Your mom's labor vs. your labor

apple_green · June 2012

My mom had 3 natural births - her first labor was only 6 hours, then 3, then 2. I'm wondering if there's a correlation between her labor experience and what mine may be, so does anyone care to share the length of your labor(s) and how it compares to your mother's?

I know there are many variables... my mom is very petite while I'm 9" taller. She also never got one stretch mark and that's certainly not true for me! Just curious though.

wheelsonthebus · June 2012

It's funny you ask this because I was marveling recently at how my mother and I had identical pregnancies and labors with both our children. My mother is only 5 feet and I'm 5'8. My babies were bigger than hers, but our pregnancies and labors were the same. We both gave in to epidurals (spinal) the first time and had our second babies naturally and very quickly!

Temp76535187505890 · June 2012

We both had relatively quick labors although I'm not exactly sure how long hers were but our pregnancies were vastly different in that she was sick the entire 9 months for both kids (and hospitalized once for it) and I sailed through feeling great both times.

RMama2012 · June 2012

This didn't apply to my sister's nor my birth compared to our mom. my mom had 4 natural births, the first/longest being 7.5 hrs and the last/shortest being 6 hrs. All 4 started with her water breaking, then the onset of contractions.

my sister's labors started with her water breaking but the first time there were no contrax. The second had contrax. They lasted 15 and 11 hrs respectively. Second was natural.

My water never broke (Dr broke it at 9.5cm) and lasted 24 hrs with painful contrax. I had easy ones for at least 24 hrs before that. I had a natural labor too.

My mom is 5'4 and average build. My sis is 5'8 and I am 5'10 so I did think that our being bigger women would give us easier labors but it didn't!

stever · June 2012

My mom's water broke at midnight and I was born 8 hours later.

I labored for more than 24 hours before pushing for 2.5 hours to get DS out.

eta - and we're both tiny. That said, I was 5 weeks early and weighed 5 pounds while DS weighed 7,11.

sschwege · June 2012

Wouldn't be the case with my mom. Her labor started with her water breaking and I was born 8 hrs later (medicated birth). Mine was 17.5 hrs start to finish and my CNM broke my bag of water right before DD's head was crowning (med-free birth).

LaurelBee · June 2012

My mom had 2 med-free deliveries. Her 1st was around 12 hrs and her 2nd (me) was about 6hrs.

My sister had 2 medicated deliveries. Her 1st with and epi and pit was almost 15 hrs and her 2nd was about 10 hrs with an epi.

I had tons of prodomal labor, but once "real" labor started, it was 4 hours unmedicated.

mAnYaSha · June 2012

I do not think there is corelation. You are only part of your mom.

LadyMadrid08 · June 2012

My sister's and my births have been nothing like my mom's.

My mom had 4 natural births. First one was a 4 hour, posterior labor with a huge episiotomy at the end. She said this was her worst. Her next two labors were easier and I think a bit longer, which she said was better because she felt her body had more time to go from 1-10. Her last labor, with me, she had very little pain until the end but she was in labor for 10+ hours. She went to the birthing center and they turned her away because she didn't look like she was in enough pain to really be in labor. I was born unassissted on the bathroom floor a few hours later. Woops!

My sister's first labor was loooong and she stalled out around 7 cm for about 5 or 6 hours. She was transferred to a hospital from the birthing center to get an epi and rest, but when she arrived she was a 10 and pushed for maybe 15 min. Her next two labors were easier/shorter according to her (I witnessed the first, not the next two). Oh and her first two started with water breaking which my mom never had (Starting labor, obviously it happened at some point!).

My daughter's birth started with my water breaking and I was in labor maybe 13 hours, but somewhere around 5 cm I stalled for a few hours and that was the worst part of my labor--much worse than transition! Anyway, I ended up pushing 2 hours. I didn't tear at all. My mom said she never pushed longer than maybe 30 minutes and she had never seen two such intense births as my sister's first labor and mine with my DD. She is a doula so she's seen some birthing, but I wonder if being a mom makes it more intense.

