You asked a really good question, you want to know if there is anything you can do to possibly hasten labor when it comes time to deliver your baby. A lot of women think they're in labor for as long as they're contracting and hurting. I've heard women say, "I was in labor for five days!" They were sad because they got sent home from the hospital two to three times during that five day period and they're wondering why we sent them home when they were in labor. The fact of the matter is we would never send home a woman if she was in labor. The reason why some people go home in spite of contracting and hurting is that they're not really in labor yet. That leaves people wondering, what is the true definition of labor if it's not just contracting. The true definition is cervical change, meaning that hour upon hour your cervix is dilating and opening so that the baby can come through and be born. Really you're only in labor the hours leading up to the delivery of your baby. Your body leading up to delivery in the days and weeks prior will start to do some prep work. Your body starts to release hormones called prostaglandins that act on the cervix and start to thin it out and move it forward and soften it, it actually gets softer in consistency. Then once your brain decides to release oxytocin, that's a hormone that causes your uterus to contract, then your body will usually respond after you've had regular and intense contractions dilating or opening up. We can't ever really predict when this is going to happen, nature just kind of follows its course. The actually length of labor depends on what baby it is for you. On your first baby it's going to be really long. On average most first time moms are in labor for 12-18 hours. Remember, she may have been contracting a lot longer than that, those are just the hours leading up to delivery when her cervix is actively changing hour by hour. It takes so long because your body is stubborn the first time. Once you decide that you're actually going to be in labor your cervix changes more slowly. Once you actually get to be 10 centimeters you've got to push your baby out. All the muscles in your pelvic floor are like a basket weave of elastic. Just imagine a bowling ball sitting on top of that basket weave of elastic. It's going to have to apply a lot of good, constant, hard, steady pressure in order to stretch them out enough so the bowling ball can come through. That's exactly what is happening with your pelvic floor and the baby's head. There has to be a lot of good, hard, steady pressure for usually one to two hours and then all the tissues have stretched enough and the baby has come through the pelvis enough that it can be born. The second time around it goes much faster. Your body starts contracting once it's been prepped and ready and it's like, oh I've done this before, and things pick up and go more quickly. Usually your second, third, fourth labors are at least half the length of your first. If your first is extra fast, faster than the norm, then watch out on your second. Unfortunately there's not anything you can do to hasten delivery or to speed up the process of labor. It just kind of is what it is, there's nothing you can do ahead of time for that. When you are in that situation, if you stall out and your cervix stops changing then there are things the doctors and nurses will do. For example, the doctor will come and break your water, he may tell the nurses to start pitocin or oxytocin which makes you have stronger and more regular contractions. All of these things help your cervix change more quickly. Sometimes things have to be done in that moment to help you progress but there is nothing you can do ahead of time. We want to have control over things but unfortunately labor length is just not one of those things we can control. If you have more specific questions about your situation and want to know more of what to expect for your labor, don't hesitate to talk with your OB provider because they know more about your situation and can give you the best advice. If you have more questions for me in the future, please feel free to ask them on our Facebook page at / intermountainmoms and recommend us to your friends and family too.