Labor Stages Two and Three: After a lot of work, prepare for joy

Second Stage: Pushing the baby out

Before you enter the second stage, which is when your baby will be born, you will experience transition. Although the end of labor is nearing, the contractions will be hard and sharp. They last about 1 to 2 minutes and come from 1 to 3 minutes apart. You may feel confused, sad, happy, cold, nauseated and mad at your labor partner. Transition could last as little as 15 minutes or as long as two hours or even longer.

Towards the end of your labor, you will feel the urge to push. You need to tell your doctor about this urge so that your cervix can be checked to be sure that you are fully dilated. If you push too early, you may bruise your cervix and exhaust yourself.

If you are in an all-in-one labor and birth room or birthing suite, the staff will help you get in a birth position. In other hospitals, women move from a labor room to a birth room at this point.

Sometimes a few good pushes will birth the baby. Other times it takes several hours to push the baby out. When the baby’s head shows at the opening of your vagina (called crowning) you may have a burning or stinging feeling.

After the head emerges, your baby turns and one tiny shoulder will emerge, followed by the other. After the shoulders are born, the rest of your baby will quickly follow.

Third Stage: You're almost done

Finally your baby is here! Relief and joy are likely to well up in you as you hold your newborn for the first time. Maybe you'd like to, but you can't quit now. There's one more stage to complete to help your uterus clean itself out and start down the road to recovery. Sometimes this third stage takes women by surprise. What's happening is that still more contractions - often milder than those during the other two stages of labor - move the placenta and the empty amniotic sac, also known as the afterbirth, down the birth canal. A push or two will expel them. The third stage lasts anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour. Gentle uterine massage can also help with this.

Often times, women experience mild contractions for a few days after giving birth. These pains are a reminder that your uterus is contracting back to a smaller size. Though not as bad as labor contractions, they can still be quite painful. However, if these pains continue for more than a few days or are more than you can bear, call your doctor.

Date last reviewed: October 2002.

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