Like many mothers-to-be, when Jennifer Dannin of Natick, Mass., was pregnant with her first child, she had read books about labor, took the birthing class and felt fairly confident she understood how it was going to happen. Her labor would be a lengthy process with fits and starts, timing of contractions, periods of rest and ultimately, after many hours, a baby.

Her reality was something entirely different.

After her water broke in the early morning, Dannin and her husband, Steven, spent several hours waiting for the contractions to start, even being sent home from the hospital to walk around the block a few times. When she finally was admitted in the early afternoon, Dannin was only 2 centimeters dilated. But suddenly the contractions intensified, and within 25 minutes she was 10 centimeters dilated and ready to push. Her daughter, Sarah, was born moments later.

Dannin experienced what physicians refer to as precipitous labor, which is defined as moving through active labor in less than three hours' time.

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