7 questions to help you know for sure.

“For those of you with visions of either giving birth in your car or making repeated “false alarm” trips to the hospital or birth center, this checklist is for you.

To begin with, forget about TV portrayals of labor, where pregnant women suddenly look startled, clutch their bellies, and gasp, “This is it!”

You’ll have time to figure things out. The average labor lasts nine hours in first-time mothers and six-and-a-half in women laboring again — and that’s from the onset of regular, painful contractions, occurring five to three minutes apart. Most women have several, if not many, additional hours from the time the first vague twinges begin and this pattern setting in.”

My first labor resulted in four trips to the hospital before the birth. Two in the days before Shelly was born, and two on the day she was actually born. Fourth time was the charm and we stayed for the birth. Although I wish after the third trip I had just stayed home and given birth in my bath tub, as I instinctively wanted to do at that point in my labor.
Live and Learn.