Labor takes so long because your body is gearing up to get give birth. Your cervix is dialating and thinning, the baby is moving into position, and other things. It takes time for all that to happen. For some it can go quickly, like those who have had children before.

I was in labor for 6 hours.

It all depends on your body like I was in labor like like 16 some what hours when my mom it only took her under 2-3 for all of us kids

I was in labor for 15 hours.

Like the other poster said, it takes a while for your body to become ready to push the baby out. It seems that after you have grown a baby in there for 9 months that your body would be ready for it, but at the time of birth your ceverx must dialate and thin out.

According to my doctor I had been in labor for a while. I remember when my back started to hurt, but stupid me thought that it was just back pain from the baby. It didn't occur to me that I was in labor. It was friday night that I started to feel the pain and I went all weekend with this pain. On monday morning while in the shower I started contracting more around my tummy. An hour later I was in active labor and 5 cm dialated. They had my baby out in 45 mins of arriving at the hospital.

Everyone is different.

I was only in labor for about 8 hours. Maybe...It took me less than 3 hours to have her once I got to the hospital.

This was my first child and all the nurses were surprised that I had no medical intervention for being so young and how quickly it went! For my next child they told me to get to the hospital as soon as I feel pains as i'll probably have it within 5 hours....

Sarah

I was in labour for nearly 13 hours everyone is different

Correct me if im wrong but active labour is the longets part and the one that varies the most between women.....

I was told that giving birth takes so long and is so painful for humans compared to other animals because the human baby has such a developed and large brain (and therefore skull). Therefore, a lot more effort is required to push the baby out.

Makes me wish I was a mouse...

i don't know if that is true....It may be but I was in stage 1 for like 3 days.

Yea active labor is usually the longest. My active labor was about 3 hours and my transition stage was about 20 mins!! Lol....It was quick!!

Pure, I looooved giving birth. I loved the pain, the experience, everything. I want to have an at home water birth next time. I could've had .Oni at home...But I didn't have any other birthing plan.

Sarah

what do you mean by stage one?

Stage one is like "period like cramps" they aren't very consistant. They can go from every 10 mins, to every 5, back to 10...So on and so on.

I didn't start feeling bad pains until my active stage. Then there's transition, then there's the pushing stage/birth stage.

Sarah

Oh god, transition sucks. My labor went from "not a big deal" (my entire first day of induction) to "not so bad" (the first few hours of day 2) to "holy crap .I'm dying" for an hour or so. Got my epidural, and was ready to push within 45 minutes. If I had waited a half hour longer to ask for it, I would have been having a natural birth.

I know that I hit the active stage by the time I got to the hospital and my doctor was worried that my uterus was going to rupture so they didnt' even get my blood back from the lab before I was in the or. When they started to open me up I was beginning to rupture. My uterus was opening and I was lucky that I was at the hospital.

12 hours for me.

wow! That's really scary. That's why I could never have a home birth. It seems like too much could go wrong. Lol, sorry that's off topic.

Was in labor for about 14 hours or so. Contractions woke me up out of a deep sleep at 3:40 am. They were 7-9 min apart. Then around 6:00 they were every 3-5 min so we went to the hospital by 7:00. I was 3 cm when I got there. At around 10:45 I was 5 cm and they broke my water. By 4:30 p.M. I was fully dilated. At 5:17 p.M. He was born. Had to use vaccum extraction because his heart rate kept dropping so I wasn't aloud to push on my own. :-( .I often wonder how long I would have gone if I was able to push on my own. Possibly another hour or two.

With #1 I had to had to be cut open do to him being breach and with #2 10 hur with #3 I had 8hur labor so with this one I will find out on the 24th when I go in to have my water broke..

Mary38w2dw#4boy
due to have water broke on the 24th some time

About 6 hours for me but I was fully dilated 4 hours into it (i just had to push for 2.5 hours