Experienced Mommas---

[Navy_Mommy]

What does a contraction feel like? How does it compare to BH?
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[MommyTeesa]

Uh oh!
Real ones are more crampy and usually involve pain in your back or they start in your back ...

[Navy_Mommy]

I've had almost constant pain on the right side of my back, wrapping all around that side.... nothing on the left... like it doesn't even exsist... does that sound like just general pregnancy pain or something more??? It hurts so bad I want to cry... ok... I am crying... I admit it...

[stacey0402]

when I went into labor with dd1 I thought I was about to have some serious diarrhea. It felt like those intestinal cramps, but then I realized the cramps were coming and going every 10 minutes or so. When you cannot talk through them its probably time to call the midwife or go to the hospital

[MommyTeesa]

Huh, that is kinda weird, especially since last night I woke and had a painful contraction (and had to pee badly) and had back pain wrapping around just one side. I was wondering if I'd been sleeping weirdly. Could be muscle pain, if it's more constant. *shrugging* Are you having contractions, too?

[VOBetz]

When I went into labor with my son it felt like pretty much constant pain. (at least it did to me) Mostly, I felt it in my lower back and lower in my belly like where menstrual cramps would be. But it was on both sides - like it was in a complete circle around my body like a flat tire.

[roadfamily6now]

I would compare them to menstural cramps but a whole lot worse. I get my cramps in my legs so my contractions are belly and legs (thigh)......back and warp around the belly.

A lot of times you will have a contraction or 2 but it wont be real labor until they become consistant and dont go away when you do stuff.

[mommajam]

I had some back labor with my first, and not with any of the others. I didn't even know it was labor because it just felt like a dull throb in my lower back. I didn't realize it was worse in waves. Then, the back pain subsided and I started getting cramping feelings in my abdomen like menstrual cramps. These felt nothing like the BH contractions I had been having. Some of those did take my breath away, but were rarely, if ever, painful, and I definitely felt my whole belly or a good part of it hardening very much. When this real labor started, I didn't feel my belly hardening at all for a long time, so I didn't know I was in labor. All I knew was that the cramps felt better when I was in the tub. My husband and I started joking about this possibly being labor and wouldn't it be funny and just for fun, lets time them (my menstrual cramps always came in waves, so this didn't seem unusual to me)... oh, look, they're three minutes apart, how interesting.... etc. I only got out of the bath tub because I had my weekly scheduled appointment with the doctor. Getting out of the bath did make the pain somewhat more intense and by the time we got to the doctor's I was also feeling some tummy tightening, although nothing like as hard as the BH had been. We had gotten to the point where we thought it might actually be labor, which was confirmed by the doctor after we got there.

For the last three babies I've had, I never had much back pain, or else if I did it was negligible. Mostly it just starts out with some lighter abdominal cramping that gets more intense. I have noticed my tummy hardening a lot more with the last three than I did with the first... but mostly they were just like really really bad menstrual cramps accompanied by a BH of varying degrees... until the end. Transition to birth generally lasts between 10 and twenty minutes for me so at the end I really feel like a train is battering it's way out with all the pain and pressure... but since it doesn't last very long for me I can handle it. If more of my labor was like that, as high a threshold for pain as I have, I might give in to some kind of relief!
M.

[Willzmama]

I had a lot of back labor with DS. I'm curious to see how this labor will differ. I didn't progress past 5 cm, then got pit and later, an epidural. I really want to experience the whole thing this time, drug free. I want to feel how my body works and trust the process. I'm looking forward to labor this time, call me crazy.

[Synchro246]

Originally Posted by Willzmama

I had a lot of back labor with DS. I'm curious to see how this labor will differ. I didn't progress past 5 cm, then got pit and later, an epidural. I really want to experience the whole thing this time, drug free. I want to feel how my body works and trust the process. I'm looking forward to labor this time, call me crazy.

Me too.

[happyhippimama]

"Real" contractions feel awful. However, I've been induced 3 times. This time, I've been contracting(on my own ) for a few weeks. The first distictive feeling of a real labor contraction is severe tightening. I'm sure that's true with or without pit. I am SOOO looking forward to labor. Funny how us mamas can say thing like that huh.

Rebecca