Question about the start of labor

When does labor actually start? When women say they were in labor for 20 hours (just an example), is that counting the start of contractions before getting to the hospital or once they get into the hospital and labor is active? I guess my question is, when do we start timing it?

Re: Question about the start of labor

i just did a little google and found this babycenter article...says that the first stage of labor is 2 parts; "early labor" starts when your contractions start causing changes to your cervix. and that "active labor" starts when your cervix is more dilated, your contractions are stronger and closer together.

so i guess you could say your labor started when your contractions did? i would think counting from the start of "active labor" wouldn't be 20+ hours long but i could be wrong?!

http://www.babycenter.com/stages-of-labor

Re: Question about the start of labor

Usually when I tell my birth story I was in labor for 24 hours with about 20 of those being "hard labor". My contractions got pretty intense pretty quickly, and most people seem to understand this.

I'm due jan. 23 and am already having contractions, so I feel like you really can't start counting until they are regular

Re: Question about the start of labor

With my son I count from the very first contraction that I had - which happened to be very intense. prior to that I had nothing, not even a hint of a braxton hicks. I was in labor for about 10 hours from start to finish.

With my daughter I count from the moment my water broke, although contractions didn't start for another half hour or so. I was experiencing some back pain earlier that evening but nothing intense. From the time my water broke to the time that I had my daughter was about 3 hours.

Re: Question about the start of labor

I count it from when my water broke, so it was 19 hours for me. My contractions were irregular for a while after that though...