Dilation to Delivery

Factual Questions
1

On Friday night, my pregnant SIL started having contractions three minutes apart . She hadn’t started dilating yet, so the doctor sent her home. Saturday afternoon, she still wasn’t dilated. It’s nearing midnight on Monday night, and still nothing. My mother told me that ten days passed from the time she started dilating to the actual delivery of my brother and my wonderful self. So my questions are as follows:

  1. What is the typical length of time between the onset of contractions and delivery? From dilation to delivery?

  2. What’s the holdup?
    As a side note, I read the thread about pregnancy and the mother’s organs being squished up into her rib cage. I want to hide under the bed now.

2

Relax… Sounds like a first birth. Children come when it’s time and they have their own time.

If it was a concern, the doctor would have checked her in.

Imagine all the many, many, millions of babies that predated this one and know that all is well.

From a dad that birthed all of his boys at home. And I might just remind them of it too!

3

Yes, bare, this is a first birth for her. But I’m not concerned, I just wonder why it takes so ding-dang long. Any particular reason or advantage it provides?

Thanks for the reassurance anyway, it’s appreciated. :slight_smile: I just wanna be an aunt, darn it!

4

There are women who go from first contraction to squawling newborn in less than a cab ride from home to hospital.

There are other who take days going about it.

Both can be correct, right, and proper. It’s an organic process, it doesn’t follow a ridgid timetable. There no “advantage” or “purpose” to fast vs. slow, it just happens that way.

5

my medical textbook says that 1st stage (contactions til full dilation) can be from 10 minutes til 24hrs plus.

which is nice and specific.

i guess if baby’s not distressed and there isn’t a reason for the delay, then it’s all good, unless she’s in a lot of pain or very tired.

6

I didn’t dilate for ages with my first, like over 24 hours. And a friend of mine took days to dilate.

Often, early labor pains can start days or even a week before the delivery.

It’s hard to be patient with false alarms, but it’s normal!

And to answer your specific question, no-one knows why it is a long or short process. That’s why medicine is called a “practice!”

:wink:

7

Then there is the opposite situation, I started dilating slowly over a couple of months with my son. I was dilated to 1 cm well over two months before my due date, and slowly progressed to 3 cm until I finally went into true delivery. I wasn’t given bedrest or anything, they said it was normal and no big deal.

So, unfortunately, there is no real answer to your question. What I can tell you what my doctor told me. Truly productive labor - labor that actually dilates the cervix significantly - is “huffy puffy”. You can’t talk or walk during those contractions. Even if they are 3 minutes apart, if she is walking around and talking and not doubling over with them, nothing is going to change in the dilation department.

8

Dilation can happen well before real labor hits, as has been said above.

Your doctor, chrisk72, is generally right BUT – when having me, my mom called her doc because she was having “funny feelings”, and he said to go ahead and go to the hospital if she wanted to. When she got there, she was at EIGHT! She was walking and talking during virtually all of those contractions.

Some women are better at labor than others, I guess. :slight_smile:

9

Thanks for the info, everyone. I guess you can’t hold Mother Nature to a schedule.

Referring to the women who give birth quickly, my mother told me today that my aunt gave birth to my cousin (2nd pregnancy) 30 minutes after her first contraction.

As for my SIL, still nothing. If this keeps up, I’m donning a wetsuit and going in after the kid myself! :wink: