Contractions are painful when the uterus is contracting and are generally caused by three main factors.
Vascular: contraction of the uterine muscles will close the blood vessels between the muscles, leading to congestion of the blood vessels and consequently a lack of oxygen to the cells of the uterine muscles will cause pain to develop.
Hormones: When the uterus contracts, the endometrial hormone production rises and the prostaglandins in the body increase, resulting in pain, which is normal.
Fluid or residual tissue in the uterine cavity: these can increase the pressure in the uterine cavity and lead to painful contractions.
In most cases, the pain can be relieved by relief or appropriate rest after the onset of contractions.
There are three common causes of emergency labour: first, preterm labour. It is mostly seen in pregnant women between 29 and 36 weeks of gestation, under 18 years old or over 40 years old; secondly, pregnant women suffer from underlying illnesses such as anaemia, hyperthyroidism and hypertension; thirdly, prenatal check-ups are not routinely conducted, resulting in unexpected conditions such as having a small foetus, twin foetuses, malpositioned foetus and abnormal placenta not being dealt with in time.
Mothers-to-be do not need to be particularly nervous about emergency deliveries, as the incidence of emergency deliveries is generally in the range of 5-10%.