The nurse will communicate with your doctor or midwife. Active labor begins once you are dilated to 6cm. You may be sent home if you are less than 6cm and you and your baby are healthy.
During the active stage of labor, your cervix dilates from around 6 cm to the full 10 cm. (The last part of active labor, when the cervix dilates fully from 8 to 10 cm, is called transition.) This process takes about 5 to 7 hours if you're a first-time mom, or between 2 and 4 hours if you've had a baby before.
If you're more than 4 cm dilated: You'll be admitted to the hospital to continue your labor and delivery.
Generally, doctors are looking to admit individuals who have dilated to 3-4cm with consistent contractions that are five minutes apart and about a minute long. However, there are other reasons why someone who does not meet those parameters to be admitted.
If you are less than 4 cm dilated and your labor isn't active enough for hospital admission, you might be sent home. Don't be discouraged. It is very common to mistake the signs of early labor for active labor.
The active phase
Your cervix is also dilated around 4 to 7 centimeters. Someone who has never given birth before may be in active labor for around three to six hours; a person who's done it before might take one to three hours.
Active labor usually lasts about 4 to 8 hours. It starts when your contractions are regular and your cervix has dilated to 6 centimeters.
During active labor, your cervix will dilate from 6 centimeters (cm) to 10 cm. Your contractions will become stronger, closer together and regular. Your legs might cramp, and you might feel nauseated. You might feel your water break — if it hasn't already — and experience increasing pressure in your back.
As long as your cervix dilates, you will lose your mucus plug. However, every mucus plug is different, just like every person is different. You may not always realize it has come out. Sometimes women lose their mucus plug more gradually, rather than in one or several clumps.
Your baby when you're 12 weeks pregnant. Here's what's happening with your baby: Your baby is about 6 cm long from head to bottom and weighs about 18 gm.
How can people speed up dilation? Medical interventions can speed up labor, but there are other ways to encourage dilation. They include moving around, rocking on an exercise ball, using relaxation techniques, and laughing. Dilation is a term that describes the widening of the cervical opening.
Your baby. Your baby is about 6cm long — about the size of a plum – and weighs about 18g.
Doctors have to wait until the cervix is at least 4 centimeters dilated before doing an epidural. Otherwise, the epidural will slow the process down too much. However, once the cervix becomes fully dilated it is too late for an epidural to be given.
The second, pushing phase of labor continues after the cervix is fully dilated (open) to 10 cm until the delivery of your baby. It averages 4 to 8 hours but can be as short as several minutes.
Once things start heating up and labor is officially underway, you'll begin to notice more signs of dilation. You won't be able to feel the cervix opening, explains Denae Ellson, CNM, a certified nurse midwife in Edina, Minnesota, but what you will feel are the uterine contractions that work to stretch the cervix open.
Throughout the active phase, the cervix becomes fully dilated to 10 centimeters and the baby's head descends into the pelvis. Unfortunately, labor gets more and more painful as the cervix nears complete dilation.
Early Labor: The onset of labor until the cervix is dilated to 3-6 centimeters. Active Labor Phase: Continues from 3 cm until the cervix is dilated to 7 centimeters. Transition Phase – Continues from 7 cm until the cervix is fully dilated to 10 centimeters.
Women may feel a small pressure from cervical dilation and effacement, says Brichter. However, cervix dilation pain is extremely rare.
Active labor is when contractions start to be more pronounced and painful. Delivering the baby is imminent at this time, and dilation of the cervix is usually at least 6 cm. In addition to cervical dilation, symptoms of active labor include: contractions that occur every 5 minutes or less.
Our general rule is to sleep as long as possible if you're starting to feel contractions at night. Most of the time you can lay down and rest during early labor. If you wake up in the middle of the night and notice contractions, get up and use the bathroom, drink some water, and GO BACK TO BED.
Transition typically lasts 30 minutes to 2 hours as your cervix fully dilates from 8 cm to 10 cm. Contractions will last roughly 60-90 seconds with only 30 seconds to 2 minutes between.
In figure C, the cervix is 60% effaced and 1 to 2 cm dilated. In figure D, the cervix is 90% effaced and 4 to 5 cm dilated. The cervix must be 100% effaced and 10 cm dilated before a vaginal delivery.
Toward the end of the first stage of labour, your cervix will be about 7cm to 8cm dilated. A lot of women find this the hardest, most painful part of giving birth and you might feel like you are out of control. If this happens to you, don't worry: it's totally normal.