I had BH from 18 weeks and had bouts of BH which would come on at night and not settle for hours for about 5 weeks before labour started. Then I began to have prelabour which is what many people would say is the contractions you h e before you get to 4cm dialated. I definitely knew then that I was in labour even if it was 'pre labour'. My midwife who had listen to me ask when the BH were coming every 5 mins for weeks said to me "see you don't need to ask when it is labour..... You just know". She was referring to the prelabour I was experiencing. For me it was painful, but it wasn't true active labour.