I know it will sound silly because i had a natural birth but i still do not know the difference between labour and active labour.

Basically, On the 22/12/2005 at 4.30 am i felt like period pains. Around 12.30 i started to be in pain and by 2.30 i was really in pain

Anyway, arrived at hospital at 4.30 pm where they told me i was 9cm dilated and an hour and a half later i was pushing for 2 and a half hours like mad before the doctor put a kiwi ventouse on thomas'head to get him out.

The midwives told me i had a quick labour and that the second time i am pregnant to come back as soon as the first contraction starts as it will be a quick delivery (I wish if it happens lol)

So here is my dilemna. For me i was in labour for 16 and a half hours including delivery. when do you think i entered active labour? at my first real pain or push?

Thanks

i would say push ing part coz ur actively pushing

active labour is stage 3 aka PUSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! my active labour with callum was....... 47 mins LMAO

lucky 45mins i wish

i thought active labour was from when your 8 cm dialated if its true what you girls said i was only in labour for 25 minutes with lily as i was constantly upright,got on bed waters broke as soon as my bum touched the bed and i got urge to push straight away,she was grey from being born so quickly

active labour is from 4cm's am getting expert now,lol

Bexxie is right, basically. The latent phase is the first 0-3cm, some women dont even feel this occuring, it can take hours or even weeks and is often very stop start, once you hit 4cm you are in active labour (i.e no stopping or going back now) normally if you show up at hospital prior to this they will send you home. Once you have fully dilated at 10cm you hit the transitional phase, where the contractions usually become a lot more frequent and painfull, often not giving you time to recover in between, this is where you start screaming and want to punch your support partner! this can last 5mins to to an hour, then you get to the honest to goodness birth bit where you get the urge to push and your bay is born. After this you hit the third and final stage which is the dispelling of the placenta.

a 16 hour active stage is actually about the normal for a first time PG. Normally a quick labour is about a 2-3 hours actaive phase. So you will prob find that as they dont know what time you it active labour began as you were 9cm by the time you go to hospital, they are classing the whole thing as active labour, so its very hard to gage at what point you hit 9cm, so I guess next time it will be a case of going in before it gets too unbearable.

I know that established labour is when you reach 3 CM's is this the same as active labour. I was induced and this was when I was taken up to the labour ward at 3 cm's, I was at this stage for 4 hours, then I was pushing for an hour, so I was in establisdhed labour for a total of 5 hours.

Yup active and established labour are the sam thing. Got definition here:

Active labor - The part of the first stage of labor during which the cervix dilates from 4 centimeters to 10 centimeters, contractions become stronger, and pressure and discomfort build.

The average active labour stage is 6-12 hours, longer if a first timer. So if you were induced, which would have made your contraction stronger (particularly if on a drip) 5 hours is good going.

I had 2 sodding days of latent labour (I know Bexxie, you can beat me there), and about 20 hours of active labour, then 2 hours to push her out. I looked at my labour notes and they have length of labour - 1 hr 57. Not happy with that at all!!!! I am going to change it with the help of tippex and a pen