What were your signs of premature labour?

[hannahbanananana]

I'm 31+1 and getting a little worried. For the past 2 days I've been having what started out like period pains. They weren't completely unbearable, no worse than usual menstrual cramps, unless I tried to stand up or was walking and then they got really intense. I managed to fall asleep the first night I got them, and woke up feeling a lot better, a few niggling pains (again similar to period pains) but nothing major. I thought maybe that I'd overdone it as had been on my feet for an hour or so, or maybe it was just everything stretching. Got half way through the day and they started again, but this time were really painful, was struggling to talk through the pains, and I felt so much pressure low down (baby is breech so thought this was bizzare). I was also getting a lot of tightenings, but these weren't always at the same time as the pains, and these weren't painful, just uncomfortable. Started timing the pains and they were coming every 7-10 minutes, so was getting really worried. But when I lied down in bed, they seemed to die down. I didn't sleep at all last night with back ache, it wasn't particularly painful, just an uncomfortable ache and I just couldn't get comfy. Have spent most of the day laid in bed watching films and not had a huge amount of pain until I sat up. Again the pains are getting more intense and quite close together, but die down when I lie down.. So confused! I'm not constipated and I don't have a UTI (I have my urine checked twice weekly as I have pregnancy induced hypertension). I'm going to keep an eye on it and maybe phone my midwife tomorrow, but wondered if anyone had a similar experience? I just know that if I go to triage the pains will stop and I don't fancy wasting their time.

Premature* oops

Sending you good luck wishes.
My dd is 12 and at 30 weeks I was having tightening across my abdomen and constant dull aching across my back. Went to hospital, was examined and told it was BH but given steroid injections "just in case". At 31+6 these pains came back. Attended the maternity hospital at 1pm to be told I had a uti, given antibiotics and sent home. Pains worsened and I was back at the maternity hospital at midnight. I genuinely felt as though the midwives weren't taking me seriously as they kept referring to the uti diagnosed earlier in the day. I lay there in agony for over 2 hours vomiting with the pain until eventually I was examined by a doctor who found I was 6cm dilated. By then it was too late for labour reversing drugs (sorry, can't remember the name of them). Dd was born 2 hours later. She was perfectly formed and perfectly healthy, thanks to the steroids I was given 2 weeks previously. She spent 1 day in icu as a precaution before being moved to a lesser dependency bed in scbu. A baby's "sucking" reflex doesn't kick in until about 34 weeks, so she was fed via a nasogastric tube until then. I hand expressed breast milk for weeks, setting my alarm for every 3-4 hours day and night to do this, to ensure my milk stayed in and to syringe feed her via the ng. She left hospital 2 weeks before her due date.
She's perfectly healthy and always has been and I'm sure your baby will be too
Best of luck, I'll be watching out for updates. Any questions please ask

I was told that BH can be worse than actual labour pains. Hold on to that thought OP!

Good luck jmac. Glad you got back in. Keep listening to that body. Thinking of you!

All the best Jmac

Oh gosh jmac, wasn't expecting to read that! Do let us know how you get on, thinking of you xxx

Make sure you look after yourself too Hannah. Are you still experiencing the same symptoms?