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Natural Birth
AmyRI
member
Preparing for precipitous birth
AmyRI
member
Labor with my first was fast, as far as first deliveries go. I woke to contractions at 12:30 am, left for the hospital when they hit 3 minutes apart at 4:00, and delivered at 8:15 am for a total of 7 hours 45 minutes from start to finish. At the time I handled it well, but at the end I was sort of in shock at how quickly it went... and it wasn't even close to a precipitous birth. This was at 39w3d. My OB warned me that I should be prepared for a much faster delivery with #2.
I am due Dec 31st. I work an hour from my house and hospital, so for my sanity I think I will not return to work after Christmas in case this LO is slightly early, too. We have a plan for DS, and a plan for getting me to the hospital if I do go into labor at work. The logistics are mostly worked out, assuming we can make it to the hospital.
It's the physical and emotional toll of a precipitous labor that I'm starting to think about now. So, if you had a super fast delivery, how did you cope with it - both while it was happening and after it was over? Any advice on staying calm before and after?
And, let me know of any good resources you know about for unassisted birth. I want to be prepared so I don't just panic if it happens. DH is very squeamish, and he will try his best, but I want to be as prepared as possible so I can help myself if need be. I've read conflicting advice on when to call 911 - when delivery is imminent, or just have DH focus on me to help me through it and then call?
TIA for any advice!
#3 Due April 2016
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Preparing for precipitous birth
I had a similar experience with my first birth. My first sign of labor was my water breaking, but contractions didn't start for another 2-3 hours. My water broke around 2:00pm and my daughter was born at 9:48pm.
I don't work quite as far away from home or the hospital as you do, but I have some of the same concerns.
I have been watching a lot of natural birth videos on youtube and there are several "unassisted" videos on there. From looking at those, it doesn't seem like such a big ordeal. After the head comes out, you just catch the baby (or let it fall out on a nice, comfortable spot - e.g. the bed) and then put it to your chest and wrap a towel/blanket around it and wait for help to come cut the cord/deliver the placenta.
I believe there was another Bumpee on here recently that posted her story of unexpected delivery in her bathroom.
Honestly, I would rather have had super fast deliveries vs. very long drawn out ones. Yes, it's super intense with little to no work up to "get used to" the contractions and it can be a challenge to get into the groove of things mentally and physically but I can't imagine having the 24+ labors where you become just exhausted.
My first was 5.5 hours (4 hours of contractions) at 39w6d and my second was 4.5 hours (3 hours of contractions) at 37w6d. The first one I was out of control and had no idea how to handle the contractions and thought "Oh my, how am I going to deal with a super long labor if it's going to be like this?" Little did I know that I was already in transition and very near the end. Had I been more educated about the process of labor and the stages I would go through then I wouldn't have caved to an epidural. With my second, I was more educated (plus knew it was likely I might have a short labor again) made a med-free birth a breeze even with the total surprise of going into labor relatively early. I was in control from the moment my water broke.
I attribute my remaining calm to the birth education class that we took. I really learned a lot. We did have a doula but she barely did anything at all because I didn't need her (not because she wasn't worth every penny). The things I attribute to her are making a good decision on when to leave the house (arrived at 7 cm and delivered within 11 minutes) and she told me once to lower the tone of my voice because I was starting to get high pitched and the low moans were what was working for me. That's it, that's all I recall her doing during the actual labor. Still wouldn't change a thing about having her there though, I never could have predicted how well my labor was going to go.
I had a 9 hour labour from first sign (water breaking) to delivering babe (2 hours pushing) with my first.
My second labour started differently (I had loose stools for an hour or so and then noticed mild contractions while watching tv) and when I left for the hospital I said to my mom (who we had called to watch DS1) that I wasn't sure I was actually in labour. 40 minutes later DS2 was born. An ER doc was called in at sat on the end of the bed for about 5 minutes before DS2 was born. On call doc arrived half an hour later.
Honestly, it was a great labour/delivery aside from the 15 minutes of being in (what I was telling myself at the time) was an "unreasonable amount of pain" which I presume was transition as I started pushing right after that.
I went from 2 hours of pushing to 2-3 pushes. I'd wish that birth experience on anyone.
Hello!
