Labor length...

[Just1More]

All these labor threads have me curious about the average time of labor. Let's count it from the time you KNEW, without a doubt, that you were in labor.

I'll make it multiple choice so you can choose for all your labors.

[CallMeMommy]

With my second it was about 5 hours but in retrospect I should have recognized it as labor earlier, so it was actually about 12 hours. With this last one my water had broken the day before but I wasn't contracting, and by the time the contrax started I was only in labor for an hour, I kid you not.

[Llyra]

I think I was probably in labor about 27 hours, with DD1. I count from when my water broke, because the contractions intensified right after that. I had been contracting endless for three months, though, so it's really difficult to say exactly when true labor began.

Didn't labor with my other two...

[northcountrymamma]

42 long hours.
at least I wasn't in the 48 or more section!

[Mrs.Music]

My first I was in labor for 4 days... but I was on magnesium to slow my contractions. My second I was in labor for almost exactly 24 hours from the first "wake me up" painful contraction to the actual birth.

[AutumnAir]

The first I was in labour for at least 21 hours (from the time I realised I was having fairly strong contractions about 5 minutes apart).

The second I only admitted to myself that I was in labour about 10 minutes before pushing the baby out!

[CI Mama]

33 hours for me from water breaking (which was my first indication I was in labor) to c-section.

Though lately I have been wondering if I was in some kind of low-grade labor for several days prior to that.

[MegBoz]

Just under 5 hours for first stage - the 1st of which was pretty minor (I was vacuuming & doing laundry), then a 30 min delay while driving to the hospital (had no idea it would go that fast! Was shocked to feel the urge to push!) 45 min for 2nd stage, so I put myself in the 5-7 hours category.

[lachingona1]

First labor was 42 hours, Second labor was 3 hours and 45 min, third labor was 2 hours and 45 minutes.

[Alyantavid]

Both were 6 hours exactly. From the first contraction when I started timing them until my babies were born.

[HappilyEvrAfter]

3.5 hrs from the time my water broke till he was out.
Contractions didn't start until really close to an hour before he popped out.

I had absolutely no other signs that he was coming.

[Xavismom]

Almost two weeks of prodromal labor, 31 hrs of active labor.

ds was posterior though, I'm hoping next time for better positioning and a shorter one

[BirdMum]

Well, it depends how you count it.

Due to a sudden BP spike and proteins, my midwives decided to do an AROM on my due date. However, I was already dilated to a 3, had been having prodromal labour for about 10 days, and DS was right on my cervix, so I do not think the AROM actually did anything my body wasn't ready to do anyway.

Hubby and I went for walk. Started having contractions while we walked, and was definitely in active labour by 10:30.

DS was born at 7:49pm after 24 minutes of pushing.

So, just over 9 hours going by the contractions. Just over 11 hours if going by when I was 'induced.'

[emaye_to_2]

I voted '12-18 hrs' for my first and '2-3 hrs' for my second.

[OkiMom]

First I felt the first contraction around 815pm. I remember because I was watching TV with hubby and thought "wow I wonder if thats what a contraction is". She was born at 1155am so almost 16 hours.
Second I felt the first contraction at around 530 am, she was born at 651am. So little less than an hour and a half.

[St. Margaret]

Just under 18 hours. I woke, as I always did, to pee, I think around 2am, and had some minor bloodly show, and then realized I was getting crampy (thought I had to poo ) and couldn't sleep for a while, then slept, then just easy labor all morning (showered, went for a couple short walks, watched TV which was only okay, hung out, snacked, realxed), more active in the afternoon (bath, walking, lots of sitting on the toilet b/c it felt comfy ), went to the hospital around 4, cozed up and just tried to relax and breath, sort of in a trance for a while, baby after less than an hour of pushing, by about 7:45pm.

[HeatherB]

I voted 24-36 with my first. Real ctxs were intense enough to stop talking through them sometime after midnight on Sunday and he was born about 36 hours later by c/s ("failure to wait" as I had finally started pushing just before the c/s, but they didn't do anything about it ).

With my 2nd, he had his hand by his head and that slowed things down even more. I had ctxs 5min apart on Thursday evening by 7pm-ish. Labored all the way from then through Saturday night where things got serious and he was born at 12:48am Sunday.

With my 3rd, early labor started on Sunday, intensified on Wednesday night (my counting point) and he was born just shy of 24 hours after that.

Gee, I might get lucky and only have maybe 18 hours this time.

[gravida]

DD was 40 hours from about 4 cm to delivery.

DS was 6 hours from first contraction (which had me holding myself up on the counter) to delivery.

[Vespertina]

Dd1 - 3 hours
Dd2 - 32 minutes from when intense contractions hit
Ds1 - 1 hour 40 minutes (slow to start due to mechanical issues related to polyhydramnios)
Ds2 - uh, there was no 'labor.' It's really hard to describe because the moment I *knew* something was *really* going on I was only a minute away from birth. I was 6 cm, 80% effaced with a swollen bleeding cervix just a few minutes before his birth. I was NOT in labor before that point. I was still on the phone with my mom relaying all the details to her (bleeding cervix). I felt fine, but I was becoming impatient. I just wanted labor to start. And boy did it. I only had onesies and twosies (contractions) that were mild before that. I never had more than five at a time. Every time I felt a few contractions I would think "maybe this is it" only to be disappointed because they never amounted to anything. No active labor pattern. I was never 'in' labor. It was very similar with dd2.

I have extremely fast labors/births, but I was between 5-7/8 cm when I started labor with all of them. With my last baby I went from 6 cm and 80% effaced with a very swollen (and bleeding) cervix to birth in less than a minute--the five contractions that immediately preceded his birth.

[Drummer's Wife]

36 and 39 hours for the two I went into labor with. The other two were scheduled c-sections. All four ended up being c-sections, actually.