Pregnancy FAQs

Contractions can be experienced differently by everyone. They can vary in intensity, duration and frequency, throughout your labour.  During the early stages of labour you may not even notice contractions as they start small, and fairly irregular. It may feel a bit like period cramping, or a dull pain in your lower back, inner thighs or legs.  Contractions intensify in the ‘active’ phase during the second stage of labour, and this is when most women feel them as strong and painful, and become more challenging to manage as the frequency and duration also increases.