![]() There are times when women are actually in hard labor and continue to wait for their water to break before going to the hospital. Sometimes women are in labor long before they lose their mucus plug or before their water breaks. You can’t automatically assume that you are merely experiencing false labor because it is too early! Monitoring Contractions and/or Symptoms However, it should be warned that just because false labor is extremely common during pregnancy, you still need to know when to go to the hospital. Most often women who have had previous births know the difference so Braxton Hicks are generally more stressful to first-time mothers. Also, the pain might be a sudden tightening up of the uterus with a bit of pain or pressure, but nowhere near as excruciating as actual labor. Generally, Braxton Hicks contractions only last a few seconds and are not repeated more than once or twice, unlike authentic labor contractions. ![]() (And by that point you would be in the hospital!) The other key indicator is whether or not your cervix dilated, but that takes a pelvic exam that is usually only conducted by a medical professional such as a doctor or a midwife. Most often you can differentiate false labor and the real thing by the level of pain, the duration of the cramping and whether or not your mucus plug was excreted or your water broke. Most often this is nothing to worry about because, for one reason or another, the uterus tightens up causing what appear to be labor contractions. Many, if not most, women will at one point during their pregnancy experience Braxton Hicks contractions and suddenly become afraid that they are in labor way too early. Actually, this is something you need to consider during the first trimester as well because many women begin experiencing false labor (Braxton Hicks contractions) from as early on as the second or third month! Knowing the difference between Braxton Hicks and true labor pains is vital in determining when to go to the hospital. As you get further along in your pregnancy, one of the things you will start to think about more and more is in knowing when to go to the hospital once you start experiencing contractions.
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