We have contraction apps to make our lives easier so why would we need to know how to time them the old-fashioned way.
-Your Phone Broke
-The App is gone
-All Technology Stops forever
Okay so the last one is a little far-stretched but you never know what happens.
First off let’s go with the key ingredients to timing contractions the old-fashioned way. You will need
-Pen
-Paper
-Watch with second hands (phone with stopwatch app*)
-Partner (optional)
*Again, what if the phone goes away? Or is broken? Something to have on hand.
Start by doing it for an hour or two and if it’s not changing take a break and do it again a little bit later.
You will start by writing down what time the contraction starts. My examples will be in italics.
10:05.10 start time
10:05.50 end time
As you can see the contraction lasted for forty seconds. Now keep an eye on the time for the next contraction.
10:15.00 start time
10:15.40 end time
So, you can see the contractions were 10 minutes apart and this contraction lasted forty seconds as well. Keep it going for an hour and if the pattern doesn’t change, STOP.
You can then stop feeling a pressure, that its not coming on a clock. Its unnecessary and this is just methods to tell what phase of labour you are in.
If you want the easy way just look at the Contraction Timers or the ones attached to your apps for the whole forty weeks kind of thing.
You have enough work to do during labour so don’t make timing t
