Hi Ladies!
I'm expecting Baby #3 in December, and am planning my first drug/intervention free birth. (I was induced due to pre-e with #1, and heavily pushed for a last minute epi with #2.). Anyway, I've got a new OB and am delivering at a new hospital, both of which are very supportive of natural birth. My only concern is this--when I shared my birth plan with the OB, he made a comment about how they'll have to do something to make the placenta come out, otherwise it would just sit there. My birth plan says something to the effect of: "Mother will breastfeed immediately to encourage birth of the placenta; please no pitocin, uterine massage, or pulling of the cord."
So, what gives? Obviously, it will eventually come out, but how long does that typically take without intervention? I think I pushed it out within maybe a minute of my past births, but that was with pitocin. I guess I don't want an audience for any great length of time after LO is born, but I'd love to do it all without intervention.
If you had a natural birth, how long after the baby did the placenta follow??
Re: How long does it take to deliver the placenta?
DD's placenta came out so fast that it surprised my MW.
We wanted delayed cord clamping. The blood left the cord and went into DD super fast so right away MW and DH cut the cord. Then DD was doing skin to skin with me when MW saw the placenta was coming, I passed DD to DH who did skin to skin with her. Then MW delivered the placenta. I bled a little so she had to massage my ute to get it to calm down. DD was rooting on DH so he passed her off to me. DD latched on and nursed right afterward.
All in all the above process took less than 30 minutes. My MW was concerned when I bled a bit but it was over quickly and all.
ETA: my midwife did have pitocin on hand in case she needed to give it to me for bleeding but it was her professional call to do the massage first and it worked.
Maybe bring it up at your next appointment?
B born 7/15/13, C born 3/2/15, #3 on the way May '17
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I will definitely have to ask him next week. I'm not opposed to pitocin at that point; just thought it was an odd thing for him to say. I didn't really question him then because I wanted to read up a bit about "normal" beforehand. Thanks for all the insight, Ladies!