Also, visit a healthcare professional about your period if: 1  You havenât gotten your first period by age 15. 2  You donât menstruate for more than 90 days. 3  Your periods start to be very irregular after having previously been regular. 4  Your period lasts for more than seven days. 5  Your menstrual flow is more heavy than usual.
What's going on: Your baby is moving down the birth canal. Contractions continue to be strong, lasting for about 60 seconds and coming 3 to 5 minutes apart. You will likely feel a strong urge to push. How long it lasts: 1 to 2 hours for a first labor; 15 to 30 minutes for subsequent labors. If your baby is in distress at this point, or if she doesn't seem to be making her way through the birth canal, your doctor may decide to deliver her by c-section or use forceps to help her out.
Once your cervix has dilated to 10cm, it could take you an hour or two hours of pushing before your baby is born. If you've had a baby before, your labour will probably be far quicker this time around. Active labour is likely to take about five hours, and is unlikely to last more than 12 hours. It may take up to an hour to push your baby out, but often only takes five minutes or 10 minutes. Your midwife will write down the length of your labour in your birth notes. This will probably refer to how long it took for your cervix to open from about 4cm to 10cm (4in). At 10cm, you are fully dilated and are ready to start pushing your baby out.