Start of labour feels like…

[FunnyOrca]

I keep googling to try to ascertain if labour is near. I keep reading people say it feels like period cramps and gets worse.

My question is for anyone who doesn’t necessarily feel period cramps, what did it feel like? I’ve only ever had period cramps about 3 times in my life (all as a student after drinking alcohol and eating junk food on the eve of my period).

If you don’t normally feel period cramps will the start of labour feel different?

Period cramps but stronger, more rhythmic but I had braxton hicks towards the end.

For me it was a kind of intermittent tingling in my thighs. Then like a band of tightness around my middle which was sudden enough to take my breath away.
Also loads of goo in my pants (the bloody 'show' I think it's called).
Neither labour felt anything like period cramps fo me. The closest thing I've felt to it was impacted constipation 😩

I don't get period cramps, but for me I knew it when I felt it. I didn't have any back pain, but had pain in a U shape under my bump. A lot like the stomach pain you get with a crampy stomach upset (and actually the same as toe cramp pain, but in a different place obviously!).

If you’ve had period pain it will be familiar, it won’t go away and will get stronger. Griping pain in lower abdomen as your cervix starts to dilate. You will just know. Some friends have said it started in their back. TBF I’m not experienced enough to know how many ways labour can start, just my own.

It's regular pain at the bottom of your bump, which lasts 30 seconds to 90 seconds. The pain is also very often felt in the lower back, too. The pain starts as a mild cramp then builds up to a crescendo, and then starts to die away.

At first, this pain happens every 15 minutes. In many women, the pain occurs more frequently, even at the start of labour.

The gaps between this pain happening get shorter and shorter as labour progresses. Eventually, the pains happen every three minutes.

You'll often get bloody show as labour goes on. Sometimes the waters break, but this usually happens at the end of labour.

If the waters break in the absence of contractions you should call your midwife for advice.

I had niggling pains in the week leading upto my first. Once the pains are bad enough you have to stop what you are doing and they start coming regularly, you'll know its for real. Also, if they start increasing dramatically and quickly, dont be fobbed off by the labour line receptionist who will try and insist that all first time Mums take ages. They really dont. Some labour fast, some slow. Listen to your body- you will know. And if you need to go into hospital to get checked, just go, even if its a nuisance to potentially go and be sent home, just go at any point if you feel you need to. You dont ask them if you can come in, you tell them (politely of course).

As for what the pain feels like, have you ever had extremely painful trapped wind? I found it very similar to that.

This sounds familiar.

I had a (very) bloody show on 29th Sept. I assume it might have regenerated by now…

I have an old back injury, which has surprisingly felt amazing all pregnancy. However, when it normally plays up it bothers my thighs (maybe 3/10 pain) and recently I’ve been feeling waves of 8/10 pain in my thighs, as if it is coming from my back injury but I’m feeling nothing at all in my back.

Plenty of constipation too 😂

I think it is different for different people, because to me labour/contractions are nothing like period pains. I had no signs either time I went into labour, just started having contractions.

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.

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.

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

Thank you all for your replies. It is very useful to hear the pain described in different ways as I’m not sure “period cramps” really means anything to me.

I’m being called about an induction in the morning and I’m pretty keen to avoid it so hoping to be able to tell triage something is moving along…

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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!