Need help writing about labor...?

[Upirium]

There's a pregnant person in my story, and I can find everything I want about how tell if YOU are going into labor but how can an outside source tell if someone is?
The person in question doesn't really understand what's going on. They're a new mother.
The problem is I can't just have them go to the hospital because A, it's fictional medieval times.
I can't call a village doctor because the person who is pregnant cannot expose their selves to the general public.
All I have is two dudes.
One of them's a nerd, knows a lot of s**t he probably doesn't need to know but he knows it.
He thrives by studying just about everything.
I'm thinking maybe he can recognize the signs.
But I don't know how to write the signs from an outside perspective.
But what has been revealed by the preggo so far is that they have vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach cramps because it's kind of really ********' them up.
But that could just be thought of as some stomach bug.
I need something else other than breaking water that would let the nerd know about this.

[Zippy T]

Hey there,
I'm not sure how much help I can be in this since it's been awhile, but I remember when my mom was going into labor with my youngest brother, she was very quiet because of the first contractions. Like, it was uncharacteristically quiet for her, which made me ask her if it was time. She didn't want to voice the "ow", you know? If your new mother person was just starting to go into labor and had no idea what was going on, she might have felt like she was having some minor stomach problems, or cramps? Depending on your character's personalities, they might be able to pick up on little hints like that.

[Umbre]

A woman often won't "break her water" until just a little before it's time to start pushing, or it's done by a doctor to stimulate the active part.

Closer to going into labor, the unborn child may not move as much due to the fact that it's moving into the birth canal. So those little mounds of baby fist or foot that may have been visible a week or so ago may be not visible as the child is sitting head first ( hopefully) with their crown to the cervix.

Before all of that, she will have false birth contractions as her body prepares for the act. They're referred to as Braxton Hicks contractions or false labor pains. What separates them from actual labor is that they are random and don't have a rhythm. Actual labor involves periods of pelvic contractions that can be measured in a steady and increasing pattern, that grows stronger as the process continues on. You can see the musculature of a woman in labor go tense for several minutes, then ease. So she'll go from something like 20 minutes apart, to 10 minutes, to 5 over the course of a few hours. The only way that I can think of to describe it to a guy would be a really bad case of gas or diarrhea. For a girl it's like the worse menstrual cramp ever.

A person can still function relatively normally through most of the hours of labor. As another poster mentioned, they'd likely just be quieter or a little more moody from the initial discomfort.

There's also a mucus plug that basically keeps the uterus blocked up during pregnancy. This is usually shed a day or two before labor starts. So a woman may notice spotting of blood and discharge before she even feels contractions.

[Upirium]

Umbre

A woman often won't "break her water" until just a little before it's time to start pushing, or it's done by a doctor to stimulate the active part.

Closer to going into labor, the unborn child may not move as much due to the fact that it's moving into the birth canal. So those little mounds of baby fist or foot that may have been visible a week or so ago may be not visible as the child is sitting head first ( hopefully) with their crown to the cervix.

Before all of that, she will have false birth contractions as her body prepares for the act. They're referred to as Braxton Hicks contractions or false labor pains. What separates them from actual labor is that they are random and don't have a rhythm. Actual labor involves periods of pelvic contractions that can be measured in a steady and increasing pattern, that grows stronger as the process continues on. You can see the musculature of a woman in labor go tense for several minutes, then ease. So she'll go from something like 20 minutes apart, to 10 minutes, to 5 over the course of a few hours. The only way that I can think of to describe it to a guy would be a really bad case of gas or diarrhea. For a girl it's like the worse menstrual cramp ever.

A person can still function relatively normally through most of the hours of labor. As another poster mentioned, they'd likely just be quieter or a little more moody from the initial discomfort.

There's also a mucus plug that basically keeps the uterus blocked up during pregnancy. This is usually shed a day or two before labor starts. So a woman may notice spotting of blood and discharge before she even feels contractions.

Well, it's a little more complicated than that, but the general information is helpful
Thanks

[Umbre]

Just offering some basic facts which may help. I'm certain there is more going on.

Although if they're on the move regularly, she may be more fatigued than usual.

[Upirium]

Umbre

Just offering some basic facts which may help. I'm certain there is more going on.

Although if they're on the move regularly, she may be more fatigued than usual.

Well, they're in a house actually. And the she's not a she, it's a he...with a v****a. But more predominately male so, referred to as male.
He also does not give live birth, he lays eggs, because he is not human.
Idk if he'd realize spotting because he rarely wears pants because he has a massive, spiked tail.
His v****a is inside of a cloaca-like opening, so it's usually closed up and s**t can't get through as easy.
It can be pried open though and I'm thinking I'm going to take the smart brother and look him over and find out what's going on.

[Umbre]

Misha Collinz

Umbre

Just offering some basic facts which may help. I'm certain there is more going on.

Although if they're on the move regularly, she may be more fatigued than usual.

