Length of labour from first contraction or first REAL contraction??

I've been thinking about labour alot (although i still have a few months yet :)) and i'm just curious to hear other mum's opinions on when labour REALLY starts. With my DS (first birth) i was induced due to GD. I had my waters broken and was hooked up to picotin at 8am, i had slight contractions all day (nothing painful) untill around 6pm (i remember because the simpsons was on in the common room in the maternity ward :lol:) At 6pm i had my first painful contraction and from then on they got more and more intense (ended up with an epidural at 10pm :() and DS was born at 12:45am. SO from first entering the hospital and being induced at 8am to DS's birth at 12:45 was around 16hours. BUT from first PAINFUL contraction (or active labour as the midwives said) to birth was only about 6-7 hours.
So my question is, when referring to labour is it from first contraction or first REAL/PAINFUL/INTENSE contraction? When people ask i usually tell them my labour was 16hours, but now that i think of it was it really only 6hours?
I am curious because i've heard that second labours can be about half the length of a first labour so does that mean my second labour could be 8hours (half of 16) or 3 hours (half of 6)?????? I know every labour is different and you can't really put a time limit on them but i am curious to know what i'm in for this time round.
I am hoping to go into labour naturally this time (NO GD WOOOHOOOO!) so would that affect the length as well?
I have been practicing hypnobirthing techniques and if done correctly the mother isn't meant to feel pain as such but 'pressure/intense sensations'. So my worry is that if my first birth is classified as 6hours long, does that mean this one will be quite short..around 3-4 hours? I'm nervous that if i manage to do the hypnobirthing techniques correctly that i might not realise that i'm in REAL labour and i might leave it too late to call my SIL to watch DS while i give birth (she has to come from Sydney 3 hours away)
I'm probably being silly (sorry for the long post :)) but its something thats on my mind and i'd like to try and mentally prepare myself a bit more this time (if thats possible lol)
What do other ladies think?
Was my labour 16hours or 6hours?
Do you think labour will be shorter this time? How short?

Sorry for all the questions i type how i think :lol:

I have always known it to be taken from first contraction. So, I would say your labour was 16 hours.
My first labour was 9 hours, my second was 6. You never know if it will be longer, the same length, or shorter. There are plenty of women who have longer labours second time round.

This is kind of hard and you'll probably get a different answer from everyone :redface:

You're considered (by the hospital) to be in active labour at 4cm dilation with regular contractions. When the hospital records the length of your labour they usually do so from that point.

However - in first time mums especially it can take hours to get to that point. So this is where you start to hear about 30 hour labours etc - in women who have had labours that long from membranes rupturing/first contractions. For those women they count labour starting when their contractions become regular.

That's really the two ways of measuring it I guess - pain is a very subjective thing, and some women (they're rare but there are some) don't experience contractions that they would call painful for their whole labour - but you have to say they're in labour at some point ;)

my first contractions were at 3pm on a friday, and she was born at 11.01pm on the saturday.... holy crap does that add up to 32 hours???

my first painful contractions were around 8pm, so that would make it 27 hours...

am hoping it goes ALOT quicker the next time :(

I was always told it was measured from being the start of active labour to the birth of the baby. Second births may or may not be faster - there is no hard and fast rule to this. Often the 2nd stage of labour is faster because the first baby paved the way so to speak, but again it may be longer.

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I was always told it was measured from being the start of active labour to the birth of the baby

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When does labour become 'active labour' then (I should know this but have forgotten...)? Is this the 4cm that Tobily mentioned above? For me, that's when the real/painful contractions started and my baby was born 3 hours after that.

i think you count your labour as beginning when you have 4 contractions in a minute or something along those lines.

oh jodi, just read your comment below mine... hehe yeah what i said above doesnt quite make sense does it?? LOL well i was in labour when i remember the midwife making some comment about how many contractions within a certain amount of time guess i forgot the exact details. :-)

That's a good question Jac. I was already 3cm dilated prior to going into labour (with me second). And when the first contraction started, it was pretty full on. So when would 'active labour' have started for me then?

ETA: 4 contractions in a minute?!! A contraction usually lasts between 30-60 seconds.

I thought they counted labour from when your contractions become regular as in 3 good contractions over a 20 min period or some thing like that.

My first labour was 10 hours (7 hours first stage, 30mins transition and 1.5 hours second stage pushing). Second labour was 3 hours (2.5 hours regular contractions and 15 mins of sheer pain (2 pushs and she flew out)).

Not all labours are the same just like no two babies are the same. BTW a quick labour doesn't mean less painful either. I much prefered my first labour.

All the best and wishing you a wonderful birthing experience

Interesting.....

