My name is Hannah Bajor the Pregnancy Super Coach with over twenty years in the field taking care of
women before, during and after their pregnancy.
Let us look at contractions pregnancy. Early
pregnancy, actually very early, when you find out you are pregnant,
it is not unusual to get a couple of cramps at that point, and there
would be contractions. What is a contraction? It means a squeezing
contraction of the muscle within the womb. Very early in pregnancy
you might get a couple of cramps and that is just your body
accommodating to the pregnancy, and as long as you do not have any
bleeding associated with it and the cramps are just mild and they go
away then you are fine.
As you get more evolved in your pregnancy
especially when you get to about 28 weeks or so, it is not unusual
that you could get some contractions called Braxton Hicks
contractions and they are classified as painless contractions. You
know your uterus is contracted because certainly it gets very hard.
It gets rock hard.
That is why you would just be walking
around and boom you feel there is tightening going around your
belly. That would be the Braxton Hicks contraction as long as there
is no pain on this and if you touch you your belly at that point it
definitely feels very tense and rock hard and that normally only
lasts at that point for about half a minute or so early in the
pregnancy.
As you get more layers or you are more on in your
pregnancy and you get towards your due date, now your due date would
be about 40 weeks pregnant, so from about 37 weeks onwards not
unusual that you might get some practice contractions again the
Braxton Hicks contractions that get tight and relaxed, tight and
relaxed, but there is no pain associated with that.
When you are going into labor, you
definitely will get contractions and they could be irregular, but
the labor contractions are going to be painful. Again, you feel the
tummy going really tight, but you actually experience some pain
associated with this tightness.
Initially, it can be very mild pain and by the
time you are in full force labor they are going to be very, very
strong. When I say very strong I am telling you from experience they
are very strong. I have no clue myself how strong these tremendous
contractions can be until I experienced two deliveries myself. So
you know contractions can happen anytime during pregnancy. If you
start getting cramps or pain in your stomach and it is coming and
going or coming and going, and you do not feel the hardness of your
tummy any stage in your pregnancy, then it could be a sign that you
could be in pre-term labor or sometimes you could be having
contractions and you could be getting backache rather than front
pain and that happened to me.
I went into premature labor 25 weeks with my
first child and the only thing that I had was my back was killing
me, but I could not feel my tummy getting tight. When I went into
the hospital obviously to be checked I was having regular
contractions. If you are having backache or pain in your side
whether it is the lower side, right up here or right in your back,
and it is coming and going, going on in a cycle then it is probably
a contraction and we do not want you to have them during your
pregnancy.
Hopefully this has been helpful to you about
contractions in pregnancy and I wish you all the luck in your labor
and I hope you do not have those contractions until you are in labor
and when you are in labor that you have a nice pattern to them so
that your baby will come quicker.
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