thread: What do braxton hicks feel like?

  1. #1
    Registered User

    Nov 2008
    Melbourne
    2,008

    What do braxton hicks feel like?

    Just wondering if some of you lovely ladies could tell me what Braxton Hicks feel like... As a first timer I have no idea! I've had a few weird muscular sensations over the last week or so (not painful, but uncomfortable, almost like tired muscles when it happens if that makes sense...) and have been wondering. There not regular at all, I had it three or four times in one day and then nothing for a couple of days...

  2. #2
    Registered User

    Feb 2009
    Brisbane
    1,070

    For me Braxton Hicks contractions have just felt like a tightening or sqeezing of my lower abdomen for most of my pregnancy. I usually feel like I need to go to the toilet, then if I put my hand on my belly, it feels really hard like a basketball rather than flexible like it usually does. Until recently I could miss them if I was doing other things. They have gotten more painful as I have gotten close to my due date.

    I have heard/ read that it is common for 1st timers to not feel them at all during their pregnancy. I was the only one in my antenatal class last time that said they had noticed them.

  3. #3
    Registered User

    Sep 2008
    Sunshine Coast QLD
    153

    Hey..
    Braxtin hicks for me feel like a hard tightening of my whole stomach and then it releases after 20 secs or so and there was little bit of pressure.. With my first i use to time them thinking i was in labor all the time. They aren't suppose to be painful. But are very uncomfortable. I read somewhere that your baby is aware your having them but feels like a cuddle to them or something.

  4. #4
    Registered User

    Nov 2008
    Melbourne
    2,008

    Thanks for the replies ladies. It's hard to say if I'm having them or not, to me my belly always feel hard like a basketball... Oh well, I'm probably one of the first timers who doesn't notice them...

  5. #5
    Registered User
    Follow Pandora On Twitter

    Jan 2005
    cowtown
    8,276

    I didnt notice them at all the first time around.
    this time they have been very evident since about 20 weeks or so, my whole belly goes rock hard. I only notice them if I am sitting down cos thats is when they feel unconfortable, especially when the baby moves at the same time.

  6. #6
    Registered User

    Oct 2008
    269

    2 mins ago my tummy felt hard and when I touched it it was really hard and then I put my t-shirt back down and then within a minute I felt my tummy again and it was soft....could that have been BH without me knowing? I just assumed it was the baby as my whole abdomen felt quite hard but now it's not?

  7. #7
    Registered User

    Feb 2009
    Brisbane
    1,070

    Serenitylee: Sounds like a braxton hicks contraction to me. They may get more obvious/ uncomfortable later in your pregnancy but for now that hard feeling is about all you are likely to notice.

  8. #8
    Registered User

    Mar 2007
    outer South East Melbourne
    2,881

    I never felt them.... I noticed the tightening of the tummy but it didn't hurt at all. The few times I thought it might've been braxtons (I was never sure) where I did get pain, I only realised afterwards that those pains were nothing like contractions at all. Of course didn't know that til labour started.

  9. #9
    Registered User

    Oct 2008
    269

    Yeah they certainly do not hurt at the moment. They just feel like tightening of the stomach and then within seconds it goes away.