Contraction Frequency Timer

This timer counts events within rolling time windows rather than timing each one. Tap once at the start of every contraction. The display shows how many have happened in:

• The last 10 minutes
• The last 30 minutes
• The last 60 minutes (1 hour)

Frequency tracking is more useful than individual gaps when patterns matter more than precision. For tracking contractions, providers often want to know: are they getting closer together over time? A count per hour shows that trend more clearly than reading gap times one at a time, and one tap per contraction is easy for a partner to keep up.

How the rate is worked out

The rate per hour comes from the gaps between your taps within the last hour: the number of gaps, divided by the time they cover. Counting taps in a window and scaling it up gets the early minutes wrong. Two taps five minutes apart in your first ten minutes would read as 12 an hour, and the same two taps judged against the full half hour would read as 4.

The 5-1-1 rule

Many maternity guides say to call when contractions arrive about every 5 minutes (12 an hour), each lasting at least 1 minute, sustained for at least 1 hour. This timer checks the parts a single tap can know: a rate of 11 an hour or more (every 5.5 minutes, allowing for tapping), at least 10 taps in the last hour, and a first tap at least 55 minutes ago. It cannot see how long each contraction lasts. For that, use the Contraction Timer, which takes a tap at the start and at the end and checks all three parts.

The trend line compares the first half of the last hour with the second, and only appears once you have been timing for a full hour, because before then the first half is still partly empty.

How to read the rolling windows: each window is sliding, not aligned to clock boundaries. The “last 10 minutes” means exactly the last 600 seconds from now. As time passes, old events fall out of the window even without tapping, and the display refreshes itself every 30 seconds so you can watch that happen.

Other uses for a rolling tally:

• Counting baby movements late in pregnancy. The US Count the Kicks campaign has you time how long 10 movements take each day and learn what is normal for your baby (the older rule of thumb was 10 within 2 hours). UK guidance skips the number and asks you to learn your baby’s own pattern. Either way, movements that slow down or stop are a reason to call your midwife the same day, not to wait.
• Recording panic or migraine episodes for medical follow-up
• Any episodic event you want to log over the day

This is a browser-only timer. No data is recorded externally. Refreshing the page clears all history. If you want a permanent record, screenshot or copy the table before leaving.