tizzylizzy Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Hi. My daughter has just given birth. Whilst trying to explain events to my neighbours I realised my vocabulary was sadly lacking on the pregnancy front. Could anyone please give me translation for the following:- Her waters broke early in the morning. She was in labour for several hours. Do the French have a phrase for 'being in labour'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubbles Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Congratulations!!Why not just tell them you are a proud "mami"?Tell them the weight, who the baby looks like, what name your daughter has chosen.Show them a photo on your mobile phone if you have one.Are you sure the neighbours want all the intimate details anyway? And does your daughter really want her "waterworks" discussed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tancrède Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 [quote user="tizzylizzy"]I realised my vocabulary was sadly lacking on the pregnancy front.[/quote]I find myself very much in the same boat. The lady in the barber's shop is about to give birth, which I feel will unassailably trump any other conversational subject matter at the time of my next visit.But I found great assistance on this site - which has been recommended on the forum many times before : http://www.wordreference.com/You only need to punch in the required word, and it turns up the translation/s, gives the grammar, and generally supplies a wealth of ready-to-use phrases for various contexts and with profuse illustrations. I find that it tells me quite as much as I desire about dilations, contractions, going into labour, breech delivery, and the breaking of waters.[quote user="tizzylizzy"]Could anyone please give me translation for the following:- Her waters broke early in the morning.[/quote]http://www.wordreference.com/ will instantly give you : Elle a perdu les eaux à minuit. ('Midnight' makes for a more interesting narrative than 'early morning', doesn't it ?)The only thing that I cannot find there is the French for 'bearing down'. But it does have 'bearing up', which can obviously be given a useful conversational rôle in the post-natal context. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 If she had been in labour for 24 hours or something dreadful to report, then it 'may' be worth mentioning, but sounds like it was un accouchement tout a fait normal. Who needs to hear the rest.WHY is that such a 'masculin' sentence, that is what really gets up my nose about the french language. Some things should be very feminine and this is one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frenchie Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 [quote user="tizzylizzy"]Hi. My daughter has just given birth. Whilst trying to explain events to my neighbours I realised my vocabulary was sadly lacking on the pregnancy front. Could anyone please give me translation for the following:- Her waters broke early in the morning. She was in labour for several hours. Do the French have a phrase for 'being in labour'?[/quote]I would say " Je suis grand mère ! Ma fille a accouché, tout s'est bien passé , elle a perdu les eaux de bonne heure le matin, elle a été en travail pendant plusieurs heures, "" being in labour " = etre en travail .Congratulations ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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