Is my stomach tight and hard due to contractions?

The symptom of a tight and hard abdomen is a manifestation of uterine contraction. When the abdomen becomes tight and hard, the mother can generally feel the abdomen contracting, and sometimes there will be slight pain. These are all normal phenomena. There will be different degrees of uterine contractions in the middle and late stages of pregnancy. As long as the baby is fine during the usual check-up in the hospital, it's fine. However, if there is a feeling of falling in the belly, it means the baby is about to be born. At this time, you should try to go to the hospital to wait for delivery.

1. By the due date, only painful uterine contractions are a sign of delivery. Some women feel the pain of the beginning of uterine contractions in the abdomen, while others feel it in the waist. Don't be nervous and be scared by the contractions. In fact, if the contractions are not strong, you may not feel them or they may be the same as the lower abdominal pain during menstruation. The intensity of pain also varies from person to person. When uterine contractions cause you slight pain, after a while it passes, the pain gradually becomes stronger, the intervals between them shorten, and the pain duration prolongs. The contractions come like waves, with waves of pain spreading to the lower abdomen, or there may be lower back pain and a feeling of defecation. This type of contraction is in preparation for the birth of the baby. So this little pain is nothing. As long as you cooperate with the doctor and use the breathing exercises you have practiced to coordinate the contractions, you can successfully go through the delivery.

2. A few weeks before delivery, the uterine muscles are more sensitive and irregular uterine contractions will occur, which are short-lived, weak, or limited to the lower part of the uterus. It stops after several hours and cannot cause the cervix to open, so it is not labor and is called false labor. The contractions of the uterus during labor are regular. Initially, the interval is about 10 minutes, and pregnant women feel abdominal pain, and then the duration of the pain gradually increases to 40 seconds to 60 seconds. The severity increases and the interval shortens to about 3 to 5 minutes. When the uterus contracts and abdominal pain occurs, the lower abdomen may feel hard.

3. False labor, also known as prolonged labor, is an occasional uterine contraction. Its characteristics are that the time of occurrence is irregular and the degree varies from time to time. False labor begins around 6 weeks of pregnancy, but you won't feel it until the second half of pregnancy. Frequent touching of the belly in late pregnancy can cause false labor and lead to premature birth.

4. Uterine atony means that uterine contractions still maintain normal rhythm, symmetry and polarity, but the intensity of contractions is decreasing, resulting in longer intervals between contractions and shorter durations. Each contraction is weak and the cervix expands slowly, which prolongs the delivery time, threatens the fetus, and makes the mother exhausted. The cervix is ​​slow to open, causing delays in labor. After the fetal head enters the pelvis, the bladder is compressed between the fetal head and the pubic symphysis, resulting in difficulty urinating and urinary retention; affecting the detachment of the placenta from the uterine wall, causing postpartum hemorrhage; and increasing the chance of fetal intrauterine hypoxia and trauma.