It’s very rare that a pregnant woman declares “it’s time!” out of the blue. Sometimes, her water will break unexpectedly, or something just won’t feel right, and it’ll be obvious.
Most of the time, the drive to the hospital happens after timing contractions for a while. In the very early part of labor, contractions start, getting closer together as labor progresses. The general rule for when it’s time is 5-1-1: contractions five minutes apart, lasting one minute each, for an hour (as always, a doctor’s advice should overrule any guidance from this blog).
In short, timing contractions is a way to figure out when it’s time to head to the hospital.
There are two ways to time contractions: manually with a clock or watch, or with electronic assistance. I highly recommend electronic assistance. The manual approach is much more tedious at a time when your mind should be focused on assisting the woman having the contractions.
Manual Timing
To time contractions manually, you’ll need paper, a writing utensil, and a clock or watch that shows seconds.
- Create four columns on the paper: Start Time, End Time, Duration, and Time Between
- When a contraction begins, write the time down in the Start Time column
- When the contraction ends, write the time down in the End Time column
- Calculate the Duration of the contraction:
Duration = (End Time – Start Time)
Write the Duration down. - If this is not the first contraction you have recorded, calculate the Time Between contractions:
Time Between = (Start Time of previous contraction – Start Time of this contraction)
Write the Time Between down.
Here is an example:
| Start Time | End Time | Duration | Time Between |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:44:10 | 8:44:45 | 35 seconds | – |
| 8:55:10 | 8:56:10 | 1 minute | 11 minutes |
| 9:00:30 | 9:00:50 | 20 seconds | 5 minutes 20 seconds |
It’s not complicated, but it takes your focus away from being a good birth partner and puts it on a clock. Besides that, time arithmetic is tedious enough under normal circumstances.
If you’re at all able to, use electronic assistance.
Timing with Electronic Assistance
Using a smartphone or other electronic device is much simpler. Usually, there’s a “Start” button to push when a contraction starts. When the contraction ends, hit “End”. They do all the timekeeping and arithmetic for you.
If you have a smartphone or similar device, search your app store for “contraction timer”, find one that looks good and has good reviews, and install it. Try it out to make sure you’ll like it. (There are websites that provide similar contraction-timing functionality, if you prefer that.)
One caution when it comes to using electronic assistance: don’t get distracted by your electronic device. Games or web-surfing will take your focus off the woman you’re trying to help. Then she’ll be contracting and annoyed. When you’re timing contractions, just use your device for timing contractions.