If your water breaks before you get to the hospital, you'll know....With my first child, it just felt like a warm gush of water coming out...Didn't feel like it was coming from my bladder and couldn't stop it..Like you can if you need to while you're peeing...Never remember losing my plug (with any of my 3)..Actual labor contractions vary from woman to woman and even from labor to labor...My first two kids' labors were awful and lasted 9 and 11 hours...My 3rd was born 15 min. After getting to the hospital and I never even had to push...She just kind of came out...