At some point in pregnancy, something happens in your body and your immediate thought is: is this it?
I’d had an antenatal class online not long before. I don’t remember if it was that day or earlier, but it was recent enough that things like Braxton Hicks and contractions were in my head.
So when I started getting these pains, that’s where my mind went.
They weren’t constant, but they weren’t nothing either. Enough to make me stop and think something might be going on.
I wasn’t timing anything or thinking it through properly. I was just scared.
I hadn’t prepared yet. I was still working all the hours, hadn’t bought everything, hadn’t properly got ready for the baby. So the idea that this might be labour starting felt like it had come far too soon.
I called the urgent maternity line.
They asked me a few questions and listened to what I was saying, then said it sounded like it could be trapped wind and suggested peppermint tea.
Trapped wind.
I remember feeling relieved but also quite embarrassed. I’d built it up in my head, called the maternity line thinking it might be early labour or contractions, and it turned out to be something so minor.
I made the peppermint tea and that was that. Problem solved.
Looking back, it makes sense. Pregnancy pains can feel unfamiliar, and it’s hard to know the difference between Braxton Hicks, real contractions, and something like trapped wind when you’ve never experienced it before.
I still felt a bit silly afterwards, but I don’t think I was wrong to call. If you’re unsure whether you’re having contractions or something else in pregnancy, sometimes you just need reassurance.
Even if the answer is just trapped wind.
If you read my last post, you’ll know this wasn’t the first time I thought something serious was happening when it wasn’t. Pregnancy has a way of making everything feel bigger, more urgent, more certain than it actually is.