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Below is a guide to what your contractions may be like.

Regular contractions

As labour establishes - this is the usual expected pattern of contractions:

  • Contractions two minutes apart.
  • Lasting 60 seconds.
  • Strong Intense contractions. You need to stop what you are doing to concentrate on breathing heavily through the contraction. You cannot talk during the contraction.
  • A regular pattern as below.

a wavy line depicting a 2:1 contraction. There are brief peaks between flat sections of the line. The peaks are evenly sized and spaced. The peaks are labelled ‘one minute’ and the flat sections are labelled ‘2 minutes’.
The hump is the contraction and the lines are the space/time in between contractions

Irregular contractions

Often women may experience irregular contractions as their body is establishing into labour. If you are managing well and are not concerned – you do not need to call.

Irregular contractions might look/feel like this:

A wavy line depicting irregular contractions. There are multiple peaks of various sizes representing contractions of different intensities. The peaks are not spaced evenly.
The hump is the contraction and the lines are the space/time in between contractions

Or they might look/feel like this pattern of contractions, called “coupling”:

A wavy line depicting coupling in contractions. There are pairs of peaks spaced evenly apart. The first peak is bigger than the second.
The hump is the contraction and the lines are the space/time in between contractions