Stupid question - what do contractions feel like?

[Bumpiemalumpie]

I am 37.6wks. Over the last few weeks I have been getting different pains, I wonder if I can get some advice please....

1. Usually when laying back or sitting, feels like baby is pushing out of my bum

1. feels like baby is pushing all four limbs out to the four corners of my bump

1. feels like baby braces its self against my spine and pushes out

Most times with 2 and 3 I can see bean moving , do the sound like BH? my bump is usually quite hard anyway so I am just not sure!!

worried I won't know when I am in labour!? I also have some sharp pains just outside my vagina(sorry, tmi!!)

help please

Trust me, you will know. Sort of like a belt being tightened around your middle, mixed with period pains. When it starts it is unmistakeable. First time round the Braxton Hicks felt like the real thing but they are nothing like.

Good luck. Mine are teens now so it has been a while.

You will know when they come hunny trust me !! x x

I remember being in early labour with DS and thinking 'oh so it's like a really bad period pain'.

I was in early labour 2 weeks overdue with my 3rd thinking 'damn, that curry last night is giving me awful cramps'

So none of those sound like bhs?? mm strange!!

I am not worried about being in labour, just want to be prepared!! perhaps I just have a very active baby!

As hamletssister said, once they get going it's like a belt being tightened around your middle. Mine started as 'period pain' and feeling flu-y, went to the around the middle pain, then it was head to toe pain, then an emergency section (yay! Go me and my natural birth plan!).

My contractions became nicely regular, long gaps and short contractions gradually becoming short gaps and long contractions over 12hrs.

2 and 3 on your list sound like how bh felt to me.

Oh god. I remember them vividly. And it was over 6 years ago.

For me, the contractions were worse than the crowning pain.

The early, early ones (a few days before she was born) were very mild twinges. Like kicks almost. But painful. Similar to mild period cramps.

But as labour progressed, it honestly felt like there was a blade in my tummy whirring round a million times per second cutting up all my insides. Worst pain ever.

The actual pushing just felt like doing a big sore poo.

I had gas and air because it was so quick i wasn't allowed anything else no matter how loudly i screamed at them all.

Good luck! It's all worth it. Definitely a one-time-only experience for me though.

Contractions during birth felt like a giant hand was squeezing my entire bump.

I never had BHs, though.

From what I remember (15 years ago on the 3rd jan ) it felt like bad period pains

And I went to the loo thinking I needed to do a poo, Nope! Back to the bed post haste!!

You will know. I know how annoying it is when people say that but I promise you will.

At the beginning, It feels like your pelvis is an elastic band that someone is yanking tight. If it gets more painful and they get closer and closer together you're in labour. Unfortunately that first bit can ebb and flow and take bloody forever to get going.

Worth it though I promise. Good luck with it all.

I found mine were like that awful griping pain you get with stomach upsets/ imminent diarrhoea. Combined with horrible period pain.
Am 39+3. Joy...

Mine started like the gripping, sore feeling you get with an upset stomach, all very low down.

When it got going it felt like a pair of strong hands twisting my entire bump to wring it out. Once the water goes there is also intense, painful downwards pressure from the baby's head pushing into your cervix without any cushioning.

What your experiencing now sound like normal late pregnancy pains as your baby gets into the right position and your cervix starts to stretch and thin.

I have to say that I didn't know I was getting contractions until quite late.
I had been having braxton hicks for a while (my bump just went hard and quite weird) They they slowly started to get uncomfortable and painful over the course of few days. They became like bad period pains that started in my bum and moved round to the front but I wasn't convinced it was labour (not regular). It wasn't until my waters broke that I really knew and at that point the pain became unbearable and there is no denying it! I was already 6 cms when I got to the labour ward an hour later so guess all those braxton hicks were early contractions.

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None of the things you've said sound like contractions/BH to me.

Mainly because you've described them all as pushing out- this would generally be just the dear darling baby making themselves known.

Contractions were (IME) most definitely squeezing in. Like someone has your insides in a vice. But worse

BHs are like a strange sensation which grows - and grows - and grows ... IME. The intensity goes up by the second. And up and up. Your tummy goes rock hard to the touch, and if it's a big one it feels like you need to stop what you're doing for a minute and zone out. And breath. I get a slightly hot strangled feeling at it's peak too - but that could be just me

Real contractions are similar - but keep growing and growing way past simple tightening, till real pain starts kicking in ... and then grow even more!