# What percentage of first-time pregnancy's are finished after 45 minutes of labor?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 27, 2007, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860 "2007-11-27T01:21:13Z")\
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**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/1 "2007-11-27T01:21:13Z")

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Suppose a woman is pregnant for the first time, and she lives forty-five minutes away from a hospital. If she goes into labor at the house, what is a forty-five minute drive like? Will she make it to the hospital?

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**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/2 "2007-11-27T01:28:04Z")

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For a first pregnancy? If she’s full term, and if she goes to the hospital immediately upon the commencement of labor, she will spend the next 12 to 36 hours at the hospital in labor.

I can’t recall a primip of mine ever laboring less than 6 hours. But I gave up OB about 17 years ago, after only about 900 deliveries.

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**Author:** ![aktep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@aktep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aktep)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/3 "2007-11-27T01:29:51Z")

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45 minutes should be plenty of time if she’s paying attention to her body and prepared.

> [@http://health.howstuffworks.com/10002-childbirth-signs-and-symptoms-of-labor.htm](#):
>
> Each woman’s labor is different. And even in the same woman, each labor will be different. Some labors start slowly and then speed up unexpectedly, while others start rapidly and then slow down. Some labors are very fast, lasting only a few hours. Some are very long, lasting a day or two. The average length is about 15 to 16 hours for first-time mothers and 7 or 8 hours for women with previous childbirths. How painful the labor is, and how tired you become, also vary greatly. It’s best, then, not to have any specific expectations but to prepare yourself for a wide range of possibilities.

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**Author:** ![vix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a88e4f/32.png) [@vix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vix)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/4 "2007-11-27T01:32:08Z")

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I had a 45 minute drive to the hospital during labor and it was excruciating. But I guess that’s not what you’re asking. The average length of a first labor is something like 12 hours, so no worries.

Ah, as I see Qadgop as already answered.

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**Author:** ![RedRosesForMe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@RedRosesForMe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedRosesForMe)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/5 "2007-11-27T02:24:06Z")

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Wow- 15 or 16 hours for first-time deliveries and 7-8 hours for subsequent deliveries?

Thank Og for these genes (and child-bearing hips)- 4 hours, tops.

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**Author:** ![MissGypsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@MissGypsy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissGypsy)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/6 "2007-11-27T02:41:00Z")

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A friend of mine had a 45-minute labor and delivery with her first, and a 20-minute one with her second baby (had that baby in the ER; the head was coming out as they wheeled her in), but she’s a freakish anomaly. Her 3rd and 4th were several hours.

A 45-minute drive might not be pleasant, but it’s improbable that a first-time mother is going to be pushing the kid out that quickly. I’d say one might want to leave home before the contractions are 2-3 minutes apart, though. 😉

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**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/7 "2007-11-27T02:56:31Z")

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[QUOTE=Christopher]  
Suppose a woman is pregnant for the first time, and she lives forty-five minutes away from a hospital. If she goes into labor at the house, what is a forty-five minute drive like? Will she make it to the hospital?  
[/QUOTE]

She will probably make it to the hospital. But note that, in most cases, the ones who don’t make it to the hospital are the uncomplicated deliveries.

I assume, if she’s got a hospital lined up, she’s under the care of a doctor or midwife. The person who’s going to deliver her baby ought to be aware that she’ll have a long drive. Just kind of a heads-up that maybe she should start a little sooner.

Okay, edited to add, I used to work a block from a hospital (actually, I worked FOR the hospital, but in a nonmedical department) and our parking lot was occasionally confused with the ER parking entrance. One two such occasions babies were delivered, in cars in our parking lot, by, respectively: A lawyer; and a file clerk. (Probably “caught” is a better term than “delivered”). Both babies were born to first-time moms who thought they had five or six hours of labor ahead of them. Surprise!

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**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/8 "2007-11-27T05:46:42Z")

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TV and movies are very misleading, as it suggests that the moment a woman feels pangs, she must race to the hospital. That’s not what happens.

It’s not unheard of for an expectant mom to not get to the hospital “in time” but don’t make the mistake of thinking that, in those cases, the drive time to the hospital and the labor time were equivalent.

Usually a woman in labor waits to go to the hospital, because early labor plods along, and many doctors and birthing centers aren’t that interested in seeing laboring moms until more progress is made. Also, some moms want to labor for as long as possible in a familiar, unintrusive environment.

Sometimes labor does end up progressing faster than expected, and that can result in not making it to the hospital in time, but most people make it with time to spare–and spend plenty of time in labor before even getting in the car to head to the hospital.

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**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/9 "2007-11-27T05:52:32Z")

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I know of two stories where women dropped a kid in the car on their way to the hospital.

One happened recently as a couple was on their way to the hospital and got stuck at a notoriously bad intersection.

