what do you consider the start of labor?

redheadinlove

When you say "my labor was 12 hours" when is the starting point for you?

I know when my water broke and I'd use that, except I didn't feel contractions until 7 hours later. 

flyer23

I don't simply say, "My labor was x hours." 

With DD, I usually say "23 hours from Cervidil insertion to birth, including 10 hours of active labor on Pitocin."

With DS, I usually say, "My water started leaking Saturday afternoon, contractions picked up overnight, I was in active labor by mid-morning Sunday, and he was born Sunday afternoon."

iris427

When I talk about my labors, I go from the start of timeable contractions that were different from BH.  It is harder with my first because I was induced so it is difficult to say when labor actually started.  With my second, I remember exactly when my labor started because I was lying in bed awake when the first contraction happened and things picked up very fast from there.

erb82

 I woke up in the middle of the night with a contraction and it was definitely different from Braxton Hicks.  The next one came 10 minutes later, and it kept picking up until DD was born.  I time my labor from when I woke up.

Bonidiebabe

I just knew from my first contraction it was the start. Not everyone is like that or even close. 

superned

iris427:

When I talk about my labors, I go from the start of timeable contractions that were different from BH.  It is harder with my first because I was induced so it is difficult to say when labor actually started.  With my second, I remember exactly when my labor started because I was lying in bed awake when the first contraction happened and things picked up very fast from there.

I've only had one labor so far, but this is how I would describe it.  I first starting thinking I was having real contractions at 4am, and by 4:30am I was timing them.  DD was born at 7:20pm, so I usually say, "my labor was about 15 hours."

pinksweetpea2

With my first my water broke and active labor started 5 minutes later

With my second I had bloody show and timeable contractions started right after that.  

StefandTodd

I had contractions all day long on my EDD.  They were maybe every 8 to 15 minutes or so...but not painful, just uncomfortable.  I remember walking around Target, and driving home that day and feeling like, "wow, that's a contraction"...and just before going to bed that night, I told my H to text his mom that it could be soon, I had a feeling and contractions were definitely coming on.  But, they still were not painful.  Like I said, just uncomfortable.  And that day, I had had an appt and I had told my OB that I remember having a dream the night before that I was trying to get more comfortable on my labor ball, but it wasn't helping...so I think I was having contractions in my sleep that I could definitely feel, but weren't painful enough to wake me up.  So, really I think I was having contractions for about 24 hours before what I consider "start of labor"...

I consider "start of labor" to be when a contraction woke me up at 12:45 am (the night that we texted my MIL and the night after my Target trip, etc....the night of/day after my EDD).  The contraction woke me up and was the first time I was like, "whoa...pain...need to focus through these..."  I got up and went to the bathroom and while sitting there, I got another contraction.  My H came in and started timing them and they were about 5-7 mins apart.  They got closer and closer together from there until my LO was born 10 hours later.  So I generally say I had a 10 hour labor, and start counting from that wake-me-up contraction that I actually had to focus through. 

xnbride

For DS1 I just say pitocin started at 4:30pm and for DS2 I say when I woke up at 3:30am with a super strong contraction.  I tend to have lots of prodromal labor but I don't count that because then it would be 3 weeks of labor LOL. Instead it is just 3 hours. That sounds much better!

Tash13

I usually say that my labor was 9 hours from the time I woke up from contractions and 6 hours from the time I got into the hospital.  It seems to clarify a little easier.

kaeti_su

When I felt sensations that I realized several minutes later were contractions. My water didn't break until my MW broke it in between pushes.

momma2be1990

i started having back contractions at 630...water broke at 1130..didnt have my son until 5:55pm the next day. so 23.5 hours long for me from the start of the back contractions.

tokenhoser

My water didn't break until I was 10 cm, so that doesn't work. I usually say it was 14 hours total (I woke up at 11 am feeling crampy) and 5 hours hard labour (because it wasn't until 8 pm that things got real).

ValentineMommy

I say 56 hours from the start of contractions to birth. They weren't Braxton hicks when they started. I could time them, they intensified and I knew it was time! 

lily225

I count from first contraction to birth.

I can see how it might be different if your water breaks and you don't start contracting, or you're induced and don't start contracting right away. But I would still go from first contraction to birth.

