What Are Contractions?
Contractions are when the muscles of your uterus tighten and relax to get ready for childbirth. These muscles help push your baby down the birth canal.
Your baby might trick you with a few practice contractions before the main event. You'll think it's time, only to have your doctor tell you that you're not ready to deliver yet.
If you learn what contractions feel like and how to tell the real ones from the fakes, you'll avoid heading to the hospital before it's time.
Why Do You Get Contractions?
During labor, you push your baby out of your womb (uterus) and into the world. Contractions help you do that.
During each contraction, the muscles in your uterus tighten and then release. This muscle-flexing softens and widens (dilates) the opening to your uterus, called the cervix. It also pushes your baby down and out of the uterus. As your cervix opens, your baby moves into the birth canal and into position for delivery.
What Do Contractions Feel Like?
Although labor is different for every woman, contractions generally feel like a tightening or pressure in your belly. They can range from crampy, like a bad period or severe diarrhea cramps, to intensely painful.
As labor progresses, contractions get more intense and painful. You may not be able to talk during them.
Where do you feel contractions?
You'll feel pain in your abdomen, which may also spread to your lower back and legs.
Back Contractions
During labor, you may have pain in your lower back, which can happen during contractions or even between them. Doctors think back labor happens when the back of your baby's head presses against your lower spine and tailbone. Other reasons for it may include:
- Having a short torso and carrying a larger-than-average baby
- The shape of your pelvis
- Having a health condition that affects your spine
- Problems with your ligaments and muscles
- Poor posture
Braxton Hicks Contractions
Many pregnant women feel contractions and think they're going into labor, but it turns out to be a false alarm. Braxton Hicks contractions got their name from the English doctor who first described them in the 1800s. They're like a practice run to soften and thin your cervix and prepare your body for labor.
What do Braxton Hicks contractions feel like?
Braxton Hicks contractions can feel so much like the real thing that you think you're in labor, or more like menstrual cramps.
When do Braxton Hicks contractions start?
Although you can have false contractions at any time during your pregnancy, they're more common in your last trimester, which adds to the confusion.
Braxton Hicks vs. Real Contractions
Braxton Hicks contractions are similar to real ones in a lot of ways, but there are differences.
Real contractions come at regular intervals and get closer together and more intense as time passes. At first, you may have contractions once every 10 minutes, then once every five minutes, and so on. Braxton Hicks contractions don't have any set pattern. They come and go at random.
False contractions don't get more intense. Real ones gradually increase in strength.
Usually you'll feel Braxton Hicks contractions in one area of your belly. When you get up and walk, change position, or lie down and rest, they'll go away. True labor pains can spread throughout your belly, as well as to your lower back. And they won't stop, no matter what you do.
Other signs that you're in real labor include:
- Pressure in your lower belly
- A brown or reddish discharge from your vagina, called bloody show
- A trickle or rush of water from your vagina
If you're not sure which type of contractions you're having, time them and note whether they get closer together. Change position, rest, and see if they stop. Or drink a glass of water. Dehydration can trigger Braxton Hicks contractions.
Timing Contractions
Your doctor will probably ask you to time your contractions to help them know if you're going into labor. Use a pen and paper or an app to track the information. Counting in seconds, note what time a contraction starts and how long it lasts. Do this every time a contraction begins.
How Long Do Contractions Last?
It depends on the stage of labor you're in. Early on, they happen every 30 to 60 minutes and can last 20 to 30 seconds. As labor progresses, contractions happen more often – every three to five minutes – and last longer, about 40 to 70 seconds.
How to Lie Down During Contractions
Try lying on your side with your knees bent, placing a pillow between your knees or beneath your belly. Avoid lying on your back, though, since this position can lower blood flow to your uterus and doesn't help to advance labor.
When to Go to the Hospital for Contractions
Talk to your doctor before you have contractions, so you know what to expect. Ask about the signs of labor and the differences between real contractions and Braxton Hicks ones.
Call your doctor if you think you're in labor. Even if you're wrong, it's better to be on the safe side.
One way to tell whether you're in labor is to look for the 5-1-1 pattern. True labor contractions will come once every five minutes, last for at least one minute, and keep going for at least one hour.
Call your doctor right away or go into the office if you have any of these signs:
- Bleeding from your vagina
- Leaking of fluid – a sign that your water has broken
- A change in your baby's movements, fewer than 10 movements in two hours
- Regular contractions before the 37th week of your pregnancy
How to Support Someone During Contractions
Whether you're a partner, friend, or family member, there are ways to support a loved one during contractions. You can help them to get into a comfortable position, massage their back, and allow them to physically lean on you for support.
Contractions While Breastfeeding
In the days and weeks after you give birth, you may continue to feel contraction-like cramping. You'll notice it while you're breastfeeding. It's normal, and it happens as your uterus returns to a smaller size.
Takeaways
Contractions are the tightening and relaxing of your uterus muscles to prepare for childbirth. They help push the baby through the birth canal by softening and widening the cervix. Contractions typically start mildly, feeling like menstrual cramps or belly pressure, and grow more intense and regular as labor progresses. Some contractions, called Braxton Hicks, are irregular "practice" contractions that don't signal actual labor and usually ease with rest or movement. After childbirth, mild contractions may continue during breastfeeding as your uterus returns to its normal size.
Contractions FAQs
When will the hospital admit you for labor?
You should go to the hospital when your contractions last one minute each and happen every five minutes (or more often) for more than two hours. Another sign it's time to go to the hospital is if your water breaks.
