How long would you say my 3rd labour was? ....

[Disenchanted3]

Ill give you a rundown of events ...

11.30 - sweep, (2-3cms)

start to have cramps and blood...

8pm, still having cramps but havin g a few strong BH ones...

10pm, getting mild contractions (still think they are going to stop)

12pm get first painful contraction,

2am midwife examines me , still 2-3 cms , no dialation. She leaves.

Contractions REALLY hurting now.

5am midwife comes back, 8-9cms.

6.20 DD born.

on her notes she put labour - 3hours.

would you agree??

s

yeah i would say so. sounds like active was about 3 hours. can only hope for the same with my next one!

Well, it sounds as if you went into established labour (i.e. started dilating) sometime after 2am, so the MW must have guessed that you started dilating by about 3am. That would give an approx 3 hour labour.

Congrats

I would say from first painful contraction at midnight.

It is very subjective though, some people say from 3cm dilation, other people count from first uncomfortatble contractions.

Supposedly they count from 4cm dilated, so sounds a reasonable estimate.

Ah right thanks, about half the time of my first 2 then.

But some women are 3/4cm dilated without feeling a single contraction, other women have painful contractions for hours or days before getting to 4cm. I still don't know when my second labour started probably.

they count 4cm as established labour. you may be in labour before then but its not established until you get to 4cm

sounds about right

usually it is broken down into 1st , 2nd and third stage too

but 3 hours sounds about right as some time after two you started dilating.

there has to be some sort of universal guideline and IIRC NICE guidelines do say 4 cm dilation, though 3cm with strong ctx is also considered established , certainly at the unit where I have experience. there has to be some guestimating

does that mean that the eight hours I spent with very painful regular contractions until I got to 4cm dilation doesn't count as labour? Added to that several nights of irregular uncomfortable contractions?

I bet a man wrote those guidelines

not established labour

there has to be a point at which you say, yes , this woman is in labour.. so that you can be sent to antenatal or delivery, or given pethidine/epidural etc or not.. or get in teh birth pool or not.. but pain is very very subjective and some women do have a really long latent phase,and have to go through a lot to get to 3 cm.. are they in labour.. yes, IMO, but not active or established labour.

i had 15 hours of painful regular intense contractions that did not die off, that were a minute long by and every 3 minutes by the time i got to hospital and i was told i was not in labour and the MW said i would ahve to go to the AN ward with some paracetomal. as it happened, DDs heartbeat went through the roof, due to my stress no doubt., so i was kept in delivery and did get into established labour one hour later

I was never sure when my labour started and so how long it was. The other day I had a brainwave - is it when you can't really do anything else other than have contractions, usually?

For example I was having contractions the whole of Thursday but walked to the shop, had a shower, made food for myself etc. On the Friday morning I did nothing other than hang off banisters and sit backwards on chairs

Or when you stop timing them.

But not everyone starts timing them, I didn't.

I didn't either, but a lot of women do.

I had tightenings and odd BH during the day. Then at about 6.30pm thought "hang on" while making dd supper. By 7.30pm couldn't talk during them. Got to hospital at 8pm and was 10cm dilated. DS born just before 9pm.

I have pondered the length of the labour. I think I just was in the mindframe of pretending nothing was happening, after about 36 hours or stop-start-am I-aren't I with dd. So when started to really hurt, well was obviously quite nicely ready.