Anyway, no, nothing at all alike and we've got a lot to compare! My mom's 4 labors weren't even much alike so it's really all up to chance. Also, my mom and sister are both 5'3" and I'm 5'9". Makes no difference.

AmyRI · June 2012

My mother had med-free births for both my brother and me. However, each of her labors lasted about 24 hours and had stalls in progression and contractions (to the point that she wished she hadn't gone to the hospital in the middle of the night because they wouldn't let her eat breakfast despite not having contractions at that point). Her water broke early in the labor both times, although ctx preceded the ruptures.

My labor with DS lasted less than 8 hours. It went so fast. There were no breaks. The OB broke my waters at 8.5 cm. I'm sort of glad that our experiences aren't the same - as much as it was a crazy 8 hours, I'm glad it wasn't 3 times that long.

Twirple · June 2012

My Mom and I are both 5'6". Mom was in labor for 6 hours with my brother and 2 hours with me. I was in labor with DS for 15.5 hours which included 1.5 hours of pushing. We both had natural, unmedicated births. Mine may have been longer, but I think my birthing method (Hypnobirthing) lead me to have a much more relaxed birth than my Mom with much less pain. While I was in labor, my Mom was in the room with DH and I. At one point she said "You're doing so well, I know how much it hurts". DH told her "We don't talk about pain." and I remember thinking, "It doesn't hurt that much, certainly nothing I can't handle."

vintagejjane · June 2012

We were both a week past our EDD but she was induced and in labor only for 12 hours. I went on my own and was in labor for 48 hours.

nicolemarie517 · June 2012

My mom and I had complete opposite pregnancies, labor and delivery.

She has tons of stretch marks and I didn't get a single one. She also labored for about 3 days with me and my labor was 4 hours start to finish.

My whole experience was much more parallel to my grandma on my dads side.

atcwag · June 2012

I HOPE my experience is completely opposite - my mom was in labor for 36 hours with me and 24 with my younger brother.

footnotegirl · June 2012

Heh, I'm afraid I'm bad news. My mom had five kids, all of them with less than a day of active labor, the shortest (me) was approximately 1 hour total. I was also the only one that went past the due date, and that was only by 7 minutes. Her first three were under steadily decreasing levels of painkiller (my oldest brother was born when Twilight Sleep was still the common practice, my mom has no memory of his birth whatsoever), and the last two were natural.

I, on the other hand, went a week and a half past my due date, had to be induced, and was in the hospital with varying levels of active labor for 3 days and hard labor/transition/pushing lasted together a total of 9 hours.

blush64 · June 2012

THe labours of my mom, my sisters and myself have all been different. My mother had meds for the first two and none for the last. (my sisters are twins) My brother and sisters were early. (1 month and two months) I was late. the labours were varying lengths.

I have two. Each was around 13-16 hours and both pretty much on time. (1week early and 1 day early) One with meds and one without. The baby didn't drop in my first pregnancy until I was almost through labour and my water didn't break until half way through. MY water broke before labour really started with my second (I literally heard a pop when the plug came out..it was unreal) The baby didn't drop that time either until he was being born.

Sister - First had to be induced and the labour lasted over 24 hours. The second was 40 minutes and was on time. The third was near 9 hours and was on time. The last was a bit early and was 5-6 hours.

Sister - first was a few days early and the second was 3 weeks early. The third was 10 days late and the fourth is due today but no sign of arriving. (she is dilated 4 cm already but no labour)

None of us seem to match or have a big pattern.

EDIT

Sawyerplus1 · June 2012

Not in my case! My mom and sister have had 4 natural births each and I'm pretty sure neither of them had a labor longer than 8 hours. My labor with DS was 30 hours...

missmaggie11 · June 2012

My mom is one of the exceptions in our family, she had 6 c-sections (my siblings & I were all born via c-section...). Although, most women in my family (grandmothers, aunts, my sister, myself) have had med-free & short (15 hours or less) labors. My mom had a rough & long (over 48 hours) 1st labor that resulted in the 1st c-section and then was not offered the option of VBAC for supsequent births, thus the 6 c-sections...

