HJ - i think you need to take focus off the hours factor and put it on having an empowering birth - no matter how long you're in labour - some women go through several weeks of prelabour and have a really short but productive birth - that's what you need to focus on. hours mean nothing, it's all in how empowered you feel during the birth. if you focus your energy on the amount of time you labour as your yardstick for a satifying delivery, you will likely end up disappointed - each birth is different, and saying that you laboured less so it wasn't fulfilling is doing an injustice. focus on what you can do in yourself to have a more satisfying birth - but ignore time constraints. time in itself is going to be a negative experience - it's like hospitals saying if you're not dialating a cm a minute after induction, you're failing to progress and need a c/s - you're essentially saying if you DO progress a cm a minute, you're not doing it right, and you won't be happy

hope that makes sense - the focus should be on an empowering birth for everyone - clock watching won't help the process at all!