Start of contractions

[MeredithGrey1]

I’m still a good few weeks off giving birth (hopefully) but as it’s my first I have lots of questions!

One thing in particular I’ve been wondering is, when contractions start, do you definitely know that’s what it is, or do you have to wait until you’ve had a few before you can confidently feel like “yep, think these are contractions”? I know it’s different for everyone, it’s just that it’s much easier to find info about later contractions (when they’re more painful, more frequent etc) but I’m not sure quite what the start of contractions might be like?

I've done it 3 times and to be honest it's started with twinges, I've never been totally sure what was happening until later in labour

First sign was period pain so possibly mild contractions but when they start there is no mistaking them. It’s like when you have an upset stomach and need to get to a toilet

My baby was back to back so I never felt any contractions in my bump but second what FarmersWife says, up until it felt like my spine was being cleaved in half every 3 minutes I didn't really know. I had an irritable uterus and SPD so that explained away any back ache and Braxton Hicks I was having might try and get to the hospital before 8cm next time!

My labour started with what felt like period pains, just that dull ache, but it had some regularity to it. My first proper contraction was a couple of hours later, and there was definitely no mistaking it, it was all over my bump and like no pain I have ever felt

With your first baby it’s tricky as you don’t know what to expect. I recall having dull - quite painful - period like pains for a good few weeks before the actual day and I thought they were contractions. However when they did properly start I realised that these were the actual contractions. They had a definite beginning and end and were more painful than the period type pains- and then clearly just get more painful as labour progresses. Good luck OP.

When I went into labour contractions were regular straight off I had blood and knew, did have twinges / and bad period for 4 days leading up to but very irregular and knew that was just my body getting ready... I was lucky though I established labour very quickly and was all done in 13 hours x