After days or weeks of impatiently waiting for labour to start, it can be difficult to tell just when labour begins. If you are experiencing regular, mild contractions these could be Braxton Hicks (practice) contractions, or the beginning of a stop and start labour, or the real thing.

You may have a 'show'

While you are pregnant the narrow channel of the cervix is filled with a thick mucus plug that helps protect the baby from infection. Just before you go into labour the cervix gets softer and often this plug will come away. This is called a show. It looks like jelly and is often streaked with pink, or accompanied by some blood. You may not even be aware of it happening, but it is a sign that things are gradually getting underway. Labour could still be several days away so there is no need to contact your midwife immediately.

Your waters may go

A few women begin labour in the most dramatic way with the bag of waters that surround and protect the baby breaking. The water may appear with a sudden gush, or as a gentle trickle. In either case you need to contact your midwife.

You begin to feel contractions

The only way that you can tell for sure that you are in labour is by contractions that show signs of progress. Usually the contractions of labour begin very mildly. These early contractions may be 20 to 30 minutes apart, or they may come every 5 minutes and continue with this pattern throughout the first stage. At first each contraction may last only 30 to 40 seconds, and be felt as a strong but quite bearable sensation of tightening.

As the first stage advances these contractions generally come closer together, each one lasts longer, and they feel more intense. By the time you are having them every 5 minutes and each one is lasting one minute, they are probably also a lot stronger, so that you need to stop whatever you are doing, move into a comfortable supported position, and concentrate on relaxing through them.