✨What are the Stages of Labor?🤰

Did you know labor has four stages and is more than just giving birth? Here’s a breakdown of each stage and what you can expect!

Stage 1: Latent Labor

Contractions during early labor will feel mild, like deep menstrual cramps, and will be irregular. Early labor helps soften, shorten, and thin your cervix. It can start a few days or a few hours before birth.

Stage 2: Active Labor

During active labor, your contractions become more frequent, regular, and painful. You are considered to be in active labor when your cervix has dilated to 6 cm. This will last up until your dilated to 10 cm.

Stage 3: Pushing Stage / Birth

This stage can last a few minutes or many hours (up to 4 or more if the baby is making progress through the birth canal). Your doctor will help you and let you know when to push. Or sometimes your body just takes over, trust your body, it knows what to do!

Stage 4: Placenta Delivery

The placenta generally delivers within 30 minutes of giving birth. Once again, your doctor will help you through this.

I personally had no idea about the delivery of the placenta until I was pushing it out 😂

The best stage was none of these! But getting to meet my twin babies afterwords was priceless! But don’t worry, you really forget about the pain within hours of giving birth!

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