I just had my first baby 2 weeks ago. He came 6 weeks early and very fast. My water broke waking me up at 2:00am. I arrived at the hospital at 3:20am. He was born at 3:45am. I literally pushed twice and he was here! I was not planning on a natural birth, but little guy did not leave me with a choice! As I reflect back on the experience, I am now seriously considering planning a natural birth with my second (which will be a good year or two down the road but of course I am thinking of it already!) I am considering this becuase my experience was so good - painful of course, but definitely manageable. And, I felt great afterwards as opposed to potentially being looped up from the drugs. I am very concerned that with my next baby, it will come so fast that I won't be able to get to the hospital. I travel for my job 2-3 weeks a month and when I am in town, my office is an hour away. Staying at my house from 30 weeks on isn't really an option, but really the only thing that would make me feel better! LOL
So, needless to say - I am interested in the responses to this post!
Thanks!
After a three hour labor with twins (at 39 weeks and 6 days), I had a thirty hours* of labor with the following birth (at 38 weeks and 2 days).
So just because you had a quick labor before doesn't mean you will with your next.
A good resource to unplanned unassisted birth is Dr Gregory White's Emergency Childbirth: A Manual.
There is link on this page to get a pdf copy:
https://theperfectbirth.com/Emergency-Childbirth--A-Manual.html
*The clock started at the confirmation of the leaking of amnionic fluid with my thirty hours labor. Most of the thirty hours I had regular mild contractions. I had hard contractions for only the last two hours. Then almost two years after that I had a twelve hours active labor (at 40 weeks and 2 days).
Make a pregnancy ticker
Birth is safe as life gets - Harriette Hartigan
With my first labor I also had an 8 hour total delivery.
With my second labor, baby boy came in just over 3 hours, it did feel wildly fast and was incredibly intense. I felt like the pain was manegable, it was much more difficult psychologically for me. I felt like I never had a chance to process going from "I'm pregnant" to "I'm not pregnant and I have a baby!" It really left me up at night thinking about it for months. I wish so badly I could have had just a bit slower labor to process that big change more. My OB did NOT make this delivery, so I would highly recommend calling on your way to the hospital so they can give your provider a heads up. I delivered 20 minutes after arriving at the hospital, including the probably 10 min. it took to register and get changed into a gown.
With my third, I pretty much knew he would come quickly as well, even though I heard third labors can be unpredicable. He came even faster then his brother though, just under 3 hours. I felt much more in control though because I was expecting a very fast labor and we left ASAP for the hospital and called my OB's office on they way and left a message (it was after hours) telling whoever was on-call to let my doctor know right away that I was on the way, I really wanted him there this time! Again, I felt like labor was too, too fast for me. It was still difficult to process the change from being pregnant one minute to not the next. I also only pushed one time with this baby and 2 times with my second so maybe that had something to do with it? I feel like I am one of the only people in the world who actually wishes for slower labors, lol, but I really do. I guess my babes are just in a big hurry to come out. I would just leave asap for the hospital, that way if the tell you it's not time to be there yet, you can kill time nearby (maybe even in a hotel room?) just to be able to get there quickly. I would count on your second baby coming very fast! Second babies are notorious for being the fastest!
Yep I had my baby on the bathroom floor, in hindsight mostly because I didn't recognise how far along I was. Although we also live 30mins from the hospital so I'm pretty glad I didn't head to the hospital only to have a baby on the side of the road.
My waters broke 15minutes before LO was born, and it was only after my waters broke and I felt the urge to push that I realised LO was on her way. DH called our MW to get her to come to us, and then called the ambulance to have them talk him through it.
Paramedics arrived when LO was head out but had DH continue to deliver her.
My tips:
1) I would have put a dark coloured towel under my butt to catch the bulk of the blood and make clean up easier.
2) If you end up delivering on your back (the ambulance dispatcher had DH get me on my back. In hindsight I think this was for his benefit to make catching baby easier) something soft under you is nice. It only took me a few minutes to deliver LO but then I lay on the floor while we recovered emotionally, and did skin to skin with baby. By the time I stood up my back was crazy stiff.
3) If you're yelling at your husband in stress or panic, he will have to walk away from you because the ambulance dispatcher needs to hear him so they know where to send the smublance. I didn't understand where he was going at the time.
