Labour - FTM Question!!

Totally depends on the person. For me at the start it was an intense pain in my lower abdomon but later it moved round to my back. Nothing like period pains in my experience.
Try not to wind yourself up about it and go with the flow. My best advice is to go in to it open minded and listen to your body. Don't be afraid to voice your concerns to the midwives and doctors, your instinct will kick in x

With my 1st i felt exactly the same, how would i know, what would they feel like etc. However, i remember lying in bed watching tv and turning to my husband and saying, my contractions have started.
I just knew instantly & i rarely had braxton hicks x

Awh bless you, completely valid feelings, im still shitting myself for my second. But you're a MOTHER you're built for this, were strong 💪. Not going to lie it is very painful, feels like a STRONG tightening in your lower back/bum/belly which gets more and more intense the closer baby comes. You'll know when you go into labour x

For me the difference between braxton hicks and real contractions were that braxton felt uncomfortable, but never painful. the moment I knew I was having a real contraction was because I thought “oh, that hurt - wasn’t just uncomfortable” 😂
Hope that helps x

And I agree with Natalie, you just know even if you never felt it before xx

I had Braxton hicks a lot, which felt like the baby pushing his legs against my belly and didn't hurt. My contractions started off as just like period cramps so I knew they were the real thing. Over the next 6 hours or so they got more intense and frequent to the point where they were unbearable and happened every 5 minutes or so, and yeah it felt like period cramps x100 and I usually have a really good pain tolerance but I was really struggling, moaning like a baby at the hospital reception. They sent me home because I was only 4cm, and I showed up again in 2 hours and they were like what are you doing back but they checked again and I was 7cm so they admitted me. They said it was pretty rare to go that intense that quickly so I felt more vindicated being such a wimp at the pain 😆

i had a different feeling where my early labour was actually less painful than braxton hicks but I have always had pretty bad period cramps, I also felt it a LOT in my back which I didn't get with my period or braxton hicks. my lil guy was facing my hip so I was having predominantly back pain through labour and apparently made the pain worse

Hey, it is so normal you feel this way. I think no matter how heavy your periods are before giving birth you will not know what labour feels like, and just to make it better everybody feels it differently😅 I was like you too, wanted to know what to expect and talked to friends, watched hundreds of videos about it etc.
Also, until it is actually happening you would not be ready. My baby decided to break free at 33+2 when I thought I still had 7 weeks to prepare myself.
The day before my birth, I had laboured for 4 hours thinking it was Braxton hicks. That felt like mild period cramps. I would describe it as the moment that you are passing a clot of blood, something deep in my belly hurts. The pain peaks and then goes away.