Waters broke (PPROM) @ 8pm (while driving)
1st contraction 8:30-8:40pm, were 5 min appart straight away, got to see the start of The Farmer wants a Wife (first episode!!)
Arrived at hospital, they asked we said 5 min (well were when we left home and forgot to time going in to hospital), but MW said 3min when we got to admission, got taken to delivery and internal done 9:40pm 8cm dialated, very full on from that point.
Nakita born 10:37pm

Was recorded on Nakita's Transfer summary sheet as:
1st Stage 2hr 05min
2nd Stage 17min
3rd Stage 3 min

From about 4cm onwards is considered active labour. Often when women have weeks/days of pre-labour or early labour, they can have a reasonably short labour if all the hard work (where the cervix thins and effaces and dilates to 4cm) is already done. But again, there are no rules in birth, it happens as it happens. Baby's position, somestimes also their size and how active the labour is can all affect the overall length of it.

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my first contractions were at 3pm on a friday, and she was born at 11.01pm on the saturday.... holy crap does that add up to 32 hours???

my first painful contractions were around 8pm, so that would make it 27 hours...

am hoping it goes ALOT quicker the next time :(

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Oh my lord Emma you're a trooper !!! :o :lol::lol::lol:

That's a hard one! both answers are correct I think.
From my first contraction to the birth of my Son my labour was 51.5 hours.I always say that.Although the contractions didn't become intense until about 10 hours later, so 41.5 hours? Hopefully my next is faster!!
Goodluck with Hypnobirthing.x

Hmmm...

From the first "period like" pains (at 1am) my labour was 32 hours.

But the pains I had to concentrate on and breathe through started at 2pm, so that would make it 19hrs.

I wasn't 3cm dialated untill about 10pm , and DD was born at 9:15am.

So who knows LOL. For me it was long anyway.

Thanks for the replies everyone! Seems like its quite a hard question. I guess all i can do is go into my next labour with a positive attitude and a clear head (i'm using hypnobirthing to try and get over my fears of going through labour again)
I've heard that you're classified as being in real labour when active labour begins but it seems its a little unclear as to when that happens. I know at 6pm i started finding it hard to talk through contractions and they started getting really intense and painful but i didn't reach 4cm dialated untill about 10pm (thats when i asked for the epidural, the thought of having to go through hours of pain to get to 10cm when i was already in excrusiating pain scared the hell outa me!) So i think i was definitly in REAL labour before 4cm. I'd been getting regular contractions since about lunchtime that day so maybe thats when 'real' labour started?? Who knows :)
Looking back on it now i think with all the intervention my body didn't have a chance to relax and just do what its meant to do. I know relaxing made a BIG difference because when i had the epidural i went from 4cm to birthing my boy in 2hours 45mins. I'm not a fan of epidurals but i think that it gave me a chance to get on top of things. I'm really hoping to use my hypnobirthing this time round and go el natural! :)
Thanks again for the responses, i'll let you know how long this labour was in a few months! :D

When I arrived at hospital they recorded the start of my labour as being when I had regular painful contractions. For me this was 6 hours before I got to hospital and I was 6cms dilated at that time. I gave birth 11 hours later so they called that 17 hours of labour. Before the regular contractions I'd had about 18 hours of pre labour as well.

Have a look at your discharge papers (or your baby's) and you will see how long they classed your labour.

You can still have very real, very painful contractions before you get to about 4cm - the cervix has to work so hard to get to that point considering how much has to happen - the cervix has to shorten if it hasn't already done so, it has to thin out to paper thin and then it has to become fully effaced. THEN it has to start to dilate - there is so much work for it to do.

ETA - Plus a lot of multipara's (women who are on subsequent pg's) will often be a little dilated or have a very soft cervix for some time before labour starts as well)

mine from when waters broke to DD been born was 36 hrs, active labour was 7.5 hrs

Ok. My waters broke with dd1 at 12.30am. First contraction was at about 1.30am. They were 20-30 minutes apart til 6am, then 5 minutes apart all day. I think I got to 4 cm dialated at about 12pm(they expected me to be about 7cm).
When I was only 7cm they were expecting 10, but they got me to push anyway. That was at about 4pm.
She was born at 1856 - 6.56pm.
So...18.5 hours from waters breaking, 13 hours from regular 5 minute contractions, & 7 hours from 4cm, but only went to 7cm.

DD2 was 30 hours from 1st contraction. Pre labour was from 2.15am on Saturday. 10.30pm they were regular & painful, but still 30 minutes apart. I was in alot of pain at 1.30am Sunday, so went up to hossy. They started 5 minutes apart as soon as I got up to get ready to go.
Was 6-7 cm when I got there. She was born at 7.08am.
So...30 hours from 1st contraction. 8.5 hours from painful contractions - Possibly from 4cm??? 5.5 hours from 5 minute apart contractions.

