Contraction duration is defined as

• A. Measured from the beginning to the end of one contraction
• B. The total labor time from onset to delivery
• C. The number of contractions in an hour
• D. The length of the entire pregnancy

Answer: (A)

Contraction duration refers to how long a single contraction lasts. In labor assessment, you’re looking at three aspects of uterine activity: duration (how long one contraction runs from start to end), frequency (how often contractions occur), and intensity (how strong they are). The correct definition is the time from the beginning to the end of one contraction, which is exactly what option states. The other choices describe different things: total labor time from onset to delivery is the overall length of labor, the number of contractions in an hour is frequency, and the length of the entire pregnancy is gestation.