Labor pains are divided into _true_ and _false_, and this distinction is entirely based upon their different sources. True labor pains are due to the contractions of the muscles of the uterus, and at the beginning they are slight. They commence in the back and run on down to the thighs; one feature about them is that they are intermittent, that is, that they are not continuous; there is always an interval, especially at the beginning of labor, in which there is no pain at all. When labor sets in, the pains are grinding or cutting, but as soon as the mouth of the uterus is fairly opened or dilated, the character of the pain changes to a bearing down or forcing out nature. If the hand is applied over the region of the womb, during the presence of a pain, the organ can be felt hardened and swollen; this subsides with the pain, and in the interval, the organ relaxes. This is a wise provision of nature, for it gives the woman an opportunity to recover and regain fresh strength for each succeeding effort. False labor pain has no connection with the process of child-bearing, but is only an incidental complication. It may be caused by gas in the intestines, indigestion, diarrhea, constipation, disease of the kidney, neuralgia, or rheumatism of the muscles of the abdomen or bowels, and by the passage of gallstones; where the false pains have been traced to their origin they can be properly dealt with. A muco-sanguineous discharge from the vagina is another sign that labor has begun, but it will sometimes happen that it is absent, and this constitutes a _dry labor_. The mucous discharge which is thus observed, subserves a very important object in lubricating the parts and relaxing the neck of the womb and the vagina. There is often a slight tinge of blood, due, perhaps, to a rupture of small blood vessels in the mouth of the womb; this is called a show, which some women have for several days before labor commences. “Stages of labor” are arbitrary divisions, so as to simplify the explanation of the entire process of labor from the time the womb begins to act, up to the last act of parturition, which is the expulsion of the afterbirth, and these have usually been divided into three stages. The first stage is the dilation or opening of the mouth of the womb, including also the breaking of the membraneous sac which holds the fluid in which the child floats, so as to protect it from pressure that the walls of the uterus would be continually exercising, which would prevent its proper development. In this stage the woman should not exert herself by bearing down; this will only waste her strength which she should preserve for the second stage, when the mouth of the womb has opened and the progress of the child into the world has commenced; during this stage, the female should make an attempt to relieve her bladder, and if she has had no stool for several hours before, it will be a good thing to use an enema of warm water, and empty the bowels.