Quotes: Work, Labor

1. Productive activity, esp. for the sake of economic gain.
2. The body of persons engaged in such activity; especially, those working for wages.
3. A body of people considered as a class (distinguished from management and capital).
4. Physical or mental work; especially, of a hard or fatiguing kind; toil.
5. A job or task done or to be done.
6. The physical effort and periodic uterine contractions during childbirth.
7. The interval from the onset of birth contractions to actual childbirth.
8. The process which, by the utilization of uterine musculature contractions as a force, results in the delivery of the products of conception of a pregnancy from the uterus and through the vaginal outlet.

Customerly, "birth labor" is divided into three stages:

1. From onset of purposeful uterine contractions until full dilation of the cervix.
2. From full cervical dilation until vaginal delivery of the fetus.
3. From delivery of the fetus through delivery of the placenta.

1. Exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something; labor; toil.
2. Something on which exertion or labor is expended; a task or undertaking.
3. Productive or operative activity.
4. Employment, as in some form of industry; especially, as a means of earning one's livelihood: "He was looking for work."