DS - 2 contractions at 5am on Friday morning. Nothing all day. Contractions started 5.15am Saturday morning. about 10 minutes apart. Waters broke at about 6am. Mecconium in it, so went to hossy. Got there about 7.30am & was 5cm dialated. Born at 10.15am
So 5 hours hard & fast - never got the chance to time contractions. & when we did they were all over the place. They never really got regular. Sometimes they were 2 minutes apart, sometimes 5 minutes. Sometimes they were 30sec long, sometimes 1.5 minutes. Right up til birth.

Can I ask where on the Discharge summary the length of labour is supposed to be?

I had been getting period like pains and belly tightens for about two weeks- but never together and never too strong- then on saturday night I got my first niggles of the both together (belly tighten with the pain) at about 6:30pm- getting about 3 per hour, then from 7:30 to 8:30 i got four then from 8:30-9 i got 3 and called the hospital who advised me to come in as i am a loong drive from hospital and i was supposed to be having another c section (last one was only 1 1/2 years prior and i have had troubles so no VBAC allowed for me...)

We got to the hospital at about 10pm and i was having irregular contraction the whole way there. From 10-12 i had irregular slight pains and was given two panadine forte and rested until about 5am (for those five hours i had one to two slightly more painful contractions an hour and the lower back period pain really started kicking in.

At 5am i had my first real OWIE that brought tears to my eyes i was examined and i was 3cm dialated and from there they came regualrly every few minutes. I was then prepped for the c section but of course my body didnt know that lol so i continued to have contractions for the next hour while the drs etc where getting ready for me- i wasnt examined again and as i said still had the c section- but the midwife said i was probably only an hour or two away from delivery at the time of the c section.

So i guess first stage was about 11 hours- and active labour anywhere from one hour to who knows!! My water never broke- so i think i would have still been a bit of time off having him naturally.

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So i guess first stage was about 11 hours- and active labour anywhere from one hour to who knows!! My water never broke- so i think i would have still been a bit of time off having him naturally.

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My waters never broke with DD2. They broke them artificially 5 minutes before she was born.

Satya- this might sound dumb but how do i get my discharge papers? I don't remember being given any papers? I still have my yellow pregnancy card thingy from DS, i'll have a look and see if it says how long it was on there.
Thanks for your input Trillian, i agree with what you said about the body having to do a lot of work to get the cervix ready for birth- i don't think my body was anywhere near labour- bub was still high, cervix long, no show etc however i was 2cm dialated naturally when i went in. I think because bub and i weren't ready for labour everything was a lot more intense and painful than it should have been.
So since i've already been through labour once and my cervix is stretched (so to speak ;)) does that mean my cervix will open more easily this time??

Lestyrox - My discharge paper were in the clear pocket at the back of my blue book.
(Back for the new folders, inside front for old books)
Your cervix should open a bit easier this time as it should already ba open about 2cm, but that doesn't guaruntee it will be easier.

I had a show at 11am followed by dull pain. I think I was probably having contractions within an hour or so later but I was certain that I was in labour with painful, regular contractions by 2pm. So I usually say I had 3 hours prelabour and then 17 hours labour as my baby was born at 7.30am the next day.
I didn't have any internal exams so I don't know how dilated I was at any stage. My birth notes from the hospital are useless- they say my waters broke at 6pm (where they plucked that time from I'm not sure- we were at home then) when they actually didn't break at all.

Thanks Bjrose, Just had a look in the blue book and i've got a blue piece of paper with the labour and birth details (been there for 2 years and i didn't even know lol) but it doesn't say how long my labour was :( I just looked at the part where it says the position the bub was in when born and it says vertex?? What does that mean?
Thanks!

Thats what all mine say. Crown first I think. Rather than face first, or breech.

I was induced, had the gels at 3pm and started to get dull period type cramps right up until 1am that night. At 1am i felt a pop and that's when the ouchy pain started, contractions came hard and fast and my son was born at 4am. So my labour from first real contraction was only 2.5 hours, my labour is noted as 2 hours 5 minutes on my papers as i didnt call the midwife for half an hour as i didn't believe i was actually in labour!

Thanks adkins, thats really interesting- so it seems they measured your labour from the onset of your strong/painful contractions... hmmmm maybe mine was only 6-7hours. If you don't mind me asking, how dialated were you when you called the midwives?