The other was one the subject of a story I wrote when I was a newspaper reporter. The woman said the baby just “slipped out” as she sat in the front seat, with no effort on her part. I don’t think either waited long to leave for the hospital.

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**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/10 "2007-11-27T05:56:51Z")

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What they ^^ said. Talk to the midwife and agree on a contractions-time-apart when you’ll call her, but most likely you’re talking 8-10 hours of laboring at home before she’s going to want to see you in the hospital anyway. Just remember that contractions are timed from the start of one to the start of the next. When I delivered my first, I was told to call when they were consistently 4 minutes apart, which was probably 6 hours into labor - although I had no labor pains (until later in the process), I was able to time the contractions by feeling my abdomen get really, really hard. Our hospital was about 25 minutes away, and I delivered about 9 hours after being admitted.

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**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/11 "2007-11-27T08:40:31Z")

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pregnancy’s?

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**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/12 "2007-11-27T12:49:12Z")

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[QUOTE=nyctea scandiaca]  
The other was one the subject of a story I wrote when I was a newspaper reporter. The woman said the baby just “slipped out” as she sat in the front seat, with no effort on her part. I don’t think either waited long to leave for the hospital.  
[/QUOTE]

Yes, it happens. But planning for a delivery like this is generally futile, just because you can never tell if you’ll have one of them. Anecdotally, it seems that your deliveries tend to be like your mother’s, so asking her what her labor times were like might be useful.

For what it’s worth, my friend the OB once told me that he delights in “deliveries” like this - they’re almost always the definition of uncomplicated, and his only role, if he makes it in time, is just to put on his catcher’s mitt and keep the baby off the floor. In other words, if things are going so well that the baby just slips out, it’s unlikely that the mother actually needs assistance at all; at the end of the day, we’re just animals, and 99.9% of them don’t need birth attendants or prior coaching.

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**Author:** ![Solfy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Solfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Solfy)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/13 "2007-11-27T15:24:35Z")

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Consider the huge number of babies born every day in this country. Now think about the cases that you’ve heard of babies delivered in the car, or unintentionally at home. They’re rare enough to make the news. The majority of laboring mothers in this country deliver in hospitals, and just about all of them make it to the hospital. Many people live 45 min away from their hospital, or live in conditions such that traffic makes the drive 45 minutes.

I will agree that I’ve heard time and again that the car trip can be an extremely uncomfortable point in labor. My trips were only 20 minutes, and while not fun, there was no fun at that point. And to add another anecdotal data point, if you count the prolonged latent phase I had with #1 (I do - I don’t care if I was only at 2cms, I was having contractions strong enough to have to breathe through every 5 minutes) it took 54 hrs. (“official” labor was estimated at about 9hrs with #1, and 14hrs with #2)

Freakishly fast labors do happen, and most childbirth classes will cover the basics of what to do if you end up having to catch the baby yourself. It’s not the end of the world (baring a few rare complications like a suprise breech or a cord prolapse). Babies tend to come out no matter what you do.

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**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/14 "2007-11-27T16:14:20Z")

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[QUOTE=Solfy]

Freakishly fast labors do happen, and most childbirth classes will cover the basics of what to do if you end up having to catch the baby yourself. It’s not the end of the world (baring a few rare complications like a suprise breech or a cord prolapse). Babies tend to come out no matter what you do.  
[/QUOTE]

They do indeed.

My nephew was born less than an hour after his mom went into labor.

They did make it to the hospital (at 3 AM and they live fairly close; otherwise this would have been a “morning traffic news” story!).

They did make it up the elevator to the maternity floor.

They did make it out of the elevator.

They did _not_ actually make it to the maternity ward.

I think it was longer than 45 minutes. Like, say, 50 minutes. :eek:

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**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/15 "2007-11-27T16:37:34Z")

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[QUOTE=Qadgop the Mercotan]  
For a first pregnancy? If she’s full term, and if she goes to the hospital immediately upon the commencement of labor, she will spend the next 12 to 36 hours at the hospital in labor.

I can’t recall a primip of mine ever laboring less than 6 hours. But I gave up OB about 17 years ago, after only about 900 deliveries.  
[/QUOTE]

She will?

Personal anecdote != data and all that, but this was my wifes schedule in giving birth to our only child:

6:30 - check into hospital  
7:00 - go through mild “check up” (heart rate, BP, etc)  
7:30 - given medicine to induce labor  
8:00 - labor pains start to hit  
9:00 - given epidural  
1:00 - dialated whatever centimeters - doctor called  
1:28 - baby!

We seemed to avoided a lot of crapola in doing this - no 12 hour labors, no baby being born in the middle of the night, nothing like the horror stories that we were told were almost certain to happen.

Fortunately, we avoided this in regards to the baby as well - she’s been totally awesome and a relative breeze to raise over the past 6 years. :love:

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**Author:** ![Solfy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Solfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Solfy)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/16 "2007-11-27T17:46:09Z")

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[QUOTE=JohnT]  
She will?

