My waters broke at 10, my contractions started at 12 - but they were very intense as soon as they started and never has a break between them - I was glad I was in hospital from the first moment because I couldn't have done anything else! Anna was born at half 8. So my labour was technically 10 hours long, but from contractions to birht was 8 and a half - the time flew by, though!

[edit: I'm taking my labour from the moment my waters broke, but I did have flu symptoms early that morning (shaking, shivering, fever, sickness etc) and an unbearable hip pain that meant I couldn't move - I don't know if that was part of my labour or not ]

I guess if you werent sure it was real labour you could try a bath? Supposedly a bath will stop the pains if its not real labour.

My contractions started 10 past 8 on a saturday and kyle was born 21 mins past 8 on monday...so 48 hours and 11 mins.

I was 10 days over so I was induced. 16 hours proper labouring then forceps.

x

Woke up at 2 am when my water broke, baby came 36 hours later.

I was induced & for 14 hours I experienced cramping from the prostaglandin gel they used to soften my cervix.. but after the second dose I started having proper contractions & was in labour from 6am til 4.20pm. I pushed for about 10 minutes.. once they'd broken my waters I went from 4cm to 10cm in about an hour.

lol... wow bigbelly2... you even had time to shower and shave your legs?!?!?!?!

Does everyone do this before they go to the hospital?

From the time my contrax became timable/regular (i.e. < 5 min apart) to the time I actually delivered DS was 12 hours. I got to the hospital about an hour after my "labour" started, and was 3 cm dialated, so still had lots of time for the epidural. There is no way in H.E.double hockey sticks that I would have stopped to shower or shave!! My doctor actually advises AGAINST taking a bath if you are in active labour, if your membranes have broken it could introduce bacteria to the area, a warm shower is okay BUT>>> a word of caution IF you are in active labour, it may worsen and you will have a very difficult time getting out of the shower if you are all by yourself.

Oh my word...

theres some really long ones on here.

Eek

xxx

lol yeah,

looking back i was only 19/20 and had no idea i was actually in "proper" labour as i "thought" my waters had broken but only had little period like pains...i USED to be obsessed with shaving my legs every day so just had to do it...ALSO being entirely honest as id been poorly the day before i hadnt had a shower *dirty bugger i hear you all shout* so i felt it was a necessity to smell nice for the midwives lol

h x

Lol!

My waters broke at 1am on the 18th Jan (was due 31st Jan) and my contractions started around 2am. At 7am I was in hospital and 2cms dilated and at 9am was 9.5cms! I was ready to push at 10am but didn't have Faith till 11.48am due to the fact she was breech and they didn't know until they saw the bum! Otherwise I'm sure I would have had her sooner! Anyway going from my waters breaking it was just under 11 hours from start to finish. Going from being in established labour I'm guessing just under 4 hours.