07/20/2026
Posted • Elizabeth Can it be “normal” to be in an active labor pattern at 4cm? Yes….but not everyone is in active labour at 4cm. Dilation is one piece of the whole picture.
Can it also be “normal” to not be in active labour until 5cm or even 6cm? Also yes.
For more than 60 years, the Friedman labor curve defined active labor as reaching 4cm dilated. This curve was created using a limited patient population (both in size and race), and has not held true to our labors today. New research from Zhang et al. and the Consortium for Safe Labors created a new curve in 2010 that found that active labor should be redefined as starting at 6cm. When diagnosing active labor at 4cm, we can set people up for increase latent (early) labor hospital admissions, interventions to augment (or speed up) labor and an increase the rate of cesarean birth for “failure to progress” or, more appropriately, “arrest of dilation.”
So what can we do during this possible late latent labor phase?
✨Focus on comfort and coping strategies
✨Optimize fetal positioning through strategic position changes (I love Spinning Babies and Ann Marie Gilligan, RN )
✨Eat and drink as feels good to you
✨Rest as you are able
Latent or early labor has the potential to be long process. Your body is first working to bring baby lower in the pelvis, move your cervix forward, soften your cervix, and thin your cervix all before opening can truly begin. Early doesn’t mean you aren’t still working hard with your baby to bring them safely earthside.
What things did you do in early labor/plan on doing? How dilated were you when you arrived to your preferred birthing location?
