It's hard to say because contractions feel different for everyone, sometimes early labour is like period cramps but that can go on for days or weeks, for me with my second my labour contractions felt like being squeezed/crushed around the middle so I could barely catch my breath the pain would increase then fade to nothing so it was very manageable they came every 2 minutes lasting 90 seconds and I went from 2/3-10cms in 2 hours... This was after they broke my waters to start me off. Good luck xx