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.
Most likely what will happen when you go into labor is that you will begin to feel contractions. With some women the water breaks, and then they begin to have contractions. In the first stage of labor, the cervix will dilate from closed, which is its normal state, to fully open at 10 cm in diameter. In mothers having their first child, this stage usually lasts 12 to 16 hours.