Sometimes, these may be early and light contractions, which are not true labor. These false alarms help prepare your body for real labor. When labor does start, you can feel your abdomen get tight and hard during a contraction. You might feel low back pain or belly cramping.
Labor can also start with a gush or trickle of water from the vagina.
This is a signal that the bag of water, the sack that surrounds your baby, has broken. If the bag of water breaks, or if you think you re in labor, call your healthcare provider. Before labor, your cervix is about one inch long and tightly closed. Regular contractions of the uterus thin the cervix to the thickness of a piece of paper. Then the cervix opens.