Are genetics a decent gauge on my labor future? (Also fertility Q and intro)

Rachallkins

Sorry If I missed a post where this was addressed:

My mother went into labor 5 days overdue with me, her water broke on that 5th day, and her contractions stopped.  She went to the hospital where she labored for another 2 days until I was born (vaginally and with an epi).  

My sister (her 2nd) was 1 week early, but the story was the same with her contractions stopping after her water broke. I believe her labor was much shorter the 2nd time around as well (less than 1 day for sure).

I wanted to know if it is common for your labor to be similar to your mothers?  I do know all women and labors are different, just seeing if anyone experienced something similar to their mother's births.  

She also had to have multiple attempts at IVF to get PG in the first place with both of us.  She told me her body was releasing the egg before the uterus was ready (or something along those lines).  Is there any chance I'll have the same issue?  I have pretty regular periods and just started charting BBT last month as my means of BC. I seem to be following a very normal looking chart pattern.  Would the chart indicate if I have an issue like this?

Sorry for the multiple questions, and here is an intro (as this is my first post):

I'm Rachel from Ohio and my fiance and I want to begin TTC in 2015 (after we tie the knot).  I am very into planning and being prepared (as you can see).  I had my IUD removed a bit over a month ago in an attempt to have my body balance itself out and be totally ready to make some offspring when we want to start trying.  I REALLY want to have a natural birth and reading all of the posts here over the past few weeks has only reassured my plan!   Fiance sees having children as a medical procedure and would prefer that the day I find out I'm pregnant I schedule my C/S for 9 months from that day... I, on the other hand, see it as a natural bodily process that we are designed to accomplish.  To make the both of us happy I am determined to have a NB in a hospital, he supports me on this.  

This board has been so helpful! I'm so glad I found it!

aylafsu88

IMO I do not think genetics have much to do with your actual labor and delivery. When your water breaks, labor starts, how your contractions pattern, how fast labor goes depends on a variety of different things. The biggest thing is babies position (OA vs OP) and how relaxed/tense you are in the process. I do not think that you can find any specific genetic factors that could attribute to those things. It is all unique to that pregnancy and that baby.
I know that many FTMs go to 41 weeks. I was expecting to go that long but went into labor at 39w4d. My LO was ready and my body was ready for labor so I did not follow the normal pattern.

headgear03

I agree with the pp. In my experince genectics never played a roll in my labors and deliveries. Its very common for ftms to go to 41+ . I went to 42 weeks( natural no induction ) with my first . My mom had a c section with me and both of my Grandmothers deliveries were three hours or less and both were born two weeks early . My first labor was 10 1/2 hours , second ( born at 41 weeks 3 days) 4 hours of labor , third ( born at 36 weeks 5 days) 29 hours of labor , and fourth ( born at 40 weeks 3 days) was 4 1/2 hours of labor. Each labor was totally different each was all natural . Its really up to your body how things will go and if your labor does end up like your moms i think its more then likely coencidence . Now as far as your second question charting should be able to tell you if your ovulating too soon . I had this issue when we were trying for our third . Took me six cycles to get pregnant ware my others were first tries .

MommyAtty

I think genetics has a ton to do with all these issues. Women in my mom's family tend to get pregnant easily, have no-fuss pregnancies, and end with quick and easy labors and deliveries. We also tend to have fairly small babies. The only time we have major issues in my maternal family, frankly, is when someone gets an epidural. Then it seems like all heck breaks loose. I base this on my great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, three aunts, and fourteen older female cousins. Not one of us had natural childbirth last more than 6 hours, went beyond our due date, or had a baby over 7.5 lbs (and most were closer to 6 lbs).

MrsP7309

My midwife said that labor/delivery wasn't normally genetic. I had a 50/50 outcome: like my mother, who went into labor before her due date with all four of her children, I delivered DD at 39 weeks, 3 days. However, all my mom's labors were over 18 hours. Mine was under 6.

FrodaBaggins

My mom keeps telling me that I am "getting my hopes up" for wanting a med-free, natural vaginal birth. She had 4 C-sections, my aunt had 3, and my maternal grandma had 2. HOWEVER I am built totally different from my Mom's side of the family. I got more of my dad's side of genes. On my mom's side everyone is very slender and petite. I, on the other hand, am average height but still a good 5-6 inches taller and I am definitely not very slender, more average. I am really hoping this will mean I can have the birth I want and avoid a c-section if there aren't any other complications. 

cecilyandgautam

I was hoping so, as my pregnancy symptoms were very similar to my mother's and it's comforting to think you have a sense of how it all will go, but in my experience, no - how your mother labored isn't a glimpse into how you'll labor. Sometimes, nutritional deficiencies run in the family, so if that manifests itself as a labor symptom, then maybe you'll have some overlap in experience but that's probably more about shared diet habits rather than genetics. 

If most of the women in your family had their water break well before labor started, then you may want to load up on vitamin C (1200 md/day is what my provider is recommending) because vit C helps strengthen the cell walls and strengthens the water sack. So that's really the only thing you can do to try to prevent an early rupture, as far as I'm aware. 

PepperBug

Mine were similar to my mom's, but that could just be coincidence. We both had long first labors (although mine was induced) and very short second labors (I was born one minute after my parents arrived at the hospital and my daughter was born in triage minutes after we arrived too).

oliversmommy32912

For me there seemed to be. Not with my mother, though, with my grandmothers. My mom had a placental abruption before labor began and an emergency section with me. She then had two planned repeat c sections so I have no idea how she would have labored. My grandmothers on both sides had first labors under five hours. My first was 4 1/2. So for me, there does seem to be a correlation. It's probably just a coincidence, since there seems to be many experiences here that suggest otherwise.

barista411

From my experience my labors were very different from my mom's. My brother was 6 weeks premature. My little brother and I were born at 42 weeks. My older brother was a natural vaginal birth. My little brother and I were 24 hrs of labor, diagnosed as failure to progress and delivered via C-Section.

With mine, my first was 15 hrs labor, born vaginally, the day before her EDD. With my second it was 7 hrs labor, born vaginally, born on EDD.

I agree that a lot depends on the baby's position and the mother mental state during labor.

amandaleigh1

I think genetics come into play with the length of gestations. My mom, me and my sisters all went well beyond our due dates. I ended up being so late I was ultimately induced. As for fertility issues, some could be inherited. I had IVF due to endometriosis and that is known to be genetic. Hopefully you won't need any interventions to get pregnant or to give birth. Good l

organicmom7

I would also say for the most part, no. My mom has had 9 babies and I have had 6. My mom's labors were consistently around the same duration (about 5 hours), mine were all over the place from 12 hours to my last being only 1 1/2 hours! Most all of mom's were born early, I myself was born 3 weeks early and I was the first born, mine were both late (one very late 42 weeks and 1 day) and early. My mom also had way smaller babies than I did... my babies were huge and I only wished I could have had the little 6 or 7 lb babies that my mom consistently had. All of my babies were over 8lbs and half of them were over 9lbs. I would say the only similarity to me and my mom's births are that we both have premature rupture of the membranes before going into labor. However, unlike my mom who goes into labor right away after, I have a very delayed start to my labors. With all of that being said, I will say that I do have sisters who's labors tend to be very similar to our mom's so maybe it's more which side of the family you are genetically closer to....I favor my Dad's side. However, in talking with Aunt's etc. on my Dad's side, I do not seem to have many similarities to theirs either. Their babies were also small compared to mine. I guess I'm just a freak of nature! LOL!