What it is
The stages of labor are the map providers use. First stage is the cervix opening from closed to 10 centimeters. It has an early part and an active labor part, and it ends with transition. Second stage is pushing and birth. Third stage is the placenta. Some add a fourth: the first two hours after, when your body settles and bleeding is watched.
How long does labor take is the question under all the others. The honest answer is a range. A first labor often runs 12 to 24 hours from regular contractions to birth. Later labors are often half that. Neither number is a rule.
What's typical
Early labor is the longest and the least predictable. Contractions come every 5 to 20 minutes, last under a minute, and you can talk through them. This can go on for hours or a day or more, and it often stops and starts. Active labor begins around 6 centimeters. Contractions come every 3 to 5 minutes, last about a minute, and need your full focus. The cervix opens about half a centimeter to a centimeter an hour from here, though slower is still normal. Transition is the last stretch, from about 8 to 10. It lasts 30 minutes to 2 hours. It is the most intense part, and shaking, nausea, and saying you cannot do it are all typical. Pushing takes 1 to 2 hours for a first baby, often 20 minutes to an hour after that. The placenta comes 5 to 30 minutes after the baby.
What's known
In 2014 ACOG and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine moved the start of active labor from 4 to 6 centimeters, after large studies showed many labors are slower than the old charts said. That change was meant to lower cesareans done for a labor that was simply taking its time. The WHO says slow progress alone, with mother and baby well, is not a reason to intervene. Across cultures, labor was walked, swayed, and squatted through long before beds. Research on upright positions agrees they can shorten the first stage a little.
What helps
- Stay home in early labor if your provider agrees. Eat, nap, shower, watch something.
- Change position every 30 minutes or so in active labor: walk, lean, hands and knees, side-lying.
- Low sounds through contractions. A long moan relaxes the jaw and the pelvic floor with it.
- Have your partner or doula count you through transition. It ends.
- Ask how your team measures progress and what they consider slow, before the day.
When to call someone
- Nowheavy bleeding, the cord or anything else showing at the vagina, or your water breaks green or brown. Go in or call 911.
- Nowthe baby has not moved during labor, or you feel an urge to push and are far from the hospital.
- Todaycontractions every 5 minutes, lasting a minute, for an hour. Or your water breaks, even without contractions. Call your provider.
- At your next visitask what their timeline is for a slow labor and what the options are at each point.
Who helps
Tools: Birth Plan Generator · My Birth Team
Related
- Signs labor is startingGetting Ready for Birth
- Early labor at home: when to go inGetting Ready for Birth
- Pushing and positions for birthGetting Ready for Birth
- Pain options: from breathing to epiduralGetting Ready for Birth
- Very fast and very long laborsBirth and the First Days
- Back labor and baby's positionGetting Ready for Birth
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Sources
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists — How to tell when labor begins FAQ
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine — Safe prevention of the primary cesarean delivery obstetric care consensus
- World Health Organization — Intrapartum care for a positive childbirth experience recommendations
- NHS — The stages of labour and birth
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