The question at 2 a.m.
Braxton Hicks or labor
Something is tightening, it has happened four times, and you are standing in the kitchen trying to decide whether this is it. The answer is rarely in the contraction you are having. It is in the shape of the last hour of them. Real labor has a shape you can watch happen. Braxton Hicks does not, and there is one test you can run tonight with nothing but a glass of water.
How do I know if these are Braxton Hicks or real labor?
The answer is in the pattern, not in the single contraction. ACOG describes true labor contractions as coming at regular intervals and getting closer together as time goes on, with each one lasting about 60 or 90 seconds.
Braxton Hicks contractions do the opposite. They come without a regular interval, they do not get closer together, and they do not build up. ACOG puts the home test in one sentence: if rest and hydration make the contractions go away, they are not true labor contractions.
That is the short answer, and the useful part of it is that a pattern is something you can measure instead of guess at. Timing the next hour gives you exactly what your provider is going to ask you about.
The three things to compare, side by side
ACOG describes false labor and true labor as a set of differences you can check, rather than a feeling you have to interpret. Three of them are usable at 2 a.m. with nothing but a clock, and none of them is how much a single contraction hurt. They are also close to what you will be asked on the phone, so they are worth reading before you call.
| What to look at | False labor, the Braxton Hicks kind | True labor |
|---|---|---|
| Timing and frequency | No regular interval, and they do not get closer together as the hours pass. | They come at regular intervals and, as time goes on, they get closer together. Each one lasts about 60 or 90 seconds. |
| What rest and water do | They go away. ACOG puts it plainly: if rest and hydration make the contractions go away, they are not true labor contractions. | They carry on. Resting and drinking water does not make them stop. |
| Where the pain is | Usually felt only in the front. | Usually starts in the back and moves around to the front. |
Read alongside a stopwatch, that table says something worth noticing. Two of the three lines are not about how it feels at all. They are about timing and change over time, which are things you can only see across a run of contractions. That is why the same woman can honestly say both of these in the same night: this one really hurt, and no, there is still no pattern.
The test ACOG gives, and you can run it tonight
There is exactly one home test in the primary sources, and it costs nothing. Rest, water, and keep timing. If the contractions fade out, ACOG's line is that they were not true labor contractions. If they carry on regardless, and the gaps between them shrink while the contractions themselves get longer, you are watching the pattern the table above describes.
The reason to write it down rather than hold it in your head is that an hour of contractions is genuinely hard to remember, especially at night, especially by the fifth one. On paper the shape shows itself. Gaps that wander from nine minutes to four and back to eleven are not a pattern getting closer together. Gaps that read eight, seven, six, six, five are.
- The time each contraction started, which is the number the whole thing hangs on.
- The time it faded, so you have a length rather than an impression.
- The gap measured start to start, from the beginning of one to the beginning of the next, because that is how it is counted and how you will be asked for it.
- Whether you were resting, walking or lying down, so you can see if anything changed when you did.
- Roughly how strong it felt compared to the one before, in your own words, so the log reads as a run and not a list of separate events.
If you would rather not do the arithmetic at 3 a.m., the contraction timer on this site is free, needs no account and runs entirely in your browser. One tap when it begins, one tap when it fades. It gives you the average length and the average start to start gap, which are the two numbers you will be asked to read out.
What Braxton Hicks actually are
They are not a false alarm your body invented to frighten you. They are the uterus tightening and releasing, and MedlinePlus describes them as something that can happen at any time after the first trimester. They are typically short, they are usually not painful, and, the part that matters most here, they do not come at regular intervals.
The NHS says the same thing from the other side, in the sentence worth memorizing this week: Braxton Hicks contractions do not last that long, do not happen very frequently and do not build up. Three tests, all of them about pattern rather than sensation. Not long, not often, not building.
Which is why the honest version is a little uncomfortable to hear. One contraction that hurts a lot tells you very little. Six in an hour, each a bit longer, arriving a bit sooner and carrying on while you rest, tells you a great deal. The information is in the sequence.
What no timer can settle, including this one
Here is the part a timer cannot do, and this page is not going to skip past it. The NHS marks established labour by the cervix having opened to about 4cm. A phone cannot measure a cervix. Neither can a timer, neither can this website, and neither can the app.
So this page is not going to pretend. Wavesong is not a medical device and it does not give medical advice. It never says that you are in labor, because it cannot know that. It cannot rule anything out either. What a timer can do is answer the other half of the question, the half that is measurable: is there a pattern, is it getting tighter, and has it held.
That half is not a consolation prize. It is what turns a frightening phone call into a short one. You say how long they last, how far apart they are start to start, and how long it has been going on. That is the whole of what many providers give you as the 5-1-1 rule, and it is the difference between saying I think something is happening and reading three numbers out loud.
Prodromal labor, the version nobody warned you about
There is a third thing that people in this situation talk about constantly and the leaflets barely mention. Contractions that are real, that are regular for hours, that are tiring and uncomfortable and absolutely convincing, and that then stop without opening anything. Many women, and plenty of doulas, call it prodromal labor.
None of the five sources at the bottom of this page uses that word, so this page will not attach a number to it or tell you how long it lasts. What it will say is this: if you had a night like that, you were not being dramatic and you did not get it wrong. The pattern was there and then it was not, and a written log is the only reason you will be able to tell your provider the difference between that night and the one that follows it. An hour of timing is never wasted, even when it comes to nothing.
