Claire
What does the coupling of contractions mean?
Have you ever heard about it before?
This nice visual created by @babytalk.birthnurse on Instagram represents what contractions would look like if you have continuous fetal heart rate monitoring with a toco probe that monitors your contractions!
Sometimes, also called “Camel contractions”, the start of a peak is the start of a contraction and so we can measure how long each contraction is and how far apart they are!
When you get back to back contractions and then a long-ish break in between, that’s coupling!
It usually happens when the baby is not in an optimal position so your uterus doesn’t have an optimal labour pattern (not always!). It’s like your uterus is trying to get that baby into a better position.
This pattern is sometimes accompanied by terrible back labour because the protruding part of your baby’s head is pushing up against your back! Ugh! Get into position baby!🤪
Did you know about coupling contractions?
Let us know in our comments
Originally posted 2021-03-19 06:17:33.
I don’t think mine coupled, but I did have a double peak, which I didn’t know was a thing until I was in the middle of them 😅
I had back to back… to back to back contractions for the majority of my labor. I was told it’s called “stacked contractions.” Is that caused by the same thing- baby not being in an optimal position? I haven’t been able to find any solid research on why it happened and honestly I’m still trying to process it. Thanks for this info! 💕
I had no idea this is what they are called!! Thanks for sharing – I didn’t know they happen to other people and had thought my body just couldn’t do labour properly!
I didn’t know about this, but my son wasn’t going into the right position, his head was pushing on my pelvic bones and for me there was no “wave” it was just constant pain until I got the epidural.
We liked to call them „camel contractions“ in labor ward ☺️
I didn’t know this was a thing until just now. It happened with my third and I almost didn’t go to the hospital when I did because I didn’t think my contractions were “regular” enough. My husband made me go anyway because I was in so much pain and my daughter was born an hour later 😬😅
I experienced this with my son’s birth on 2/19. I was induced and was told he was OP. In the 2nd stage I had a coupling contraction and had to wait a few minutes for the next contraction but he was birthed with that contraction. Less than 3 1/4 hour labor with no epidural.
Didn’t know about it but definitely experienced it during labour!
I never knew this! My daughter is 11 years old and it describes my labour perfectly. However she was born at home and the birth was beautiful. Apparently she was slightly back to back but did move
I had coupling contractions they were so tiring and painful. I thought I was in transition and was so disappointed when I found out I was only at a 4 🙁I thought mine happened because of dehydration but also my water hadn’t broken yet 🤷🏻♀️
I was waiting for regular rhythmic contractions and it never happened they were all over the shops.
YES I had this and I was so confused about having near constant contractions and then a break!
Yes I had them bc my son didn’t turn until the very last minute and I had back labor. I had back to back contractions for over 24 hours
This happened during my labor except my contractions were stacking on top of one another!
I didn’t know about these until I had them with my first daughter! Thanks for the great educational post!
Ah 🤔 so that’s why my back labor was so bad. She was face up. Good lord. 🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️
I had it with my second baby! My nurse noticed it from the nurses station, came in and said “well baby is being stubborn so let’s move you a little and convince baby to cooperate” 😂👏🏻
I had this! They said my baby was posterior…I laboured on the birthing ball and he moved!!
crazy didn’t know my back to back contractions were from that but yes she was in a terrible position, ROP. 😢
Yes, I was having a home birth so I called my midwife and described the double contractions. She said it was my body’s way of getting baby into an optimal position too. Only lasted an hour and then baby arrived 2 hours later 😊
Ugh this is what I had 😫 so excruciating. They said the contractions coupled & tripled. It was like what I’d understood transition to be like but for the whole labou