You want the activity of giving birth to progress

Women are ok with laboring for hours but not days.

• Labor shorter than 3 hours is often overwhelmingly intense and the woman doesn't know it will be over soon. She just thinks "This is what it's going to be like forever". 
• A labor longer than 24 hours is just plain exhausting. The woman and baby get tired and 'risks' increase.
• Labor that lasts from 24-72 hours is actually not progressing labor but a woman who is having a 'pre-labor' experience which is often hard to distinguish from 'being in labor'.

When Birthing Better skills were developing there was a 4.5% Cesarean rate in the US. Natural birth advocates go back to those statistics and say: 'See women can labor and give birth vaginally without medical interventions or Caesareans'. Just because 95% of women in the 1970s labored and gave birth vaginally does not mean they coped well and didn't suffer. Nor does it mean there was always a good outcome. Nor does it mean birth was prompt. What it means is whatever happens in labor and delivery is 'normal' and 'natural'  which translate into. anything that might happen can happen.

No woman wants to labor for days nor feel out of control. Birthing Better families figured out how to keep our labors progressing. See Prepare Your Pregnant Body.

There are 3 PDFs in this lesson:

• Progression of labor - progressing labor has these characteristics: contractions get longer, stronger and more intense every hour or two. You want to recognize how your labor is progressing and how to keep it progressing.
• 5 Phases and Bell-Shaped Curve - every contraction has 5 phases: starts, gets more intense, sensations peak, sensations lessen, contraction ends (with space in between). A progressing labor contraction has a defined peak. Non-progressing labor contractions either don't change over a reasonable amount of time and/or flatten off instead of peaking
• Body Positions and Postures - your body is always in some position and/or posture. Your baby is always adjusting to that.

Presently, women are being told to 'move around frequently or change positions regularly'.

There is an Mp4 video

•  Position your birthing body ... You'll be able to visually see how your posture or position impacts your baby. You want to choose positions your baby likes. Your baby will tell you.

An Mp3

• Reading your baby's messages - when you have a progressive labor contraction your baby is telling you that there is no internal tension, you are not compressing its space to move down and out and you're not bending your body in a way that the baby doesn't like.