Contractions – What Do Contractions Feel Like?

Ask a woman what contractions feel like and you will likely get a really thoughtful or blank look back – the feeling of contractions is something that women can find really difficult to describe. I liken it to trying to describe an orgasm, something else which women can struggle to explain!

Contractions and labour pain can feel different from one woman to the next, and so many factors contribute to what a woman is feeling – for example if the baby is in posterior position (their back on your back) then she may feel extreme back pain which adds to their account of what labour feels like. Some women feel nauseous the whole way through, add on any other common feelings like being hot, (and!) cold, tired, fearful, aching legs, pubic pain, cramps, all of the above… well, you get the picture!!! A woman may have laboured on her back which is a more painful way to labour or she may have been been induced. So before you buy into those endless horror stories you get forcefed as soon as you announce that you’re pregnant, remember that there are so many variations of labour, and women have different variations of education, preparation, fitness/health, birth support (partner, family, doula etc), carers with certain philosophies which may sadly dictate the course of her birth as well as her and her partner’s perceptions of pain and what that means in labour.

Given that we now lead a very sedentary lifestyle, we don’t push ourselves physically like we used to so the endurance and stamina involved with labour can be more of a shock, compared to the days when women would squat in fields, have their baby then continue to work.

So with that in mind, I asked some BellyBelly forum members to tell us what labour pain felt like to them!

Cailin

“Contractions to me are like period pain – the most painful type of period pain, but unlike period pain they have a pattern. With period pain it is consistent and in most cases all over. However I personally found that it came in waves across my tummy and it would rise peak and then ease off towards the end of a contraction. Sometimes other pains would add to the contraction like back pain or pelvic pain but overall the contraction pains are a separate feeling, in my opinion.”

Lucy

“For me, contractions felt like this: imagine you are REALLY thirsty, and you finally get your hands on a bottle of water. That drink bottle gets tipped your lips and you drink as if your life depends upon it. You know how the drink bottle contacts in, as you gulp? And with each gulp it contracts more? Until you finally lower the bottle to take a breath yourself? And the water bottle then relaxes and goes back to normal?

I was lucky… I never felt that my contractions actually hurt all that much. But the tightening sensation was out of this world.”

Sam

“I would describe contractions to be like a cross between a stitch and the worst pain you get when you have gastro x 100 low down in in the pubic bone and in my bum.

They start and I feel my heart begin to pound and I feel a tightening in my body. They build to a peak when I can’t talk or think about anything, then they begin to ebb and fade away. Between contractions I don’t think about the pain and relax a bit till that next time my heart begins pounding again.”

Shannon

“A contraction starts off with a small tingle somewhere in the middle of the torso, I assume this is at the top of the uterus, it grows and grows, feeding the surrounding muscles with a cramp like feeling, which radiates and spreads to the back down near the tailbone and starts to ‘bite’ into the muscles like someone is pinching on the spine. It is like a tide which pushes and pushes up and up in intensity while you breathe through it in big deep breaths, until you can feel it ‘let go’ and start to recede back down again, and even though this takes longer than one would like, at least you know that it’s coming to an end and you can feel the release. It leaves a tingling feeling for a few seconds afterward, but then vanishes completely. I would say it feels like someone rubbing the top of your baby bump, then hands grabbing your belly and starting to squeeze, harder and harder, and after a few seconds of this, someone else putting their elbow in your back on your spine and pushing and pushing harder and harder, then it all releasing and things going in reverse again until there is no pain. They are relatively predictable and you can know pretty much how long until the intensity increases, then how long until the apex, then how long until it starts to ease off, then how long until the end of it, although it does change slightly as you progress, you can pretty much predict it contraction to contraction and allow for the slight changes.”

Chloe

To be honest I don’t have a good memory for anything that is painful – I just block it out. When I was in labour with Imran I felt alot of back pain.

For me early contractions feel a bit like period pain, kind of achy and some lower back pain. The later more intense contractions kind of felt like someone is digging their elbow into your back only more wide spread – kind of like lots of elbows spread out evenly. When I had Yasin the final pushing contraction felt a bit like doing the world’s biggest poo.”

Melanie

“Contractions start like the tummy cramps you get with an upset belly. They come every few minutes and make being upright uncomfortable. Then very soon they are so much more intense that they are completely overwhelming. And they are more frequent, so that there is no time to recover from one before the next hits. Soon getting through the wave of pain is the only focus. You long just for a few minutes to rest but then before the thought is fully formed; there is that all-encompassing pain again. But then it is time to push and the thought pushes into my brain, ‘I am actually helping myself to split in two’. The pain, discomfort and focus of pushing overtake the pain of the contractions, and suddenly they are the lesser of two evils. Until there is a head to feel, lots of fluffy hair, and then another push and a husband saying “he has boy bits” and the relief (and joy) is so complete. And I am so glad that I have done it, given birth without pain relief, but at the same time knowing that it’s not something I ever want to do again. 24 hours later though, I’ve changed my mind and decided I want another baby!”

What did contactions feel like for you? Share your explaination and possibly have it published by emailing us!

Kelly Zantey is a birth attendant (aka doula) the creator of BellyBelly, mum to two beautiful children and has just opened the BellyBelly Pregnancy Centre in Canterbury, VIC.

You can read more birth articles on BellyBelly here.