1. My genes. My mom had two 6 hour labors and a 2 hour labor. I had a 4 hour labor, a 2.5 hour labor, and a 3 hour labor.
2. Lack of fear. My mom never told me as I was growing up about how awful childbirth was. I wasn't fighting my body at all. I also waited till transition to go to the hospital, which helped a lot with my first.
3. My age. I was 24 when I had my first. It helped with the lack of fear I think.
4. I was in good physical condition. I walked 3-5 miles every single day except one of my pregnancy.
5. Pure dumb luck.
Mama to Lucy (7/06), Lexi (5/09), and Max (11/11)
M/C 12/17/10
I attribute it to being my second baby, drinking RRL tea throughout my pregnancy starting at 14 weeks, and having regular chiropractic adjustments throughout my pregnancy and during prelabor to make sure she was in a good position and that I was well aligned.
ETA, since it was my second, I knew what to expect, the pain of labor was not surprise to me so I was able to relax so much more. I believe that being able to relax in labor, and making sure that baby is in a good position is what will help your labor progress faster than anything else. I also studied Hypnobabies to help me stay relaxed during contractions. My first labor was 16 hours long with about 10 hours of active labor, with my second I had about 8 hours of painless irregular contractions and then what I considered to be actual labor was only 4 hours long.
100 percent luck. I will say that I was very active, especially toward the end. I was logging 20 miles a week in walking, spending every morning on the treadmill, every afternoon outside. Correlation or causation? Probably the former.
Completely opposite situation for me - I was a total couch potatoe the last few weeks of my pregnancy - I felt like garbage. I was still working, but mainly desk work and I was as inactive as possible. I just couldn't bring myself to do much. My labor from my water breaking (I started feeling contractions about 30 min after water breaking) to delivery was 1 hour and 45 minutes.
As a PP mentioned, fast doesn't equal easy. My water broke before bed, and I had not too bad contractions through the night. My midwife came to the house and checked me in the morning and said I was just shy of "active labour", but would probably be admitted if I wanted to go to the hospital. We had planned to labour at home as long as possible... Less than three hours later I was feeling the need to push. They had to try to get me to hold off while we waited for backup to arrive. It was all very intense, and I often felt out of control, like I had no concept of time and barely knew what was happening around me. It was good I had total trust in those around me so I could just go with the flow.
I saw a chiropractor and did various stretches throughout the last half of my pregnancy. I'm sure having baby in an optimal position helped. I'm tiny (5ft, 100lbs prepregnancy, tiny hips), so I really didn't anticipate things going that way.
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cmt115
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Re: (Untitled)
1. My genes. My mom had two 6 hour labors and a 2 hour labor. I had a 4 hour labor, a 2.5 hour labor, and a 3 hour labor.
2. Lack of fear. My mom never told me as I was growing up about how awful childbirth was. I wasn't fighting my body at all. I also waited till transition to go to the hospital, which helped a lot with my first.
3. My age. I was 24 when I had my first. It helped with the lack of fear I think.
4. I was in good physical condition. I walked 3-5 miles every single day except one of my pregnancy.
5. Pure dumb luck.
I attribute it to being my second baby, drinking RRL tea throughout my pregnancy starting at 14 weeks, and having regular chiropractic adjustments throughout my pregnancy and during prelabor to make sure she was in a good position and that I was well aligned.
ETA, since it was my second, I knew what to expect, the pain of labor was not surprise to me so I was able to relax so much more. I believe that being able to relax in labor, and making sure that baby is in a good position is what will help your labor progress faster than anything else. I also studied Hypnobabies to help me stay relaxed during contractions. My first labor was 16 hours long with about 10 hours of active labor, with my second I had about 8 hours of painless irregular contractions and then what I considered to be actual labor was only 4 hours long.
10 hours for FTM from water breaking to baby being born.
I truly believe in raspberry leaf tea. I think it helped organize my contractions.
Completely opposite situation for me - I was a total couch potatoe the last few weeks of my pregnancy - I felt like garbage. I was still working, but mainly desk work and I was as inactive as possible. I just couldn't bring myself to do much. My labor from my water breaking (I started feeling contractions about 30 min after water breaking) to delivery was 1 hour and 45 minutes.
As a PP mentioned, fast doesn't equal easy. My water broke before bed, and I had not too bad contractions through the night. My midwife came to the house and checked me in the morning and said I was just shy of "active labour", but would probably be admitted if I wanted to go to the hospital. We had planned to labour at home as long as possible... Less than three hours later I was feeling the need to push. They had to try to get me to hold off while we waited for backup to arrive. It was all very intense, and I often felt out of control, like I had no concept of time and barely knew what was happening around me. It was good I had total trust in those around me so I could just go with the flow.
I saw a chiropractor and did various stretches throughout the last half of my pregnancy. I'm sure having baby in an optimal position helped. I'm tiny (5ft, 100lbs prepregnancy, tiny hips), so I really didn't anticipate things going that way.