How long should early contractions last for...

[lolita1990]

... I don't mean like 30/40 seconds, I mean how long should they be lasting for 10 minutes apart before they get closer together?

I've been having mild contractions with a bit of pain every 10 minutes for about an hour and a half. They're not getting closer together yet but are definitely noticeable. I managed to walk about Tesco during the majority of that time.

I know it's hard to say because as always everyone is different, but how often did your contractions come before they became closer together?!

Please help

 

[lolita1990]

Coming every 20 minutes now

 

[Annie77]

i have been having what i think are very sore braxton hicks for the last 24 hours - they can be 30 minutes apart, go right down to 5 minutes then back to bigger spaces in between. i have an app on iphone and my average length in between over the last 6 hours is 11 minutes and average length is 54 seconds.
i was even waking with them last night.

 

[Sam's mummy]

I was like that for 4 days before they got to 3 minutes apart and I went into hospital. They were about every 10 minutes for the first 3 days and then every 5 mins. It was impossible to sleep as they were so painful so just stayed up and kept walking around. I'm sure it doesn't take that ling normally though, think I was just unlucky! Good luck x

 

[greenlady]

Yeah they can be irregular for hours, days unfortunately in early labour. Only thing you can do is keep tracking them. My early labour was about 16 hours, sometimes they were close together and then they got further apart again. Hope you get some sleep!

 

[gemz599]

Mine was at ten mins for at least a day with my first not too sure with my second as my contractions were irregular all the way threw best thing you could do is to stay active. Good luck hope they pick up soon

 

[Feronia]

I was in pre labour with regular contractions during the day (between 3 and 8 minutes apart for three weeks before giving birth. They always fizzled by evening. It sucked! Highly variable between women.