outweigh the gains in lung development. short term rupture like the op is talking about is one thing, but long term prom is another all together. i’m sorry though you had to go through that with your little ones, that must have been a scary time for you!
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That’s exactly what happened to my sister.
Her water broke, they went to the hospital. They kept telling her her water didn’t really break and to go home and when she got up to get dressed there was another gush from her water. Her husband asked what it was if it wasn’t her water breaking, the OB said “I don’t know what to tell you but it’s not her water”. They discharged my sister and ended up chasing her out the door to bring her back because it really was her water. Then they kept telling her she wasn’t having any good/real contractions because the machine wasn’t picking anything up. My sister had repeatedly told them that the machine was sliding off and not picking up the contractions prior to that comment.
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Kit Reply:
November 16th, 2011 at 7:18 pm (Quote)
I don’t trust the contraction monitors one bit. They never read a single one of my contractions, even after I was ready to push. Nurses trusted the monitors more than me and wouldn’t call my midwife because I still had “hours to go.” Yeah, I was holding my little girl 30 minutes after that comment. Midwife got there barely in time to catch. Screw the monitors, listen to the mom.
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Renai Reply:
November 17th, 2011 at 8:13 am (Quote)
I was an hbac transfer because I got stuck at 8 cm for a couple of hours. I asked for a light epi so I could rest and open up. I could still feel the contractions (lightly). I don’t know what the monitors were saying, but when it came time to push, after they told me to push/count, I’d tell them “I feel the contraction moving down, I can push…” I think they were surprised, but the doctor finally told me I could push anytime I felt like it. Those tended to be my most effective pushes. Not bad for a first-timer (if I can say so myself, lol!).
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Seriously, this doc has NEVER seen or even heard of water breaking and contractions not starting??? Happens all the time! It’s happened to me twice. I do think that this mama dodged a bullet, though, being told to go home instead of “We have to get you on Pitocin nooooooowwwwwww!” Can’t wait to see the pink link and find out what finally convinced this OB that Mama was right!
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Michelle of The Crunchy Infertile had this to say,
Nov 16, 2011 @ 12:06 pm (Quote)
But WAIT! Didn’t the dr yesterday JUST say that contractions don’t matter, just come in when the water breaks? Get your stories straight people, sheesh, how do you expect us to keep up with all your nonsense rules???
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Heidi had this to say,
Nov 16, 2011 @ 12:20 pm (Quote)
Stupid, stupid comment. I went to the hospital twice with suspected rupture of membranes. My doctor met me there and did tests to check if it was amniotic fluid. It wasn’t, but the doctor and nurse reassured me that it was much, much better to be checked than to go into labor with membranes that had been ruptured for days.
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Budgie Reply:
November 16th, 2011 at 2:08 pm (Quote)
not true. My water was broken for 3 days before my daughter was born. just because your water breaks doesn’t mean that the world is ending. If theres no contractions its not a big deal.
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RM Reply:
November 16th, 2011 at 3:13 pm (Quote)
According to their ridiculously imposed “schedule of events”, perhaps. However, if there is no sign of infection and people refrain from putting their fingers where they don’t belong, there is no reason to worry about membranes ruptured prior to labor. I labored for 49 1/2 hours with ruptured membranes and was just fine; and yes, we were watching for signs of infection- never were any and the baby was a rockstar the whole time.
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Rachel Reply:
November 16th, 2011 at 4:49 pm (Quote)
my sister was told that as long as you are GBS neg then you can go about 5 days before the risks increase… and that was from an ob…. after the on call ob from another hospital had kicked my sister out after she had been ruptured for over 24 hours and she refused a repeat CS…. she went on to have a VBAC on the 3rd day of having her water break… she was not going to have another CS if there was no need 
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Lisa Reply:
November 16th, 2011 at 8:32 pm (Quote)
It took 90 hours for me to get any contractions after my water broke with my 2nd. Then labour was about 20 hrs. No infection because no one stuck anything up there, I took Vitamin C to help reduce any risk & checked my temp regularly. The water washes germs out, unless someone’s shoving them by sticking things there, the risk of infection is incredibly low
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genniemom Reply:
November 17th, 2011 at 6:27 am (Quote)
I can definitely see both sides of this argument. My sister has six kids, and her water broke with all of them and contractions didn’t begin right away. She was induced with pitocin with five out of six, but with the remaining one she stayed home and lied about when her water broke. Contractions eventually started on their own and she had her most comfortable birth.
However, with my mom’s first birth she went in for a regular OB exam and her water had been broken for probably days. She had an infection and a fever and had to be induced immediately. I think that if her doctor had been nicer, she would have felt better about communicating with him. As it was, she felt like she would be ridiculed if she had a false alarm. Luckily, both she and my sister were okay, but her labor would have been better without the vomiting and fever from the infection.
I think that there needs to be a better balance with the whole ruptured membranes thing. Doctors are right to want to confirm if the waters have ruptured or not (if the mom isn’t sure) so that the mother can be more careful about what she does, but a positive confirmation should not put you on a time clock or force you to check into the hospital.
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It took an hour for me to feel contractions after my water broke…and another hour before they were “strong”…And the little dip stick thing showed that they hadn’t broken (probably because it was an HOUR before I got to the hospital because I wasn’t sure.) if the nurse hadn’t felt me go from 3-4 she probably wouldn’t have believed me.
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I didn’t have contractions that made me wince until 4 hours after my water broke. I didn’t have strong contractions until nearly 20 hours in to labor.
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my water broke and I knew it… I had contractions and they were not painful to me… if I paid attention I could tell I was having one but otherwise I could just go on with my day … that went on for 2 days, they were fairly regular but not really close, we tried everything to get them started harder and faster, they would only get closer for a bit then space out again… my midwife was not sure I was in labour at all.
we went to the hospital because the midwife was worrying that I may not contract hard enough soon enough that I would end up with a cs because my uterus may be too tired (not sure how accurate or if that really could have happened… ended up on pit) … moral of the story… I dont’ feel any contractions till I hit transition… with me not feeling anything when we went to the hospital I was already 5 cm when she checked they put me on pit and I was still fine till I hit transition… water breaking does not mean anything in relation to contractions for some people…. and I know it broke… I could see vernix in the toilet and feeling like I was peeing myself for 2 days when I was not… really annoying 
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Mel had this to say,
Nov 16, 2011 @ 5:39 pm (Quote)
The ob who delivered my dd told me the same thing. I called my ob and asked if I could come in and see what’s going on, and they sent me back to the hospital where the dr confirmed that my water had actually broken. I was almost home when I felt an even bigger gush of fluid. So glad I called the dr!!
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Add Your Comment.
I have to say that lots and lots of women come to hospital because of ruptured membranes only to be found to be something else, however there is a nicer way of putting it! This OB was trying to make the her feel stupid.
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Mama Wrench Reply:
November 16th, 2011 at 12:32 pm Mama Wrench(Quote)
Except that the OB acknowledges that she’s having contractions — just saying they’re not “strong” enough to justify a diagnosis of SROM.
Which like Michelle pointed out is completely dumb ANYWAY since half of OBs say come in as soon as your water breaks, the other half say wait till contractions are 5-3 minutes apart regardless of broken water… moms are wrong if they’re too cautious and wrong if they’re not cautious enough!
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