How do you determine length of labour?

[Shanti]

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??

[Trillian]

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

[fionas]

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.

[Janie]

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

[jackrose]

Yeah, good question.

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 !

[visitor1]

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.

[Sair]

My hospital counted it from the start of regular contractions.

If it was active labour I would have had a 3 hour labour woot!!!

[mbear]

How on earth do you remember what happened at what TIME??

...thats what your DH is for........

With every birth ive always written a birth story straight away (i.e on my hospital bed), as i tend to forget the little details, and its the little details that i love to read back on.....so yeah, i guess i kept a diary of the exact times too of each birth......