Personal anecdote != data and all that, but this was my wifes schedule in giving birth to our only child:

6:30 - check into hospital  
7:00 - go through mild “check up” (heart rate, BP, etc)  
**7:30 - given medicine to induce labor**  
8:00 - labor pains start to hit  
9:00 - given epidural  
1:00 - dialated whatever centimeters - doctor called  
1:28 - baby!

We seemed to avoided a lot of crapola in doing this - no 12 hour labors, no baby being born in the middle of the night, nothing like the horror stories that we were told were almost certain to happen.

Fortunately, we avoided this in regards to the baby as well - she’s been totally awesome and a relative breeze to raise over the past 6 years. :love:  
[/QUOTE]

(bolding mine) I’m glad you and your wife had a smooth experience. The bolded portion, however, is what likely made things happen more quickly.  
For every smoothly induced labor story I’ve heard ones that are more like: They inserted a cervix ripening agent and let the mother sleep overnight. The following morning pitocin was started. The pitocin amounts were increased. The mother had an epidural. Eight hours later a c-section was performed for fetal distress / failure to dilate / failure for baby to descend.

I’m not saying induction is bad. I’m saying it’s not predictable. People want to control things. They want predictability. They want exact numbers. Human bodies (and the expulsion thereof) are not an exact science.

Diagnostic criteria for average dilation is 1.2cm/hr for a first labor and 1.5cm/hr for subsequent babies. Time to reach 10 cm is 12hrs, active labor considered 4cm onward, making the typical first time active labor roughly 8hrs. This assumes one’s body has read all the medical textbooks and is behaving in a properly average manner.

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**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/17 "2007-11-27T17:57:47Z")

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So what I am understanding, is that if the baby is going to slip out onto the floor matt or back of the car in 45 minutes, the pregnancy is perfectly normal and it won’t matter that the doctor wasn’t there. That is nice to know, because we like this house, but its further from the city than we would like.

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**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/18 "2007-11-27T18:46:24Z")

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[QUOTE=JohnT]  
7:30 - given medicine to induce labor  
[/QUOTE]

Well sure, use pitocin with/without prostaglandins and it’s a different playing field. That could turn an 8 hour labor into a 3 hour one, or cause it to end up as an urgent c-section due to fetal distress, or just have the induction called after 24 hours due to lack of progress.

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**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/19 "2007-11-27T19:14:40Z")

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May I point out that while a \<45 minute first labour and a pre-hospital delivery usually means things are OK and sounds fabulous in theory, OB/Gyn docs are not fans of this scenario.

1. The quick labour could be because the cervix is incompetent and the woman is at greater risk of pre-term labour or late miscarriage in furture pregnancies.

2. The risk of having severe bleeding after the delivery and/or retained placenta is higher if the labour was so quick. If the baby is delivered en route or at home the drugs to help the womb contract and the placenta separate won’t be given. Postpartum haemorrhage isn’t described in the textbooks as “torrential” for nothing.

3. There is a higher risk of cervical trauma with a very quick labour.

4. If baby wasn’t fully engaged in the pelvis prior to the onset of labour the head won’t really have had a chance to fully mould during labour…a squished head can mean a shocked infant. Baby can look pale and have diffiiculty breathing because it wasn’t really prepared to come out so fast!

5. Very quick labour can also be a sign of extrememly strong uterine contractions, which could have put you at higher risk of uterine rupture.

Where I work we have a code “BBA”- born before arrival. There is about one a month and we deliver 3500 babies a year. I work in a hospital where some of our patients live 25 miles away (and this is 25 miles on rural Irish roads, not on American 6-lane freeways), most people are 20minutes drive from the hospital at least. That kind of quick labour is really not as common as you might think.

We tell anyone to come in if they think their waters have gone OR they are having regular contractions more than one in ten minutes. If you have a history of quick labours or a previous BBA, you get told to come in as soon as you think you might be in labour or your waters go.

If I’m admitting Prims for induction I tell them they’ll get a prostin gel at dinner time, one at 6 am and they’ll be examined at 10am. If we can break their water at 10am we will, if we can’t, they’ll get another gel and another 4 hour wait. I say not to expect the baby before dinnertime of the day after the first gel…I’m rarely wrong. Multips only get the 6am gel, and a 10am one if nothing is happening and they usually deliver before dinner of the same day.

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**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2007, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-first-time-pregnancys-are-finished-after-45-minutes-of-labor/427860/20 "2007-11-27T19:19:52Z")

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**Solfy** - I was taught 1 cm/hr prim, 2cm/hr multip.  
Still, doesn’t mean you won’t sit at 5 cm for 3 hours and then go to fully in 15 minutes…

Then, of course, once you’re fully you can have 30-60mins of pushing before the baby appears (or 60minutes of resting and then 60mins of pushing if you have an epidural).

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