Natural Birth

How long does it take to deliver the placenta?

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?

  • It really depends on the person/birth. My friend has had three med free births: With her first, the placenta came out before they even had a chance to cut the cord. It was under 5 minutes. With her other two, it took about an hour (one was a little longer, one was a little shorter). I've never had a med free birth, but I do know that with the exception of some sort of medical condition, the placenta WILL come out on its own. That's a weird thing for your doc to say.

     

  • A couple minutes for me.
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  • I want to say mine was 15-20 minutes. Med-free, no pitocin. My midwife was never concerned with how long it took so I don't know what "normal" is. Barring complications your placenta will generally come out without your dr doing something.
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  • soulcupcakesoulcupcake member
    edited October 2014
    No more than a few minutes. With my 4th, it came out on its own, no traction, but afterward she did massage my uterus and I took something to help my uterus contract to avoid excessive bleeding. It my case it was due to his extremely precipitous birth (I skipped the early and active phase and went from 6 cm to birth in one minute), which can cause uterine atony.
    G 12.04 | E 11.06 | D 11.08  | H 12.09 | R 11.14 | Expecting #6 2.16.18.



  • SidraJediSidraJedi member
    edited October 2014
    I've had one homebirth:

    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.
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  • I think mine was delivered about 20 minutes after ds. Your doctor sounds kinda off track here.

    Maybe bring it up at your next appointment?
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  • definitely a weird comment to make.  Animals in nature have med free births everyday and they don't have any medical intervention to birth their placenta.  Why would humans be any different?  My son was a med free birth, I think the placenta came out 5-10 minutes after he was born.  I don't know why there would be any concern to get it out asap other than the doctor just being an impatient person. 
  • I want to say mine was birthed within 10-20 minutes?  I honestly don't remember.  I had DS doing skin to skin and was just soaking him in and my body did it all on its own.  I remember the doctor saying I'd start feeling some contractions eventually and then he might ask me to push once, both of which happened, but the pushing wasn't anything.  I just bore down like I was going to the bathroom and never took my eyes off DS.

    It could be your doctor doesn't want to sit there for the time it takes for the placenta to pass on its own.  It can take some time but it won't "just sit there" forever!  My doctor kept saying he had nowhere else to be so we were just going to let it come and not do anything to force it.  I picked a very small hospital and was the only birthing mother at the time.

    B born 7/15/13, C born 3/2/15, #3 on the way May '17


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  • My MW recorded the time of birth, and the time I delivered the placenta. My placenta was delivered 10 min after DD. Then we cut the cord.
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  • I've had 2 natural home births. Both times my placenta was stubborn and took extra coaxing from our midwives. I'd say about 20-30 minutes both times.
  • My hospital has a policy that will not allow me to decline third stage oxytocin (pitocin). Really annoying. Maybe yours does too?
  • RC1014 said:
    My hospital has a policy that will not allow me to decline third stage oxytocin (pitocin). Really annoying. Maybe yours does too?
    Same with mine - even though I'm delivering with the midwife practice. The teacher of our Bradley class said that this is becoming common practice. Most hospitals are requiring a managed third stage of labor that includes the use of pitocin to deliver the placenta. 
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  • Mrs_BennettMrs_Bennett member
    edited October 2014
    mc0113 said:

    Same with mine - even though I'm delivering with the midwife practice. The teacher of our Bradley class said that this is becoming common practice. Most hospitals are requiring a managed third stage of labor that includes the use of pitocin to deliver the placenta. 

    Edit - quote fail

    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!
  • I had a stubborn placenta with DS and ultimately my midwife had to call in the OB and anesthesiologist to manually retrieve it. That was way worse pain than labor (before the meds took effect) and I bled a lot.
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