You’ll start to get contractions that are consistent (not just coming and going). They should get more intense (not wax and wane). If drinking water and laying down, taking a warm bath, etc does not help ease the contractions or you are noticing any leaking that you don’t think is pee or any bleeding, then go to the hospital. Typically, labor and delivery will tell you that if your contractions have been 4-5 min apart for at least an hour then you should come in. First labors tend to take a while so it’s not like in the movies where you have to panic and rush to the hospital. See how you are feeling and then if things aren’t getting better then it’s safe to say to go get checked out at the hospital.

You’ll just KNOWIt’s uncommon for women to ‘not know they were in labour’ and that’s generally if they have back labour or have a very high pain threshold.