Hi Jelliebean

Braxton hicks can be quite painful for some people. One way to distinguish braxton hicks from true labour is :-

B/H are usually irregular lasting anything from a few seconds to a couple of minutes. The time between B/H contractions is also irregular. You may get one every few minutes for a time then you may get one or two after a couple of hours or there may be days inbetween contractions.

True labour. Contractions are usually regular. In early labout these contractions may be as far apart as 30 minutes, but they usually happen every 30 minutes or so. They last from 30 seconds to 90 seconds. As your labour progresses the contractions get closer together and become more painful. So for example instead of your contractions being 30 minutes apart are now 10 minutes apart. They will still be lasting somewhere between 30 and 90 seconds.

Hope this clears things up for you.