What is the difference between Contractions, Braxton Hicks, Round ligament pain and Cramping(uterine)

[Latrice414]

Hey ladies i just had a question, what the hell is the difference, i no true contractions dont ease up with rest and braxton hicks do. But when i went to er that told me i was having round ligament pains and cramping from the dehydration so my uterus is irritable, what the hell does irritable mean, bcuz it felt like it was contracting to me, and it would happen every 5 min, well hell it happened every 3-5 min or every 5-7 min for 3 whole days and two of the days i just laid in bed and it did not ease up, that was the week i went to er two days in a row and they told me the same thing.

Im lost, i was just reading a few post where you ladies said you had contractions, im just trying to figure out the difference and trying to relate it to what i experienced(which i thought i was having contractions but according to the ER DR and the Monitor they were not)

[NicMom]

Latrice, you know last night when I was in the hospital they couldn't get the contractions on the monitor so the nurse came in and felt my belly for about 10 minutes every time I said I had a contraction. She could feel how it was harder and then after repositioning the monitor she was able to pick up the contractions. Because your uterus is still smaller than what the equipment is use to it might not have been picking it up. Does your uterus get hard when you have the pain? Like rock hard? Because that's a contraction. It should go all the way up past your belly button at this point.

[Latrice414]

i guess my concern was i was having this pain every 5 min, it would last for 10-15 seconds, some of the pains brought tears to my eyes, i could not move. The pain would start off on the right side of groin up the right side of belly, then sometimes it would radiate to my back, then sometimes it would be on the left and right side and under my belly.  I just never imagained that round ligament pain would feel like painful.  And the bad thing about it is that it came every 5 min for 3 whole days, after the first 10 hours of it happening every 5 min is when i went to the ER.  Then i went back the next day bcuz it was still happening every 5 min and the pain got worse, but when they hooked me to monitor they said it was not contractions and that my uterus is irritable(what ever that means)  but they could not explain to me why i was getting these pains every 5 min for a whole day.

[worriedbabe]

yes, contractions are strong cramps. they become gradually more frequent and intense with a regular pattern to them when you are in labour....that's exactly how i'd describe them. round ligament pains are more a sort of pulling pain or stretching pain and tend to be in specific areas rather than the whole abdomen. Braxton hicks can be painless, uncomfortable or even downright painful. however, drinking plenty and lying down should alleviate them.
Having said all that, this pregnancy it isn't always easy to tell which pain you're having. I've had braxton hicks that i thought may have been the start of labour and round ligament pains that i thought were bad braxton hicks. Last night, i did actually have contractions. i was in no doubt. they were becoming more intense, lasting about 40 seconds and, when i timed them, coming at 5 minute intervals. They stopped after about an hour and a half, just as i was about to phone the hospital.

[JoyRenee]

Cramps are contractions.

Round ligament pain is pain from the ligaments that are being over-stretched. They are the ligaments supporting the uterus. It's very, very easy to hurt yourself by twisting wrong, getting up wrong, etc.

[mami1323]

Round ligament pain felt to me like a stretching.  From what I knew BH contractions occurred when you are dehydrated.  Cramping or BH contractions seemed the same.  Real contractions show up on the monitor but to me felt the same as BH contractions.  Active labor contractions were obvious to me, they hurt.