Hi girls, hope you don't mind me picking your brains - BH's totally confuse me!!

Firstly - mine are still totally painless - the only reason I know I am having any is because of the tightening & it making walking difficult/uncomfy - is this normal??

Secondly - I have started bouncing/rocking on my birthing ball for about an hour a day over the last few days - my bump generally feels a lot harder during this time...is that just my baby moving position or BH's???

Thank you xx

Not 100% sure of your 2nd question, but I do know that my bump tends to harden if I feel stressed or exert myself.

Re your first question: apparently EVERYONE has BHs from the day they are born. That is, everyone's uterus is contracting all the time from the day they are born. During pregnancy, some are aware of this and others aren't, and of those who are aware everyone feels them to different intensity levels. They also do definitely intensify the closer you get to your due date. I've noticed a marked worsening of the pain in the last couple of days in fact. MWs have said that you just KNOW when they are not BHs, even if you haven't had children before as BHs tend to follow an irregular pattern, are quite a way apart and you don't have to breathe through them/stop conversation/stop what you are doing immediately.

Remember as well that everyone has a different pain threshold. Mine is quite high; I also know someone from here who went into labour a couple of weeks ago but didn't even know she was IN labour and was dilated and having contractions. She was about to be induced! Some people, like that girl in the 2nd OBEM programme, are rolling around by then.

So people definitely don't necessarily HAVE to feel BHs.