Successful sweep?

[Sunsage]

I had a sweep today I am 40 + 4, it took me by surprise at how extremely uncomfortable it was, so of course all the questions I had to ask the midwife went out of my head. I was fine straight after but I'm now in bed with constant cramps front and back, and what I can imagine are contractions (FTM so I don't really know).

I've googled and either can be a side effect of the sweep or a sign of labour so I'm at abit of a loss as to what's going on. I'm going to start timing 'contractions' just to give me some kind of indication if things are progressing..

If any body could give me their sweep stories or experiences I'd really appreciate it!

Had a sweep in the morning....cramping rest of the morning...went off in the afternoon.....cramping in the evening woke up at 01:00 am definite labour/regular contractions. DD born 08:00am. Good luck

Thank you!

So it really is a case of I'll know when it's properly kicking off as labour?

My experience is early labour you are not sure if things are happening or not, pains stop and start and feel a bit uncomfortable. I knew when I was in established labour....there was no mistaking the regular contractions that you need to breathe through.

Thank you so so much that really does help!

I had 3 sweeps & had all the cramping, bleeding ect ect but never got further then that. Ended up being induced. Once your in established labour you so know about it haha

I think sweeps work best if you are already nearly there. First time around I was no where near and they just gave me mild Braxton Hicks which only lasted a couple of hours and I ended up being induced. Second pregnancy I was already 1cm and the sweep definitely kick started it properly - still convinced myself it was Braxton Hicks as my contractions never really got properly regular (even during the pushing phase, I sat with his head out for 7 minutes, nothing happening) so didn't go into hospital until I was 6cm when my husband finally convinced me maybe this was the real deal. I was getting quite worried how I was going to cope with the real thing as what I thought were Braxton Hicks were very painful!!