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Any 4th time or more moms?

*LrCg**LrCg* member
in Natural Birth
This is my 4th baby and I'm a bit curious as to preparing myself for the length of birth.  My births have been natural and homebirths (& no herbal interventions).  My first birth lasted 4 hours and my 3rd was 2 1/2 hours.  Child 1 & 2 were born at 37 weeks and child 3 at 39 weeks (although my midwife has no clue how I held it in that long but it was clear in labor I had some anxiety and we think that's why).  So if you have 4 children or more- were you labors shorter and did they come earlier?  In all honestly I'm not sure I could do shorter then 2 hour birth and its making me a bit nervous!
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Re: Any 4th time or more moms?

  • headgear03headgear03 member
    I have four. My oldest was born at 42 weeks ( no induction of any kind) after 10 1/2 hours of labor, Second was born at 41 weeks 3 days after 4 hours of labor , Third was born at 36 weeks 5 days after 29 hours and finally my fourth was born at 40 weeks 3 days after 4 1/2 hours of labor. In my experience from other women i know who have had four or more is that after the second there all pretty much wild cards.
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  • wifeofadamwifeofadam member
    edited February 2014
    #1 - 17 hour labor - 37w exactly

    #2 - 7 hour labor - 40w6d

    #3 - 21 hour labor - 40w exactly

    #4 - 2 hour labor - 41w6d

    #1 and #3 were posterior, which is why they took so much longer. 

    ETA - no inductions, although I did have my membranes stripped with #4 because I was a two days away from risking out of my HB
        
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  • organicmom7organicmom7 member
    Hi, I have six kids.  All natural births, last 4 were home births.  I do not know if anyone can accurately predict the length any particular labor will be.  I really think that your own previous births are more likely to predict future ones,  Typically your 1st is the longest and from there on it could be anything but usually not as long as the first.  I, however, experienced long labors for my 1st, 2nd, and 4th...all similar in duration (10 hours or more).  My 3rd baby, who was born at 42 weeks was about 5 hours, my 5th was maybe 4 hours and my 6th was my shortest at 1 1/2 hours!  My 6th baby was also born the earliest, at 10 days early.  I really think the thing that worked better for me on my last one, was that I walked a LOT at the end and took evening primrose oil the last month before I delivered.  Both of these things are supposed to help condition you to be more ready for delivery and shorten the duration of labor.  Since I had a record of long hard labors and every one of my labors started with premature rupture of the membranes (some of my babies were not born until over 2 days from my water breaking) my midwife advised the evening primrose oil.  I really believe it worked.  I am not sure if evening primrose oil is something routinely recommended for everyone but I will definitely be taking it again this time.   
    With your situation though, since your longest birth was your first baby and it was only 4 hours, I would say you are very lucky and that it is likely that this baby will come fairly quickly.  Again, there is no guarantee though.  You can definitely help yourself naturally though by walking, squatting, etc...and even look into evening primrose oil (it cannot be taken until you are towards the end though).  Best wishes to you! 


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  • *LrCg**LrCg* member
    organicmom7- I definitely won't be taking/doing anything to shorten labor!  That certainly isn't my goal.  I felt that 2 1/2 hours was the shortest I'd ever want to go.  And with my midwife being an hour away (not to mention if DH is at work, he's an hour away), I have no desire to give birth without them.  With my 3rd, she had a hunch I'd being going into labor so she offered to spend the night and sure enough it happened!  I've heard the 4th can be a wild card so I was very curious to see if it was for others as well-the week of when birth occurred and also the length of labor.
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