Is There a Third Stage?

So technically speaking, there are three stages of labor. The first stage is sort of what we consider anything. You're contracting painfully, whether it's naturally or because we've given you something to make you contract. Then once you reach that full dilation, that ten centimeter stage begins what we call the second stage. And then there's the third stage, which is essentially the time after delivery of the baby until the plasent is delivered.