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tizzylizzy

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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'?
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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?
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[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.

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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.
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[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 !

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