Am I in Labor? Braxton-Hicks vs. Real Contractions: The Differences

By now, I'm sure you have heard of false labor and you are thinking to yourself, "How am I supposed to know when I am actually going into labor?" If this is your first time being pregnant, it may be difficult for you to figure out if it's the real thing or not, so just read on. Before you go into labor you may experience false contractions. Braxton-Hicks, also known as false labor normally occurs around the third trimester, but can also happen earlier if the person has been pregnant before.

It is often very hard to distinguish Braxton-Hicks versus real contractions. The way that the Braxton-Hicks contractions feel is just as if you have menstrual cramps and you can even have lower back pain. You may also experience tightening of your uterus going to your rib cage. The biggest difference between Braxton-Hicks and real contractions is that the real labor contractions cause your cervix to dilate and the false contractions do not make you dilate. When you have real labor contractions, they are closer together in time and occur more frequently, about thirty to seventy seconds long. So be sure that you time when your first contraction starts and when the next one begins and how long they go for, write them down so you have something to reference to when you speak with your doctor.

Your Braxton-Hicks contractions may stop when you begin to walk, sit or change the position you are in. However, on the other hand, real contractions keep going no matter what you do. How the cramps feel vary person to person, contractions for Braxton-Hicks can either start out strong and then get weaker as the time goes on or just stay weak and ease away and real contractions will steadily increase as time goes on.

If you do experience Braxton-Hicks, just stay calm and try to relax, it's nothing to get worked up about because it is just your body letting you know that the time for your little bundle of joy is nearing. The contractions for false labor will only last a few minutes. You can try several things that may make you feel better and take the pain away a bit which include:

Relaxing-The last thing you want to do is stress yourself out and make the pain worse.

Get a massage

Eat something or drink water

Walk around

Try to get some sleep

If you experience the following symptoms then you should definitely call your doctor immediately because you may be in labor:

Bleeding

Fluid leak

Nausea

Pressure in your vagina

Regular pains in your back or abdomen

Contractions that occur about every ten minutes or more in one hour.

If you are still unsure if you are going into real labor contact your doctor either way because he/she will be able to tell you what exactly you should do.