If you are under 37 weeks, this is not a question to settle with a timer. ACOG defines preterm labor as labor that starts before 37 weeks of pregnancy, and says that preterm labor needs medical attention right away. Call your provider or your maternity unit whatever any timer, any app or any page says, including this one.
For about 3 in 10 women, preterm labor stops on its own, which is a real and common outcome. It is also not something you can find out by waiting at home to see.
The same applies at any number of weeks if your water breaks and the contractions have not started, if you are bleeding heavily, if you have constant severe pain with no relief between contractions, or if your baby is moving less than usual. Those are the things ACOG lists as reasons to go in regardless of what the contractions are doing, and none of them is a pattern question.
So what do you do with the next hour
Timing them, with rest and a glass of water alongside, is the one home test the primary sources actually give you. If the gaps are shrinking, the contractions are lengthening and none of it stopped when you lay down, you have the three numbers your provider asked you for and you can make the call with them in front of you. If the gaps are all over the place and the whole thing faded once you sat down with that glass of water, that is an answer too, and a good one. The log is worth keeping either way. Next time you will have something to compare it against, which counts for a lot at two in the morning at 39 weeks.
A timer cannot tell you that you are in labor. It can tell you whether there is a pattern.
That is half the question, and it is the measurable half. The timer on this site is free, runs in your browser and uploads nothing. It shows the average length, the average start to start gap, and whether the pattern has actually held for the full hour your rule asks for, instead of calling it after four contractions. The app is the same model with a Live Activity on your lock screen, an Apple Watch face you can tap without finding your phone, and a summary you can hand to your midwife.
Not on the App Store yet. The price is on the home page and in pricing.md, and there is no trial because the timer on this site is the trial.
Where this comes from
- ACOG, How to Tell When Labor Begins. True labor contractions come at regular intervals, get closer together over time and each lasts about 60 or 90 seconds. If rest and hydration make the contractions go away, they are not true labor contractions. True labor pain usually starts in the back and moves around to the front, false labor is felt only in the front. Also the list of reasons to go in regardless of the pattern.
- MedlinePlus, Am I in labor?. Braxton Hicks contractions can happen at any time after the first trimester, are usually short and not painful, and do not come at regular intervals. Also the closest a primary source gets to the shape people call 5-1-1: regular painful contractions every 5 to 10 minutes for 60 minutes.
- NHS, Signs that labour has begun. Braxton Hicks contractions generally do not last that long, do not happen very frequently and do not build up. Call your midwife or maternity unit for guidance if you think you are in labour or you are having regular contractions coming every 5 minutes or more often.
- NHS, The stages of labour and birth. Established labour is when the cervix has dilated to about 4cm and the contractions are stronger and more regular. The latent phase has no set pattern and is usually the longest stage of labour.
- ACOG, Preterm Labor and Birth. Preterm labor is labor that starts before 37 weeks of pregnancy and it needs medical attention right away. For about 3 in 10 women, preterm labor stops on its own.
Questions people ask at this exact moment
Can Braxton Hicks contractions be painful?
MedlinePlus describes them as usually short and not painful, and that is the general case. Plenty of women at 38 weeks would still call them unpleasant, and being uncomfortable does not mean you are misreading your own body.
It does mean that pain on its own does not settle the question. The pattern does. Regular intervals, getting closer together, each one about 60 or 90 seconds, and still going after you have rested and had a glass of water is the combination that matters, not how much a single one hurt.
How long do Braxton Hicks contractions last compared with real ones?
The NHS puts it as three things at once: Braxton Hicks contractions do not last that long, do not happen very frequently and do not build up. ACOG describes true labor contractions as each lasting about 60 or 90 seconds and coming at regular intervals that get closer together. A contraction you can time at over a minute, arriving on a shrinking gap, is a different animal from a twenty second tightening at no particular interval.
How early can Braxton Hicks contractions start?
MedlinePlus says they can happen at any time after the first trimester, which surprises a lot of people at 28 or 30 weeks. That is also exactly why the week you are in changes the answer. Before 37 weeks, contractions are not a puzzle to solve at home, because ACOG defines preterm labor as labor starting before 37 weeks and says it needs medical attention right away.
I timed six in an hour and they were regular. Am I in labor?
You have the shape that providers are asking about, and that is worth a phone call. What you do not have, and what nothing on your phone can give you, is proof. The NHS marks established labour by the cervix having opened to about 4cm, and no timer can measure that.
Numbers travel better than conclusions. How long each one lasts, how far apart they are start to start, and how long it has been going on. Those three are what the 5-1-1 rule is made of, and this page on when to go in walks through what happens after the call.
Does resting and drinking water really tell me anything?
It is the one home test in the primary sources, so yes. ACOG puts it plainly: if rest and hydration make the contractions go away, they are not true labor contractions. If they carry on while you rest, that is the pattern half of the question answered, and it is most of what can honestly be done at home.
What if I am not 37 weeks yet?
Then a timer is not the thing that settles it. ACOG defines preterm labor as labor that starts before 37 weeks of pregnancy and says it needs medical attention right away, and about 3 in 10 women have preterm labor that stops on its own, which is not something that can be established by waiting. No timer, this one included, changes that answer.
Keep reading
- Time your contractions. Free, in your browser, nothing uploaded. It shows the pattern, not a verdict.
- The 5-1-1 rule: what the three numbers actually ask for. The third number is the one that gets skipped, and it is the hour.
- When to go to the hospital in labor: the call, the drive and the timing. Going too early and going too late are different mistakes.
- Contraction timer app: what to look for before you install one at 38 weeks. Ads, paywalls and pattern alerts, measured across the vertical.
Last checked 2026-08-24