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Natural Birth
If you had a really long labor with your first?
I had a very long labor with my DD, 58 hours. She's 3.5 now, and I'm almost due with our second. Even though I was able to have a great natural birth with my first, I'm really nervous about this baby also having a really long labor. With my DD, I was at a birth center and there wasn't too much pressure to augment my labor, they let me take my time. With the baby, I'll be at a hospital with CNM's, and I'm concerned that if this labor is even half as long as the first, there may be some pressure to use pit, etc. So I guess my question is- if you had a long labor with your first, was your second as long? My MW never really gave me a reason that my labor was so long.
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Re: If you had a really long labor with your first?
This is my first pregnancy so I cant answer your real question until December (ha!) but could you labor at home for a very long time so that you dont get into a situation where you are "on the clock" and feeling that pressure?
Stay at home as long as possible. And also, talk to your CNMs about your worries, see what they have to say. That way you can have an idea of when they will start talking about interventions.
My first labor was 24+ hours, but that's counting contractions from the very beginning (I had a full day of those, but they were easily manageable). Full-on labor (including pushing) was probably closer to 12. DS2's labor was 15 hours, from first contraction to his birth. Second labors are usually faster, keep reminding yourself that!
DS2 - Oct 2010 (my VBAC baby!)
First labor- 40 hours
Second labor- 12 hours
I actually thought it was going to be long again because at about 10.5 hours in I was only dilated 2 cm (didn't know, but one of my MWs said she was going home to shower)...and then things went crazy and I dilated from 2 to 10 in less than an hour. It was wild.
My two girls are also 3.5 years apart.
DD#1 : 17hours (lots of slow, early labor...two hours active labor)
DD#2 : 3 hours (straight into active labor)
I had been worried about a long labor again too...but the second wasted no time getting out.
For DS#1, I had 26ish hours of labor, but only 13 were really active. My water was broken the entire time and I was in a hospital with CNMs with little pressure to have intervention until around hour 24. Then we talked about pitocin and added that for about 1/2-hour before I was complete and ready to push - no pain meds were pushed ever and I didn't ask for them.
For DS#2 it was only 2 years later and I had a 6 hour labor from water breaking first to baby out. It was at a birth center with CNMs, but outside the hospital.
However, my sister had a 30+ hour labor with her first, a 20+ hour labor with her second, and a 20+ hour labor with her third - the last 2 were homebirth and no meds. The first was 20+ hours of no meds and an epidural for the last 6 or so hours.
It really is hard to tell what might happen, but I hope your labor is faster and easier to manage.
...baby #3 is here...
#1 = 17 hours
#2 = 7 hours
#3 = 20 hours
My first delivery was at a hospital with CNM's. There was an OB on the floor, pushing them to do more. I was put on pitocin when 24 hours had elapsed after my water had broken. My labor was 44 hours, and I delivered vaginally.
The key thing with pitocin is, ask what the policy is for time frames. The clock for pitocin starts when your water breaks, as far as I know. I will be a birth center this time, and their pit clock runs out after 48 hours, instead of the hospital I was at last time, which as I said, was 24 hours. If I were to need pit this time at the birth center, I'd need to be transferred to the hospital.
With my first, my water broke around 1:40 pm. Had an appt already scheduled at like 2:30 or something, so we went in, she confirmed broken water, and told us to go to the hospital. We went home first to pack, then to the hospital. Around 5pm, they put in the first dose of cervical gel. Again around 6pm (they od'd me...furious). By 12am I was only 2cm and very nauseous (rocking bed). They were threatening pitocin at that point, even though I was only 10 1/2h with my water broken. I ended up caving for the epi. At 4 am the nurse checked me, and I was complete. He was born 4 minutes later. That was an abnormal birth though in my opinion, so it doesn't really count much. Though I guess I would say that actual active labor that was doing something was really only about 4 hours.
#2, I woke up at 3:40am to go pee and had my first contraction. She was born at 7:55am. Short and simple.
#3 was persistently posterior. Contractions started Sunday evening. They were averaging about 11m apart. Fast forward to Wednesday morning, they were about 7m apart. By noon they were about 5m apart. By 2pm they were coming fast and I was starting to lose it. He was born at 4:30 pm. So it was a 4 day labor, but most of it was manageable until the last 4 hours.
#4 my water broke on Saturday morning right after I woke up (probably like 7am). No contractions whatsoever until about 2am Sunday. She was born around 6:30am. So 4 hours of labor for her.