When you're in true labor, your contractions last about 30 to 70 seconds and come about 5 to 10 minutes apart. They're so strong that you can't walk or talk during them.
Contractions are mild to moderate and shorter (about 30 to 45 seconds). You can usually keep talking during them. Contractions may also be irregular, about 5 to 20 minutes apart. They may even stop for a while.
Breathing too quickly (which looks a lot like hyperventilating) and holding your breath can increase your pain, not to mention also make you feel lightheaded.
Your contractions may feel like cramps in your lower stomach and can start off feeling like period pain. You may have dull lower back pain or pain in your inner thigh that you feel down your legs. At first, your contractions will be short and around 30 minutes apart.
When you have a contraction, your womb tightens and then relaxes. For some people, contractions may feel like extreme period pains. You may have had contractions during your pregnancy, particularly towards the end. These tightenings are called Braxton Hicks contractions and are usually painless.
Typically, real labor contractions feel like a pain or pressure that starts in the back and moves to the front of your lower abdomen. Unlike the ebb and flow of Braxton Hicks, true labor contractions feel steadily more intense over time. During true labor contractions your belly will tighten and feel very hard.
Are contractions painful? Although they're usually painful, between each contraction you may not feel much pain at all. They may remind you of period pains or feel much more painful. Every woman's experience is different, as the intensity can vary a lot.
Early labor contractions can feel like gastrointestinal discomfort, heavy menstrual cramps or lower abdominal pressure.
Try to walk around too, if you can. If you get tired or your contractions get stronger, you can try to keep moving by shifting your weight from one foot to the other, or by rocking your pelvis. Some of these positions will make it easier for your birth partner to give you a massage or back rub.
These contractions may be slightly uncomfortable and feel like mild to moderate menstrual cramps. Usually, they're intermittent and variable, seven to ten or even twenty or more minutes apart. You may be able to sleep or do other activities while experiencing them.
Taking walks during active labor (breaking for contractions) can help ease the intensity of labor and can help keep your labor progressing by moving your pelvic bones, which helps position baby appropriately for (potentially) a shorter and easier overall birth.
Other, early signs labor is close (anywhere from a month to mere hours away from active labor) include: Baby drops. Cervix begins to dilate. Cramps and increased back pain.
Early or latent labor
The early or latent phase is when labor begins. You'll have mild contractions that are 15 to 20 minutes apart and last 60 to 90 seconds. Your contractions will become more regular until they are less than 5 minutes apart.
When you have regular, painful contractions lasting one minute each and occurring at least every five minutes for more than two hours, it's time to go to the hospital. This is the transition from early to active labor.
Check for dilation.
Try to insert the tips of your fingers into your cervix. If one fingertip fits through your cervix, you're considered one centimeter dilated. If two fit, you're two centimeters dilated. If there's additional space in the opening, try to estimate how many fingertips would fit to determine dilation.
Spending most of your time in bed, especially lying on your back, or sitting up at a small angle, interferes with labor progress: Gravity works against you, and the baby might be more likely to settle into a posterior position. Pain might increase, especially back pain.
Lying on your back in labour
In addition to this, when you're on your back, you're not working with gravity – you're working against it. So your surges (contractions) are having to work so much harder (and therefore labour could take longer - and that's not something you want either, is it?).
Labor contractions may feel like discomfort or a dull ache in the lower back, along with a tightening sensation across the abdomen and pelvic pressure. 1 Some compare contractions to intense period cramps or the pressure of a bowel movement. There may also be groin, thigh, and side pain.
Changes in baby movement
The uterus will relax between successive contractions. The baby will keep moving until the labor begins, and this movement will continue during the early labor. However, the movement pattern may change. Instead of kicking the womb, the baby may squirm or shuffle.
Braxton-Hicks contractions, also known as prodromal or false labor pains, are contractions of the uterus that typically are not felt until the second or third trimester of the pregnancy. Braxton-Hicks contractions are the body's way of preparing for true labor, but they do not indicate that labor has begun.
If the pains you are having are real labor, walking will make the contractions come closer together and they will be stronger, but you will be able to cope with them better if you are standing or moving around.