BrideNamedMeg

I consider the start of labor to be when timeable contractions start.  So with my first I say that I was in labor for 26 hours, but only about 12 hours of that was really active labor.

With DS, I'd say I was in labor for 20 hours but only working hard during 5 of them.   

FyreFlyeRush

From the time I woke up with a really bad back ache and saw my bloody show...true bloody show...until the time I delivered. I was having regular contractions at that point, hence the back ache. Some OBs will only count active labor as labor, but screw that. I'm feeling regular contractions for hours...I'm counting it! 

jennyann28

I'd say from the start of timeable contractions. My water broke 16 hours before I was in labor (with the help of Cytotec). I had a random, non-painful contraction here or there in that 16 hours, but I wasn't considered to be in labor until they started being timeable (though they were still really inconsistent at first).

emberlee3

I kind of knew I was in labor the day before, but it was really slow.  I consider the true start to be when I awoke with a painful contraction, felt a gush come out of me, and found I had bloody show.  My labor was about 10 hours from that point.

Temp76535187505890

I use from water breaking because that was the first noticeable thing for both my labors even though contractions didn't start to over an hour to each. 

pixieprincss

I count it from when contractions were time-able, consistent, and increasing in frequency and intensity over an extended period of time. That said, baby was OB and labor did stall after over a day into it for 12ish hours, so some professionals would say that was prodromal labor versus "real" labor, other would disagree (especially knowing that DS had been OP and OP labors tend to be wacky like that).

Temp174496125006552

When I was pregnant with Jordan, I woke up @ 5:00am and my water was leaking.  I consider that the beginning of my labor with her. 

With Ben, I had my membranes stripped @ my 40w,2d appt and woke up the following morning having contractions.  I consider the time that I woke up and realized that the pains that I was having were contractions the beginning of my labor with him.

jennadoll87

I count from the moment my water broke. Once that happened contractions started immediately. I know its not so cut and dry for everyone, but that was my one and only experience so far.

sschwege

I don't count the first two hours because I was only woken up twice by contractions and was able to sleep through the rest, so I figure anything you can sleep through is not really noteworthy.  So I say I was in labor for 17.5 hours because that was the point where I couldn't sleep through them anymore.

annabelle.27

I count mine as being from first contraction, but my first contractions with both babies were incredibly painful and regular (started at three minutes apart with #2), so I think most people would count that as the start of labour.

nosoup4u

I had mild contractions for a good 24+ hours with my first son. I was admitted at the hospital when I was 2 cm dilated, but things didn't really pick up for a few hours after that. So I usually think of active labor with him as being about 12 hours or so.

 DS2 was much more efficient - I woke up at 3 am with mild, but definite, contractions, and he was born at 6 pm the same day.

My sister talks about how she was in labor with her first for 40+ hours, but she counts early, early contractions as part of it, too. 

wannabigfam

From the point I started to time the contractions, which I still thought were Braxton hicks but timed them anyway.  Start to finish including pushing my labor was under 3 hours for our first child.

LindseyJW

i consider active labor to be the start. 

with #1, i started early labor around 6pm on a friday with ctx about 10-15 minutes apart. they stayed that far apart my entire labor. active labor began midday on saturday, when the intensity of my ctx changed considerably. but they were still 10-15min apart. my baby was born on monday afternoon, with ctx still 10-15 minutes apart. he was born by c/s after i reached 10cm and he did not descend for many hours (i was at 10cm for about 13hrs with no descent). that labor was 40+hrs long from the beginning of active labor to birth.

with #2, i started early labor around 4pm on a thursday, with ctx about 20 minutes apart. they stayed that way the rest of the evening. i went to bed and woke up in active labor with ctx 10 minutes apart, quickly transitioning to 2 minutes apart. that labor was 7 hrs long from the beginning of active labor to birth. 

wheelsonthebus

yeah, I've never been able to say how long my labor with DS was. It was SO slow to start. It was days before I was in actual active labor. It honestly went on for 2-3 days. My "active labor" was probably 11 hours?

vkbowers

I used the time when I got started on pitocin. My water broke at home and I had to be induced, so I never really felt the "start" of my contractions. I would go by when the contractions actually started though.

kayladay

I go by when my water broke at 5.. but I started having contractions right after that. Therefore I say I had a 4 hour 10 min labor, because my son was born at 9:10.