Well, they're in a house actually. And the she's not a she, it's a he...with a v****a. But more predominately male so, referred to as male.
He also does not give live birth, he lays eggs, because he is not human.
Idk if he'd realize spotting because he rarely wears pants because he has a massive, spiked tail.
His v****a is inside of a cloaca-like opening, so it's usually closed up and s**t can't get through as easy.
It can be pried open though and I'm thinking I'm going to take the smart brother and look him over and find out what's going on.

That would've been pertinent information to note at the start... Also if you want to get biologically technical, if it has ovum and has eggs that can be fertilized - it's biologically a female or a hermaphrodite if there are also functioning male parts.

If it's an egg laying species, you'd likely see more obvious nesting behaviours and perhaps sensitivity to temperature / humidity ( depending upon how hard/soft the eggs are). So it may be looking for quiet spots to lay/hide the eggs, cleaning up excessively.

[Upirium]

Umbre

Misha Collinz

Umbre

Just offering some basic facts which may help. I'm certain there is more going on.

Although if they're on the move regularly, she may be more fatigued than usual.

Well, they're in a house actually. And the she's not a she, it's a he...with a v****a. But more predominately male so, referred to as male.
He also does not give live birth, he lays eggs, because he is not human.
Idk if he'd realize spotting because he rarely wears pants because he has a massive, spiked tail.
His v****a is inside of a cloaca-like opening, so it's usually closed up and s**t can't get through as easy.
It can be pried open though and I'm thinking I'm going to take the smart brother and look him over and find out what's going on.

That would've been pertinent information to note at the start... Also if you want to get biologically technical, if it has ovum and has eggs that can be fertilized - it's biologically a female or a hermaphrodite if there are also functioning male parts.

If it's an egg laying species, you'd likely see more obvious nesting behaviours and perhaps sensitivity to temperature / humidity ( depending upon how hard/soft the eggs are). So it may be looking for quiet spots to lay/hide the eggs, cleaning up excessively.

On the contrary
He is of a specific race where both males and females possess(that doesn't look like the right spelling..) penises. But they are still said to be male and female because females have breasts and feminine bodies and the males have male bodies.
The females carry 1-2 (or more, rarely) humanoid babies because they can breast feed, but the males give birth to several eggs because their body isn't designed to nurse, so they eat meat. They're also not very humanoid.
The true hermaphrodites of their world are very androgynous and are stuck between the male and female traits, and cannot breed.
As described in this passage...

It’s hair was long and silver on one side, while the other was shorter. It appeared not male, or female inherently. It’s face and body shape feminine, and it’s chest area composed of small breasts. It seemed more androgynous than anything.

..okay I went on a tangent there, I doubt you needed to know half of that.
I don't know if he'd really go looking for a place to nest
He's pretty miserable at the moment. He spends half his time in the bathroom and the other half trying to sleep

[Umbre]

I believe I recall you posting information up about the story. So I do recall vaguely, as you had posted something up like a month or two ago. I want to say the parent was a human male(?)

Wikipedia does a better job of explaining why I'm classifying them as hermaphrodites. Specifically Slugs :

Quote:

Slugs are hermaphrodites, having both female and male reproductive organs.[10] Once a slug has located a mate, they encircle each other and sperm is exchanged through their protruded genitalia. A few days later, the slugs lay around thirty eggs in a hole in the ground, or beneath the cover of an object such as a fallen log.

Apophallation is a commonly seen practice among many slugs. In apophallating species, the p***s curls like a corkscrew and during mating, it often becomes entangled in the mate's genitalia. Apophallation allows the slugs to separate themselves by one or both of the slugs chewing off the other's p***s. Once its p***s has been removed, the slug is still able to mate using only the female parts of its reproductive system.[10]

But as a biology major with a heavy interest in zoology and genetics, I can assure you that scientifically this culture would be classified as a hermaphroditic species with variances in body types resulting from population stressors / adaptation. The difference basically being no more than a subspecies of a parent species that can still interbreed in most instances. They're basically proto-synapsids --- not quite reptile enough to be called a reptile but not quite a mammal either.

Hypothetically you could have an entirely non-mammary group reproduce within themselves without need of the ones with the ability to produce milk. Because you don't need the "male" and "female" ones together, you could have an entire population of one or the other without the two ever having to intermingle, which may eventually lead to such a genetic variance that they'd eventually be unable to interbreed to produce viable offspring. If anything that would also explain why there are individuals stuck ( in between ). It's basically a ring species under going a speciation event.

In humans men technically have breasts and mammary glands as well, it's just that due to the fact that they produce less estrogen, they don't develop. But individuals with both genitalia in our species are often the result of issues with chromosomes and so far have been sterile. It's not impossible to be genetically male, but have female genitalia --- as female is the human body's default. Funnily enough, it weren't for a very specific gene on the Y chromosome ( SRY ), men would be infertile females.

This link may actually help explain what I mean by ring species, by the way.

But hey - fantasy story - reality has little to no bearing. I.E. Your story has bathrooms, which didn't even exist in the Middle Ages as we currently know them. So it's pointless to really ask or dwell any further on it because ultimately you'll use your imagination and do whatever strikes your fancy. So you could have the pregnant character start shedding and changing color. Maybe even develop a territorial aggression. It's only limited to your imagination because it's not real.