Pregnancy questions: early and late labour and caesareans

Common pregnancy worries: early and late labour and caesareans | Questions during pregnancy | Third trimester

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Here, Dr Graham Archard, a GP and spokesperson for the Royal College of General Practitioners, answers some of your most common questions towards the end of your pregnancy. Click on the links below to find the answer to each question.

24. I'm worried I'll go into labour early, can I stop this happening?

There's some evidence to suggest that if you're doing heavy work towards the end of your pregnancy then you could go into labour early, so don't overdo it.

But other than that, there's nothing you can do really. An obstetrician can often stop labour if necessary, but you'd need specific medicines so it's not something you can do yourself.

It's not necessarily a bad sign if you're going into labour early - obviously it depends on how early, but sometimes that just happens and there could be a number of reasons.

25. I'm so big and uncomfortable, what can I do to speed things up?

An obstetrician could speed you up with medicines but there's nothing you can do yourself.

There's no evidence that having sex or eating spicy foods will bring on labour.

But going over 40 weeks is nothing you should worry about. Normally the doctors won't let you go more than 2 weeks over because the baby will be more difficult to give birth to after then.

26. I've heard horror stories about caesareans, is there anything I can do to avoid having one?

The best thing you can do to avoid a caesarean is to go to your antenatal classes and listen to your midwife during labour. If you do your breathing exercises and push when your midwife tells you to and so on then you're much more likely to have a natural birth.

Having said that, lots of women who've had a caesarean and a natural birth say they preferred the caesarean. And there could be all kinds of good reasons why you'd need one, such as the baby being too big, it being in a different position, or it being breech.