Nechie122 · June 2012

Totally different. My mom was 16 days late with me when her water broke but labor never really started (I'm a little hazy on the details beyond that.) She ultimately had a c-section and then two more repeat c-sections. My sister had two inductions. I had a spontaneous nine-hour labor that started on my due date and a totally intervention-free birth.

choppinbroccoli22 · June 2012

There's a reason that doctors and midwives say this is the only reasonable indicator of how yours might go. A statistical correlation will not dictate your outcome, but chances are it might be similar.

That said, my mom had 2-day labors with my older brothers back in the day when doctors would say things like "my most important piece of equipment in this room is this stool." In 1979, things were different, and they forced a c-section for my birth. So, I used a midwife and had a 44-hr labor too.

pepomntpat · June 2012

My mother had three natural births using the Lamaze method. She did have a shot of demerol with me, but that was it. The other two were all natural. She had very long 30+ hour labors. Her doctor with number 3 actually said that had he not known her history he would have insisted on a c/s because it took so long!

My sister also had very long labors with her first two and a c/s with number 3 due to a breech baby. My sister was an epidural girl though. My labor was 72 hours and ended in a c/s.

kaeti_su · June 2012

My mom's labor with me was very fast. She barely made it to the hospital-- so fast that it was her only pain med-free labor. My labor with DD was 4 hours. I was at the hospital for about an hour before DD was born, and it was a planned pain med-free labor. So yes, in this case they were similar-- BUT I was my mom's third birth and DD was my first. I don't know how her labor were with my two older brothers, only that my eldest brother was overdue and she was miserable. DD was only three days past her due date.

jteneback · June 2012

My mom's first labor was 18 hours, mine was 6. Her second (me) was 45 minutes and I'm worried my second will be super fast as well.

ridesbuttons · June 2012

Similar.

My mom had 2 kids, both natural (it was the 60s). My older sister was a textbook labour for a FTM: 12 hours. My birth was fast, a couple of hours of labour perhaps.

My 2 kids were born in a very similar manner. DS1 was a 9 hour labour (including 2 hours of pushing). DS2 was under 2.5 hours of labour with 3 pushes.

Alliebooberz · June 2012

My mom had zero natural births out of four babies and her longest labor was 8 hours. My labor was 21 hours. :P

mstroud23 · June 2012

I had asked my OB if there was any relation, and she said "yes, just not as much as it's related to your MILs deliveries" She went on to explain that more often than not a woman's labor, delivery, and overall pregnancy can be more similar to her MIL's (paternal gma's) than to her own, but she has known lots of women who had experiences that almost mirrored their own mothers. I have no idea what my MIL's experience was like, but I know my mom had three natural births all with a few hours of her water breaking. I was her longest and most difficult, I heard someone refer to how I was positioned as 'Frank Breech', my mom delivered me naturally and without any tearing in about 6 hours.

PansyPants · June 2012

My mom is 4'11 and had one cesarean and one natural birth. I'm 5'6 and have had one natural birth. We both did Bradley classes to prepare.

Her c-section was after 36 hours of labor in the hospital and only being 1 cm dilated. Apparently the hospital forgot she was there because her doctor went on vacation after she checked in. My brother was born 8 lbs. 12 oz.

Her second birth was a natural birth (ME!) and she was in labor for 14 hours and progressed fairly normal. She labored at home for about half of it and then went to the hospital for the last half. I was born 9 lbs 10 oz.

I have had one natural birth and my labor was 17 hours. I spent about ten hours at home and then the last few hours at the hospital. My son was born 8 lbs 13 oz.

We both ended up with severe vaginal prolapses from our natural births. After menopause she had reconstructive surgery to correct issues with urinary incontenance. So far my issues have not escalated to that point.

rels09 · June 2012

I hope not, since my mom had two c/s. I was breech, and my brother was a failed VBAC due to failure to progress.

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