How would you describe contractions?

[NewMamma21]

FTM just trying to get an idea of what contractions might feel like.
I know this may be way off but the only 2 things I’ve experienced which I feel I could compare with are

1. gall stone attacks (undiagnosed for ages); they felt like my stomach had cramped up & wouldn’t release, shooting back pains & felt like someone was squeezing my lungs.
2. IBS; that feeling of really needing the toilet, stomach cramps, cold sweats. All coming in waves then okay for a bit then another wave.

They're like period pains. Really big period pains.

For me it was very much like 2 but I know it's different for different people.

The start out like period pains. The end up feeling like your body is tearing itself in half.

Well I've never had IBS or gall stones attack but labour for me started with V&D and it took me a while to realise my diarrhoea cramps were actually pretty regular contractions. Also a bit like the muscle cramps you get in your legs in they way it builds, is almost unbearable and then fades.

Not like period pains for me, but my baby was in the back to back position. There is no nice way to say it, but it felt like a javelin was being pushed very hard into my back passage.

Period pain. Really really bad period pains. Then in the last bit indescribably bad period pain! But with a tiny breather in between each contraction to catch your breath and swear a bit. Strangely once over you almost instantly forget, until you have another and suddenly remember it all again when labour starts and think omfg what was I thinking having another! But it’s ok you get a shiny new baby to take home at the end

Only after first child did I realise period pains are literally your womb contracting to push the period out (who knew?!)

Have you ever had that shooting pain up your bum when you're on your period?

I was induced, which resulted in pretty much no breaks between contractions. Started like very bad period pain, turning into truly horrid "fence post rammed up the bottom" type pain. I don't think she was back to back, but must have been in an awkward position. Due to monitors and insulin drips I wasn't able to move around, so was lying on my back for 13 hours, which was probably the worst way to be! Epidural helped, I could still feel it, but it was no longer really painful. I still remember the anaesthetist as the most beautiful person I've ever seen.

I felt like my stomach was a tube of toothpaste, being squeezed from the top just under my boobs to the bottom. Also they came in waves, I could feel one starting, getting bigger bigger bigger, then fading away. I'd forgotten how bad they were though, until I did it a second time and then was like crap now I remember how bad this was 🤦‍♀️

Mine felt like my stomach was tightening and the lower part of my body was bearing down - so a bit like trying to do a poo but really strong. So more pressure than pain.

Honestly, I've had worse period pain... it was so painful I was regularly sick. In contrast, labour wasn't as bad for me. The "waves" built and released in a way periods didn't. But it was that kind of feeling.

Bad period pain. I have IBS and it's slightly higher, like IBS is under my stomach while period pain is a tiny bit lower down, and just slightly different. Contractions were period pain on steroids.

Felt like someone was drilling/using a grinder through my pelvic floor into my pelvis non stop for 6 hours.

Like a period pains and the stabby pain you get with trapped wind, only both at once. With DC1, it never got as painful my worst period pains.

Like really really bad diarrhoea pains!

When I had them I finally understood why we get period pain - it must be the body's way of training us for labour (otherwise wtf cosmic sick joke). That same kind of internal cramping but way more intense and mostly focussed on the lower back. It wasn't exactly painful at first, but weird and intense.

Like your midsection is being squeezed in a vice. But for the first few hours there was enough time between that it was manageable.

Initially (as in those early ‘time to get to the hospital’ as opposed to ‘mid-labour/in the delivery ward’ contractions), lower abdominal tightening/cramping with, as another poster mentioned, a kind of weight bearing down onto the pelvic area.

It's so different for everyone. Some labours are ok, others are excruciatingly painful and therefore terrifying.

A Chinese burn on your uterus.

The worst period pains ever, honestly don't know how else to describe them, they just get worse and worse.
I thought my organs were all Gona fall out of me at one point! I think that must've been the urge to push

I'm 13+2 now and I've really been struggling to remember what it felt like when I had my son (only two years ago). @akajwnd description is the most accurate for my experience! I was sick during every other contraction, and I knew when the wave had passed because I hiccupped loudly after every single contraction

What @BounceyBumblebee said. I had a back to back labour and the contractions didn’t come in waves…it was constant and felt like exactly how bouncey described. I also suffer from horrific periods (throwing up from the pain etc) but this was off the charts.

I think if DS hadn’t been back to back and there was some respite between contractions it wouldn’t have been as bad but I just couldn’t recover from any of them and felt like my back was breaking

In contrast other people I know have said it wasn’t so bad for them so I really do believe everyone is different

I saw someone on here, ages ago, describe it as being fisted with a blender that was on fire. I thought that was a really accurate description.
Then again, my second labour (I've had 3) was a total breeze, really mild cramps, when they told me to push I was like nah, give over, where's all the agony?
1 and 3 were best described by the second on your list, the cramps when you have a really bad stomach bug and desperately need to poo, x50.

Not like anything I've felt before! I can remember vividly, how it felt like a pain in my back that became a band around the top of my bump and then rippled down my bump to the top of my thighs and then tailed off.

It didn't get more painful, but as they came quicker and quicker, with very little rest between them, they were exhausting.

I loved the experience, both times. Incredible.