What did your contractions feel like?

Re: What did your contractions feel like?

• tracy042206

  December 2008

  I never felt BH - I just felt my belly tighten up and get hard - like you describe the tightening of the whole abdomen.
  

  Real contractions started out like bad diarhea cramps and I only felt them down low on the front and kind of splitting through my body to the back.  My MIL told me that if they were real I would feel them like a wave from the top of my belly so I was convinced I was just having cramps from the insertion of the foley catheter (which can cause cramping) and not real contractions.

  As they got worse at the hospital they still stayed low on my belly even though the contraction monitor was up high and definitely registering contractions.  Those contractions I can't even describe the pain, mostly because I have forgotten it but I can't forget clinging to the side of the bed just hoping the next person through the door was my anesthesiologist.  But I was on pitocin which probably them bad very fast and I went from 4cm to 9cm in about 1.5 hours on the lowest dose of pitocin - most people have a much more gradual onset of labor.
  

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• Agrippa

  December 2008

  I never had BH contractions, so I can't compare.  I'd say that they felt like diarrhea cramps.  I was induced, so the only contractions I had were brought on by pitocin.  By the time I got my epidural, it felt like a giant was squeezing my uterus.  They always felt really low, and I didn't have pain in my back at all.
  

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• asolare

  December 2008

  BH weren't painful.  real contractions were (manageably so).  i don't know how to describe them.  they felt like contractions, and once they'd been going on for some time and were regular, i knew it was the real thing.

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• Artslvr

  December 2008

  Not to be too TMI, but I felt my contractions mostly way low in my crotchal area.  (sorry don't know how else to describe).  I was shocked by what the "real thing" felt like for me, I felt nothing in my front or back, it was all up underneath.  Very weird.

  Wife, Musician, Fed, WW-er, and Mom of three little kids - not necessarily in that order.

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• AnnaBananaBelle

  December 2008

  My BH contractions felt like my whole belly tightening but their was no pain.  My real contractions felt like the tightening as well with bad menstrual cramps. 

   

  BH definitely felt different than the real thing.  When the real ones started I literally said "OH THAT'S A CONTRACTION"
  

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• garden123

  December 2008

  Uh, can I say "all of the above" ?  LOL  Really, for me it felt like all of that at once.  I had pre-term contractions that were only mildly painful at worst (and often not painful, but felt like an intense hardening and tightening of the uterus).  (They were considered pre-term cxn and not BH because I had them so often and were sometimes mildly painful.)

  I joked afterwards that "labor" should be call "torture", but I was serious.  FWIW, I had spiking, pitocin-like contractions (but never recieved pitocin).  I'm sure everyone is different.

   Trust me when I say that you''l know when it's real contractions.  I was on bed rest with pre-term contractions for 3 weeks and once my water broke and the the "real" contractions started, I immediately noticed a difference.  They were much more intense and I could tell they were getting more painful with each one as opposed to be more random and not evenly spaced.
  

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• tobeaTodd member

  December 2008

  They started as very mild menstrual-like cramps, but timeable.  They progressed into feeling like I was being hit with a sledgehammer in the back (I had crazy horrible back labor).  They felt nothing like BH which was a tightening of my whole abdomen.
  

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• Agrippa

  December 2008

  Oh, I just wanted to add that they must have done a very good job with my induction, because for the first 5 hours or so, I really didn't have a problem with the contractions.  In fact, I probably wouldn't have even paid attention to them if I was home.  It wasn't until I got to about 5 cm or so that I started having to breathe through them.
  

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• spiffyone member

  December 2008

  i remember i told my friend that i was worried i wouldn't know if i was in labor.  funny thing is i wasn't 100% sure when i was in labor.  she told me that it felt for her like she had to go to the bathroom and that she spent hours on the toliet before going to the hospital.  so the night/morning before i had little man it really felt like i had to go to the bathroom.  i kept getting up and going, but couldn't go.  it finally dawned on me that this is what she was talking about.  i went to the hospital shortly after that.

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• L'Etincelle

  December 2008

  For me, BH just made me short of breath, but I didn't feel any pain.

  Real contractions felt like a blowtorch was 1 inch from my lower back incinerating me, and the severe burning pain came in waves building to mind-blowing peaks. This was coupled with an upset stomach. FYI, this was hard-core back labor and within 30 minutes of getting to the hospital I was already 8cm. My point is that I think I progressed really quickly so perhaps the pain was more condensed/intense than other non-back labor... ?

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• ElissaKelley

  December 2008

  I had horrendous waves of back pain with moderate menstrual like cramps.  Further into labor they obviously got much worse and the menstrual cramps got quite a bit stronger.  I only had a few braxton hicks and they did not make me stop what I was doing or anything.  They were just a tightening feelings.

  

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• Sofka

  December 2008

  BH ws just some mild tightening; the real thing - I wasn't even sure it was real, it was just really bad cramps. and yes, I pooped 5 times in about 2.5 hrs

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