Ive always gone after 1st contraction too.....my last baby i had contractions start at
2am, and i had her at 5.08am.... so a 3 hour labour i say.....my labours have always been (fast !!) contractions....waters breaking...bit of pushing.......baby......
I've always said mine was 5 hours, going on established contractions too. But I think, 'officially,' is it from 4 cm's dilated? Or that's what they put on hospital discharge papers anyway- mine say 3 hours, 2 minutes.
18-20 hours from first "contraction" (my BH just got stronger and more regular until eventually they were a tiny bit ouchy at the peaks - i was asleep at the time, but would wake up every now and then with one)
16hours from breaking of waters (i went back to sleep after this happened though!)
6 hours from strong (i.e. couldn't talk through them, was in the bath for help with the pain) contractions starting.
Estimated (by midwife) as under 3 hours from 4cm-birth (i was 2-3 at 2.30pm, DD was born at 6.20pm)
Also i never got to really push because they thought i wasn't dilated, so my second stage, on my medical notes, is written as 7 minutes (which was 2 contractions and the gap between them), but i was fighting the urge to push for well over 2 hours!
This is a good thread.... i've always wondered the same thing.
I figured it would just be from when contractions are regular enough to be timing them.... ? Look forward to the posts.....
I would like to know how people recall their birth experience with exact times like to minutes!! How on earth do you remember what happened at what TIME??
I have always understood it to be from the start of active labour, usually around 4cms dilation, to the birth of the baby. Before that you're usually only niggling and contractions aren't usually consistent or strong enough. That said though, some women will labour strongly the entire time
I thought officially it was from the start of active labour too - same as Trillian.
But, personally, I say my labour was three days because I had a very long prelabour and my waters broke two days she was born so for those three days I was on alert and didn't get much sleep - 7 hours over 3 days to be precise.
For me, I FELT like I was in labour for three days, so that's the story I stick to and bugger officialdom.
Trust me Ren, you do notice the time! Although time went really wacky for me during labour, (apparently this is common), I still knew what time it was when my waters broke, when I had my first contraction, and what time DS was born. It really sticks in your mind! It's just the time in between that really freaked me out! I sooooooo didn't believe my DH and middy everytime I asked what time it was. They actually had to show me the clock, I just couldn't believe how much time had passed! Fortunately I wasn't that interested and only asked a couple of times during the 14 hours
Plus, isn't it amazing how incredibly different - yet how much the same, each woman's labour can be!
I was told that labour is counted when a woman is considered to be in "established labour" but never found out what that was??
I was one of those strongly labouring for a few days, started with 10 min apart contractions at midnight on a Sunday/Monday which kept me from sleeping and delivered my DD at midnight on Tuesday/Wednesday. So 48 hours by my calculations!
However, I usually say 36 hours as this is when the contractions went from 'ouchie' that wasn't pleasant to 'holy moly' and began to really ramp up! Plus I always feel that if I say 48 hours people won't believe me!
And of course that all meant 3 nights without sleep... that was much more torturous than the actual labour !
Ive always been asked 'What time did you really start feeling the contractions getting stronger and you felt that you were not in control of the situation'.....and they have taken the time from there.
BellyBelly Member
? Look forward to the posts.....
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