What are some signs that labor is near?

First, you will experience some loosening up of your pelvic ligaments as your body’s releases the relaxin hormone. Next is the ‘lightening’ which occurs with first-time mums around the 36th to 38th week when the baby settles and drops lower, into the mother’s pelvis.  Engagement is when the baby’s head (or buttocks, in case of breech) moves down to the level of the ischial spines and gets ‘engaged’. At this point, you might feel some relief because of the less pressure on your lungs as your stomach has more room again, but increased pressure on your bladder and groin. Third, is the ripening of the cervix which is associated with the feeling of softening, drawing up and thinning, which is a positive sign. Within the last day(s) of your body voluntarily going into labour, you will feel an engulfing tiredness. Your stools can become soft, there can be a sharp, stabbing pains in places you haven’t felt them before; it takes enormous effort to complete any task; and you just want to do absolutely nothing. This feeling of shutdown which forces your body to rest before it commences labour. Meanwhile, you also experience heightened energy and sensitivity at an inner level, become super-protective and finding safety and security close to home. Within 24 hours of the onset of labour (or frustratingly even up to a couple of weeks before delivery), many women have one or more ‘bloody shows’ where your cervix has painlessly dislodged a clear (or pink, blood-tinged) gelatinous mucous plug called the operculum, that looks like a large bit of egg white-like snot. Dependent on the position of the baby, waters breaking can be a gush or a trickle of fairly odourless fluid and it is usually desirable for the baby to be born within 24-48 hours of the membranes rupturing.