The focus of my presentation will be to review our understanding of myometrial contractility, how it is brought about and controlled, to highlight emerging topics of interest, and ask if we are getting closer to having new drugs to help prevent preterm or slow labours. I will focus on recent insights into the role of the sarcoplasmic reticulum in the myometrium to illustrate how we have to study the myometrium, not other smooth muscles or cell lines, if we are to understand the uterus. I will then describe what insights may be gained from studying different patient groups, e.g. women who are obese or diabetic, pregnant with twins or going beyond their due dates. Do we now have the tools to understand the impact of these conditions on the underlying myometrial physiology? What contributions can modelling, medicinal plants and studies of extracellular matrix and electrophysiology, make? How can we make all of this synergise so that we can bear down on being able to translate from the basic science to women in labour?