Braxton Hicks

I found it would depend what I was doing, if sitting they were often strong enough and painful enough to make me stop and go owie but mostly they just felt like my belly tightening and weren't painful just a little uncomfortable. They were always quite random as well so some days would have loads and other days hardly any, no real pattern etc to them. Oh and they were always at the top of the bump when things kicked off for real it was the same sort of feeling but across the whole bump and period type cramping and back pain thrown in for good measure.

Yeah I found they would sometimes get worse at night and I would have to have a little walk around to ease them off. Hot towels are good for the back pain (that's what they gave me at the hospital) but a wheat bag etc should do the job too. Is quite possible to have what they call "false labour" which is the body getting ready. Annoying as it is just take it as a good sign that your body is getting ready for the main event.

I had BH's right through my pregnancy. In the last month they got more and more frequent, before the real thing started. You'll definately know when proper contractions start!

I only got a couple actually but they were so bad I had to throw up. They were big time tightening across the top of my bump. I would also break into a huge sweat then want to cry afterwards!

But I found rocking on all fours helped.

I haven't had as many today. But, guaranteed I will get them in about an hour until 2pm.

I have massive heartburn instead, and I am so sick of my chewable mylanta. They don't taste bad, it's just I want a drink after, and usually that doesn't help.

I got BH in my last two pregnancies from about 20 weeks.

The more pregnant I got, the more I had. By the time I was due they were pretty much all day and night (every 15-30 mins).

The one thing I did find was that I was always thinking it would turn into something, but it never did.

When Labour does start - you won't even think about BH - you will know they are the real thing. It moves from discomfort to pain that stops you from talking through them.

One theory I heard was the the more BH the more practice the uterus gets the shorter the labour. Not sure if this is true but my first baby, no BH and 24 hr labour, last two babies heaps of BH, one 4 hr labour and one 6 hr labour. Could just be the experience of having more babies though - not sure.