Start of labour feels like…

Thanks for the update OP, and glad it went well even though it wasn't your Plan A

I had 2 days feeling really bleugh and everything swelled up massively. I didn't realise until the period-like cramps suddenly started every half hour

Well done op! Congratulations! Hope u and baby are doing well 💗

Also felt like very bad trapped wind when it happens in waves, but period cramps are the best description really

Felt very early on like indigestion, like you've eaten something a dodgy and your stomach is a bit gripey. However the odd thing is it comes and goes, initially very light sensation where you aren't even sure you felt it. With my first it built up quite quickly and was obvious. With my second I did think that maybe id just eaten something which didn't agree with me so managed to go to sleep with a hot water bottle for a couple of hours. Didn't mention it to DH till a good few hours later when it was happening more frequently with a more obvious feeling of tightening and more pain.

OP - everybody is different. I get bad period cramps.

But I didn't feel any pain on the day - just woke up with wet underwear - as my water broke. Went to the hospital - but as baby hasn't dropped - was sent to walk around the block for a few hours. Did that. Came back and was admitted - where nothing proceeded to happen for another 24hrs. Water apparently gets replaced. Then I was induced for several hours - and again, no progress.
So - baby was born via C-section in the end....

That was a while ago...

Like period cramps but not as bad or as long.

Only 18 hours for DD1 and 12 hours for DD2. Pain was less than a bad period. DD1’s was in the pool and just lovely. DD2 came too bloody quickly and pool was still filling as I arrived at the midwife unit.

To me it felt like food poisoning or bad IBS cramps. No different really.

I felt like I had tummy cramps. I was 40+10 and I had totally lost faith that I would ever have a baby I thought I would be pregnant forever.

Remember moaning to my mum and thinking that they were just yet another pregnancy discomfort to put up with. She said are you getting them regularly? I said yeah they keep coming on!

it was only then that it actually dawned on me what was happening …

it’s unbelievable now but I think I really didn’t think the baby would ever come!

Mine are also lightning fast. I described above what the prodromal phase was like and as it ramped up. But the beginning of actual labour? I barely registered what was happening. When the proper pain began I had one endless contraction and a baby in my arms 90 minutes later.

Hard agree that everyone is different. I know some people that don't even find labour painful.

I didn’t feel it like period pains. I had afterpains when bfing that were much more like period pains. My labour started very gently with contractions every hour which were immediately recognizable although they did not hurt, and although I had never had them before. They felt specific, deliberate and purposeful. They became more frequent and eventually painful.

I was in prodromal labour for a long time (2 weeks), and it ramped up suddenly one day, and even before 'proper' labour began, I knew now was the time. Loooong cramps that travelled across my belly and down through my backside. They weren't rhythmic for me though, they were totally random amounts of time apart.

Lost appetite, felt an urgent need to be somewhere safe.

Everyone is different. My labours are very quick. Although I think there’s a degree of silent labour before hand. Rhythmic tightening with zero pain for a good while. When pain started I was only 30 minutes away from actual birth.

just saying this to show everyone is very different.

How far are you and what reason are they giving for wanting to induce you? They want to induce everyone nowadays!
Only go for it if its right for you, do your research and dont be pressured into one if you truly feel its not necessary.

I'd say a bit like mild food poisoning/tummy bug. Sick, didn't want to eat, mild pains. Didn't get bad for ages, and wasn't really aware of water breaking, as things went along I felt out of it, like very drunk. I was very quiet, didn't feel "real", more dream like. Very not like the movies! But we're all different.

My induced labour felt like period pains that intensified in latent labour, I took the epidural before active labour due to going on the drip so can't comment on that.

My spontaneous labour was actually quite similar to what you see in films and TV programmes! My waters went in the middle of the night and within 20 minutes I had full blown can't walk or talk through contractions feeling the need to bear down.

What I will say is the contractions in my second labour the pain didn't feel like period pains (I have bad ones) the pain was more spread out rather than deep specific pain and I didn't get the urge to push at the end either.

Mine is a fairly unusual story but I was examined due to slight bleeding and told I was 4cm without so much as a tiny cramp, ache or pain. 3 days later I started getting some lower back discomfort/aching (this was coming in waves every 5 or 6 minutes) which felt much like what I would get during a period. And my bump started feeling quite firm and like it stuck out more if that makes sense. I went to the bathroom and there was a little bleeding again so I was examined and I was around 7-8cm.

Mine felt like my arsehole was being turned inside out and my spine crushed. It was all in my back and bum and not what I expected at all. Baby was partially back to back.

I had instant continuous contractions though, no gentle build up up and went from 0-6cm in 40 mins, 6.5hrs total labour. It was terrifying. No time for epidural and you can forget breathing through it.

I know my experience isn’t typical though.

It's definitely different for different people.
I had back pain, just like I'd had for most of the last few months, nothing like period cramps. It was constant all night, but when it became intermittent I realised it was/had become contractions.
I find it really hard to describe my contractions, they were quite intense and an all-consuming feeling, as in, I couldn't do anything else while I was having one, but I wouldn't describe it as pain.

It felt like someone very heavy sat on my middle suddenly and squeezed hard and pushed the baby down so low they had no option but to try and break their way out with a sledgehammer. With spikes in it.

There was absolutely no chance of this only occurring periodically or every 15 minutes or only for 30 seconds or any of that jazz.

It was like the above, being hit by a truck, it never ebbed or flowed or receded, just one minute nothing, the next minute top drawer pressure and pain and closely followed by a baby coming out.

No debate on if it was labour, no rhythmic build up, no breaks just nothing, then full blown explosive pressure and the baby is coming out NOW, which it did.

No wondering or worrying about if I should go anywhere or do anything about it any more than I could have gotten up and got myself to a hospital if I had been hit by the truck and had two broken legs. Nope. Just normal, then full blown constant labour and a baby.

Yes same for me, I’ve never heard of anyone else saying this

I found contraction was quite a good description. The muscle under my bump tightening in quite an uncomfortable way I could do nothing about though I really wanted to (and tried) to stretch it. Worse lying down. Got worse as it progressed.

I actually thought I'd done my back in until I realised the pain was coming and going, then realised I was in labour 🤣. I didn't get any pain in my front at all.