I was told that it was active labour too, so from 4cm is when tmy hospital considers labours starting time. My waters broke at about 4am. Went to hospital around 7am for monitering because contractions only every half hour. Waters were stained so induced with Synto at 10am. 2pm checked and only 1cm dilated but synto making contractions come every 7-8 minutes. Had pethadine and fell asleep for nearly 2 hours 1 hour later I was 10cm and pushing 2nd stage was 30 minutes so paperwork had 3.5 hour labour.
I will be interested to see how long my labour will be this time if I do not have to be induced.