By Heather Larson When Raelynn Glispin experienced contractions during the 36th week of her first pregnancy, they caught her by surprise; she wasn’t sure what they were. “When you’ve never had a contraction before, you aren’t positive if it’s Braxton Hicks or actual labor,” says Glispin, a mother of two in Oxford, MA. “With my second baby, I clearly knew the difference and wasn’t surprised.” Braxton Hicks, so named because an English doctor named John Braxton Hicks first identified them in 1872, are also known as “practice” contractions or “false labor” and can happen as early as the 22nd week. Physicians aren’t sure what triggers them, but they equate the movements to priming the uterus for birth. “They are exercising the muscle and preparing the uterus for labor,” says Scott Chudnoff, M.D., an obstetrician at Montefiore Medical Center and an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. “These contractions can last for a few seconds up to a couple of minutes, then they will wear off and release.” What to Expect As with true labor contractions, 10 women will give 10 different descriptions of what Braxton Hicks contractions feel like, says Coral Slavin, Ph.D., who owns Well-Rounded Maternity Center in Menomonee Falls, WI. “I’ve heard them described as a painless tightening in the belly, to feeling like menstrual cramps, to a pain that circles from front to back,” says Slavin, who is also a doula. For Glispin, Braxton Hicks felt like a tightening of her stomach muscles. Another person could feel her belly stiffen from the outside, she says, but the contractions of real labor—when she eventually experienced them—felt like they were taking place on the inside. Allie Compton of Washington, D.C., experienced many of these practice contractions during her first pregnancy. Her birth assistant assured her that women who have lots of Braxton Hicks tend to have faster labors, which held true. Compton’s son was born just three and a half hours after she dilated to three centimeters. You’re most likely to have Braxton Hicks contractions during the third trimester. Chudnoff says that women tend to be nervous and concerned when they happen, but they’re perfectly normal.