do braxton hicks help dialate???

[betty12]

so today at my doc apt im only 35wks today and as of like two wks ago i was 95%effaced and today im 1cm and ive been having alot of little cramps and my stomach has been getting really hard latley constintley but i ignored them and didint time my stomach getting hard i didint know those where contraction my docotr says they are and sometimes they are not painful....do you think that if my stomach gets hard every 10 min for a good 2hrs they are real contractions or braxton hicks and do braxton hicks or "fake contractions" help dialation? cuz my doctor says i cant have sex or walk or anything for the next two weeks cuz i might go fast since the baby is very low and im starting to dialate this early.

[BTS1022]

I am also 35 weeks 2 days

[BTS1022]

More than likely what you are experiancing are real labor contractions. I don't think BH contractions help with dialation, but I could be wrong. I am now 100% effaced and 3 cm dilated and my doc hasn't given me any orders not to do anything. He asked me to take it easy for the next 2 weeks, but thats a bit hard with 2 young toddlers and a house to keep up lol. But im still allowed to go on my walks and have sex, but he did put those activites to a minimum. I am allowed to walk around my block 1 ttime every other day, and sex im only allowed 2 times a week without hubby *finishing* in me (tmi) sorry.

If you are worried that you wont make it full term you can always request steroid shots to help mature babies lungs. I had those done at my last OB appointment. There really isn't any side effects besides they hurt like H.E.L.L and they can make you a bit cranky.

Im also not advised to take anymore baths, because it is harder to tell if your water broke when sitting in a tub full of water lol, so Im now only allowed showers, which is hard because I barely fit in my seperate shower lol.

But honestly I dont think BH causes dilation, I think they only prepare us mentally for the real thing, and help build the uterine muscles for better contractions when real labor sets in.

[mami1323]

That is early but you can stay at like 1 cm for a good 3 weeks worth of time.  I know that at about 36 or 37 weeks I was 1 cm and I had to be induced at 41 weeks because I stayed at 1.5 cm for that entire time.  But I was having contractions, they were similar to Braxton Hicks but they were real contractions.  The only way I found out I was having them was when I was hooked up to hear the baby's heartbeat at 36 weeks, they could see on the machine that I was having contractions.  Good luck, I hope you can hold on a little longer.

[betty12]

bump