Just saw this while surfing the net for info at Speeding up labour
This is an impossible question to answer. Mothers generally time labour from when they feel the first contraction, or their waters break. However, midwives and doctors calculate the length of labour from when the cervix is three to four centimetres dilated. This is considered to be the start of the "active phase" of labour. By this point, you might have been having quite painful tightening for some hours. Perhaps you've been awake all night. To you, it feels as though labour has been "active" for quite a long while already!
So i guess that answers a few questions- but if thats correct then technically my labour was 2hours 45mins! Gee i dunno :confused:

Bah it's all just so confusing. I was in early labour for 24 hours, apparentley, and i didn't feel a thing. I was bleeding everywhere so i was terrified but apparentley that was just a show, according to the ob. Actually started getting pains at 10:30pm, I was 3cm dilated. Contactions went from nothing to 3minutes apart within the space of 10 minuted. They checked me again at 11pm and I was 4cm dilated but on my discharge papers it says labour went for 3.5 hours. Ds was born at 3:24am, so they started timing from midnight. I had assumed they timed from 5 or 6 cm because of that (I don't remember anyone saying anything about dilation after the 4cm mark, the whole thing is one painful blur).
So, after all that ramble, it's still very confusing!! :)

I alway time mine from active labour ( when I am 4 cm )

I too was induced for my 1st due to high BP , got jell at 9.30 pm they told BHL to go home at 11.30 even though I was in pain already and couldnt sit still, I was told I wasnt in labour and wouldnt be until they put the drip in so was given pain relef and sleeping tablets and told to go to sleep... after shift change ( thank GOD ) my saviour walked in to check on me couldnt believe I was still up after the sleeping pill... Told her I couldnt sleep with the pain I was in at 12.30 she took me to have a bath to ease the pain as they were quite that night while running the bath she notices that I was in regualer pain told me to hope onto the bed to check me out... If I could have taken a photo of her face it would have been priceless as I was 6 cm with just jell had to ring BHL to get back he came in at 1.30am they broke my water( which landed all over BHL :ROFL:) and baby came with in half hour... If it wasnt for shift change I would have had that baby on my own as I didnt want to bother the nurse again.... so 4.5 hrs for my 1st

the girls were about the same dd1 4hr and DD2 3.5 so for us it hasnt made a difference been induced or natual all have been quick... Plus I have never brocken my water myself aways need help...once it goes baby is always out within the hour after they move that annoying lip I aways get....

Well my waters broke with DD2 at about 9am, but I did not have even a twinge until 7pm and she was born 1 hour 54 mins later. I do not count from when waters broke, as nothing at all happened. I went out, picked DD1 up from school etc. Infact I got sick of it so started nipple stimulation at about 6pm, and it went from there! I say my labour was 1 hour 54 mins.
DD1 was 12 hours.
The Dr is concerned this birth will be much quicker, Im not so sure. Im not going to rely on it (only because I'll be disappointed if it's a long birth). With DD1 my waters did not break at all, the midwife did that for me!

I think that's an interesting question about the active labour...

with DD my waters broke at 4.30pm on a saturday. No contractions at all. called hospy at 5.30pm and went in about 30 mins later.
My first contraction was at 10pm and the second at 10.02pm!! they came thick and fast (2-3 mins). walked around my room for about 45 mins, realised that maybe i was in labour (midwives told me i would probably take 48 hours to start...). midwife came in at 10.50ish and walked with me to delivery. as we went by the reception she called out to the other midwife on duty that i was in active labour. i was like: 'really? since when??' LOL!

But i have to say that i am not sure if this was already 'active' as although they were ouchie wouchie they weren't anything like the last 2 hours of the labour (minus the pushing part, which was a more a feeling of relief than pain).

DD was born 9.5 hours from the first contraction at 7.24am sunday.

Vertex is when the baby presents the upper back part of the head first - so yes, it is crown first.

Induced births are always going to be harder on your body because you have drugs doing all the work to force your uterus to contract, so if you weren't *ready* for labour then it is going to have to work all the harder to get the cervix doing what it is meant to.

Not everyone will get a discharge summary once they leave hospital. You can contact your hospital and ask for a copy of your notes - all the birth details will be in it.

Mine were 12 hrs, 8hrs, 4.5hrs (induced birth) and 6.5hrs. With my first two, those times were from the very first contraction through to the birth - no pre-labour. With my last two I had pre-labour and for my induced birth my waters were broken, but no contractions until I had the drip in for a few hours - so the 4.5 hrs was from the time I started having *real* contractions, but I had no real dilation and the cervix was soft but not effaced. With my last it was also measured from the time I started having rally painful contractions till his birth. Prior to my waters being broken I was 2cm dilated and around 50% effaced.

the length of my labour from 4cm onwards was 16 hours...