When did your labor officially start?

Question

How can you figure out how many hours you were in labor? When do you start counting? From the first painful contraction? From when your water broke? From when you dilated to a certain point? From when your contractions were ___minutes apart?

Just wondering cuz people are asking me how long I was in labor and idk what to tell them lol.

Answer

I started counting once my contractions started.

Answer

I went by how long I was in the hospital for.

Answer

I counted from when my contractions were consistent, but they started out at 5 minutes apart right away

Answer

I counted from when my water broke, even though my contractions took several more hours after that to start.

Answer

My labor started at 40w5d. I started having noticeable contractions that I could time every 3-5 min. I knew I was already at 4cm after my appt a few days prior. After a few hours contrax got much more painful, still coming every 3 min. I was finally checked and had progressed to 6cm. So I am counting when I first started to feel contrax. 8 hours from the first noticeable one until she was in my arms :)

Answer

I was in early labor for 3 days.. Meaning I never got past 2 cm but my contractions were every 4-6 min apart.. The hospital sent me home bc I wasn't progressing. Those contractions felt just like Braxton hicks and they would fizzle from time to time. I water broke and in 5 min my first contraction was painful and each one continued to get more and more painful. I arrived at the hospital less than 15 min after my water broke (live 5 min away, strep b positive) they checked me I was 2.5 and in an hour I was 6 and continued. I count labor from the time my water broke and had my first painful contraction bc that's when things started happening (at 530 pm) and I delivered that night 954 pm.. So my labor was 4.5 hours including pushing. This was my first baby.

Answer

I also counted from my first contractions that were consistent and not going away... 5 hours at home, and a total of 12 hours at the hospital. Pushing was the hardest part for me. I think I pushed for 2 hours and I was beat.

Answer

I woke up at 2am with a bad contraction, went to birth center at 11:00am and was 6cm dilated. I had no other signs prior to the contraction waking me up. After an emergency transfer to hospital baby arrived the next day at 4:00am so counting from 2:00am to 4:00am next day for me. The pushing is what took hours and hours.

Answer

If I start from the time I started feeling contactions I was in labor for 30 hrs I was stuck at a 5 1/2 pretty much the whole time so at 3 pm I couldn't do the contractions no more since I wasn't progressing. Gave in to the epidural that didn't help me progress so they gave me Pitocin an baby's heart rate would drop so they turned it off. Ending in a c section.

Answer

I counted from first contraction until he arrived, which was 12 hours.

When did your labor officially start?

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