4) If your phone has a hands free/speaker option, use it. DH was trying to hand me the phone so that I could listen to the dispatcher and relay instructions to him whilst he had 2 free hands to catch the baby.(I understood that he needed both hands, but I was thinking, "are you serious?") Luckily paramedics turned up as he handed me the phone, because neither of us thought to use the speaker function.
To me the sooner you ring a paramedic the sooner they are sending an ambulance to you, which depending on how far away the base is could make a difference.
I did feel a bit traumatized, and I spent a day thinking I don't want anymore babies, I can't face that stress again. But then I was over it, and just thought it was a fun story. It helped talking it through with my mw, just hashing over the details, and all the could haves and should haves.
I remember really distinctly as I was pushing LO out saying out loud, "you've done this before. You can do this now." I was saying to myself, but I saw DH visibly relax when he heard me say it too.
Another point is that it was really stressful for DH. The adrenalin got him through and then maybe 30minutes after she was born he went really pale, and you could see the shock starting to set in. Me, MW and paramedics all suggested he sit down and eat something, but we had to be quite forceful with him. A glass of juice and a muesli bar was a great sugar replacement for him.
It was a crazy experience at the time, and I'm sure DH wouldn't want that kind of stress again, but in hindsight it was really cool. DH was basically fantastic looking after us both, and it was a beautiful, stressful, amazing, thing to go through together.
Can't think of anything else off the top of my head, but feel free to ask questions.
Elizabeth 5yrs old Jane 3yrs old
Thank you everyone, these responses are really helpful to me! It's great to know I'm not alone in these concerns and that no one seems to be permanently turned off from having kids by having a super fast labor. I know there's no guarantee of a fast labor (nor do I want one that's 3 hours or less!) but I'm hoping that by expecting it, I will feel more in control in the moment. And if things go slowly and I have more time to process everything it will just feel like a bonus.
I have told DH that the moment I start to have contractions, we begin the rush to the hospital. I intend to pace the halls if things aren't out of control, but I want to be in the building ASAP. It is where I will be most comfortable.
Mangomama, I will read that book. Thanks for the link!
Balibaby, even with almost 8 hours to process the change, I still had trouble with the "I am supposed to be pregnant still" sort of feeling - it was strange to be eating breakfast with a baby in a bassinet next to me in the hospital. Standard procedure is to call the OB's answering service. Within 2 minutes of my call to them, the on-call doc called me and we talked briefly as we were in the car on the way to the hospital and he got up to head to the hospital then.
I'm with you on wishing for slow labors. I did have a natural birth last time - I am confident that I can handle the pain for a longer period of time. I know how to cope with that. I don't know how to cope with things moving too quickly! No time to stop and think.
KateLouise, this list is so incredibly helpful. Thanks for taking the time to respond.
I had a precipitous birth- two hours from first contraction to birth, and most of that was pushing. If it had been my second vaginal birth, I imagine it would have been a lot faster, as the pushing stage tends to be shorter in mothers who have given birth vaginally before.
I was totally blindsided. With my first baby I had a 16 hour labour, which ended in c-section. So when labour started with my second, I was in no rush, as I figured I still had hours to go. I knew that the contractions were much more painful than I remembered with my first, but I thought that was because my water had broken shortly before contractions started, and knew that contractions were more painful after the water breaks (my water didn't break until just before I started pushing with my first). In hindsight, and looking at the emotional signposts of labour, I'm convinced that I pretty much started my labour in transition, but at the time I really believed myself to be in early labour and berated myself for not handling it well emotionally. I was shocked when I started pushing just 45 minutes later. One thing I am forever thankful for is that I called my parents shortly after labour began to come pick up my son- I felt bad because it was the middle of the night and I debated waiting until morning (thinking I would be in labour for hours yet) but I wasn't handling the contractions gracefully and I didn't want my son to wake up to me screaming. My son had just left before I started pushing.
Although we were planning a homebirth, we freaked out when I started pushing- the midwife wasn't there yet. My husband called her frantically and she tried to talk me through breathing through contractions so I wouldn't push, but it just wasn't happening- the urge to push was undeniable. Thankfully I did push so long so the midwife made it, although we were very tense waiting while the midwife started talking my husband through preparing to catch the baby.
