contractions

[Lea13]

Thought I'd pop back in now that I've had my little man and comment again! Mine was exactly like period pain only alot more intense. Started in my pelvis and radiated out to my hips and eventually banded around my back.

I think later you look back on it and wonder how you coped with such intense pain but it builds up without you even realising it!

[JustJack]

Thanks to Rayla72 and Lea13, for a minute there I thought I was nuts because all I remember of my labour was that it felt exactly like period pain. Even from when I first went into labour (but wasn't sure at the time) it felt like a faint period pain that kept coming every 1/2 hour. Then it kept coming at shorter intervals and increasing in strengh until I had the urge to push aswell. I can't remember the tightening or anything else....

[~Kim~]

Thanks to Rayla72 and Lea13, for a minute there I thought I was nuts because all I remember of my labour was that it felt exactly like period pain. Even from when I first went into labour (but wasn't sure at the time) it felt like a faint period pain that kept coming every 1/2 hour. Then it kept coming at shorter intervals and increasing in strengh until I had the urge to push aswell. I can't remember the tightening or anything else....

Totally totally agree, but I had the synto drip and they just keep on coming! Faster and faster and more and more intense.

[BellyBelly]

This article on early labour might help HERE.

I had synto with my first and I also had the experience of contractions coming continuously, faster, harder and on top of each other. Below is an extract from our induction article (which you can read here) in relation to effects of artificial oxytocin (labour hormone):

These effects may be partly due to the high blood levels of oxytocin that are reached when a woman labors with Pitocin. Theobald calculated that, at average levels used for induction or augmentation/acceleration, a woman’s oxytocin levels will be 130 to 570 times higher than she would naturally produce in labor. Direct measurements do not concur, but blood oxytocin levels are difficult to measure. Other researchers have suggested that continuous administration of this drug by iv infusion, which is very different to its natural pulsatile release, may also account for some of these problems.