I am a bit afraid for another delivery if we were to have another child. This time I would read up a lot on unassisted childbirth, just in case. After my birth my midwife told me of some cases she had where the mother birthed in literally minutes, including one mom who felt her first contraction in her basement while letting her dog outside. She immediately tried to get upstairs to get the phone to call the midwife (as she had had a previous precipitous birth), and ended up delivering halfway up the stairs. Precipitous birth actually seems to run in my family- most dramatically, I have an aunt woke up in the middle of the night pushing, having felt no contractions prior to that, and delivered before the paramedics arrived. The idea freaks me out, but what else do you do?
I think another thing to prepare for is your feelings about the birth. I felt horrible after my birth. I had heard so much about feeling so positive after natural birth experiences and as this was an hbac I really expected to feel something positive. Instead, I felt traumatized, I'm sure because my labour was so painful and so stressful. In pictures taken immediately after the birth, I look like I was hit by a truck. In my first pictures with my baby (he was placed on my chest immediately after the birth), my face is still contorted in a clear grimace of pain, even though the pain had stopped- it took me quite some time to process what had just happened to me. For weeks after I would burst into tears when thinking about the birth, as all I remembered was fear and stress and ridiculous pain. While searching for a reason why I remembered my birth so poorly, I found that a large percentage of precipitous birth mothers feel quite negatively about their births. It is theorized that the endorphins and such that are supposed to help women cope with their labours never kick in during precipitous labours. If I have another precipitous birth, at least this time I will know what to expect, emotionally and physically.
I had a similar experience and really felt like this too. I had a four hour first labor and I still feel like everything just went so dang quickly. I wasn't even convinced until an hour in that it was labor because it felt so much like a stomach ache that wouldn't go away. It wasn't until my water broke that I really figured out it was it. My husband works an hour away so we didn't get to the hospital until 1, they checked me at 1:45 after they registered me, and I had the baby at 2:30. I'm thankful that it wasn't one of those long, drawn out labors but I also kind of wish I had time to process things.
I would get really emotional when I would talk about it because I just couldn't believe how hectic it all was. I remember that emotion of being scared and feeling out of control and not believing I had just had a baby and it brings it all back. I talked to my doula about it after the birth and she said I needed to talk about it and give myself time to process all of it after the fact. She said it was very common for moms with fast deliveries to have a hard time processing it. My husband and I would sit there and just go over the timeline of events and I would cry and it really did make me feel better. Now I'm very grateful for a speedy delivery but I will definitely try to prepare myself a little more next time for the emotional side of things.
To OP: Have you considered a home birth at all? I never considered one with my first because I am not a really home-birthy kind of girl (no offense meant to anyone, I think they are lovely and amazing, just not for me) but I am seriously considering it for the next baby. Last time I had to be close to transition in the car ride on the way to the hospital (half hour away) and it was seriously a struggle to keep my cool. It was very uncomfortable. Plus when I got there they made me register (what is pre-registering even for if they still make you do this??), then wait in the ER, then they had their mandatory half hour of monitoring that I didn't even make it through because I had the baby 20 minutes after the put the monitors on. I had to spend the most painful part of labor strapped to a bed and it was no fun at all. I wonder sometimes how different a home birth would be and if I would be able to process a home birth better because of the lack of "hecticness" that is involved (no going to the hospital, checking in, going up to L and D, etc). Plus it eliminates the risk of having the baby on the side of the road :-)
I thought about home birth, but it's really not in my comfort zone at all. I much prefer the hospital setting and am relaxed there... as crazy as that sounds. Our ride to the hospital is really quite short. The hospital is small and if I go into labor during the day, I walk right up to L&D. If it's the middle of the night, I have to walk in through the ER because they lock the rest of the doors, but I still get taken straight to L&D. Pre-registration is a lie there, too unfortunately... I remember actually snapping at the nurse when she wanted to see my health insurance card (that I know they have on file because we took 3 classes there plus the preregistration!). Anyway, yes, we did consider it to avoid hecticness and chance of a road delivery. It's just not for us.
I'm late to this and what I have to say is purely anecdotal, but my mom had a 4 hour precipitous birth with her first child and her next three labors were 8 hours+.
It's a good idea to prepare for a fast birth certainly, but it could also be longer than your first, though it's true that's less likely. Just keep in mind anything could happen.