How long were you in labour?

Angel9876 · 15 November 2011 at 8:35PM

My first labour was a painful 48 hours, and I look absolutely dreadful in the photos! Back in the olden days women died giving birth, so you tell him that it IS a big deal!

Don't let it put you off though. My second labour was 5 hours start to finish and much less painful.

Good Luck!

GemmaE · 15 November 2011 at 8:46PM

thrifty- if it helps my DH said 'you're not ill your pregnant' when I asked him to dig up some spuds for me in the back garden as I was shattered!

I myself didn't get to proper 'labour stage' (but you really don't want to hear about that) before an emergency cs, one of my friends had her baby start to finish in 4 hours, however my SIL was induced twice at 14 days over, and laboured for about 36 hours and had forceps.

All labours are different, and to be honest they are worth it when you see your baby afterwards.

Enjoy your pregnancy!

missmontana · 15 November 2011 at 8:57PM

My son was 5 weeks early but weighed in at a healthy 6lbs 12, my waters broke around 9pm Saturday night and he arrived at 6.10am Sunday morning, he's been an early riser ever since! Good Luck x

Lunar_Eclipse · 15 November 2011 at 8:58PM

16 hours from beginning to end with the first, 7-8 hours with the second. Apparently second deliveries are half the duration of the first, on average.

6 hours in hospital prior to delivering first born, just over an hour with DD2. It was very painful, but definitely manageable. It's all about your mental state/preparation (I fully expected the pain to almost kill me!) and determination to cope, in my opinion. I had a tens machine I put on at home and then used gas & air in hospital. All the best! x

Make-it-3 · 15 November 2011 at 9:02PM

I agree with Mupette re the approach to take if your OH starts up again on how labour is a breeze. There's a reason they call it labour and many first babies can take a good while to be born.

I had SPD and understand how you wonder you will ever be able to manage labour, but in the last few weeks mine improved a lot as the baby's head engaged. The main thing with SPD is to make sure its included in your notes, including your pain-free distance and you labour in positions that are comfortable.

inkie · 15 November 2011 at 9:21PM

You will hear people calculating their labour from when they first start to get contractions - but that can be hours before you are in established labour. We would take the length of labour from the onset of regular contractions that are increasing in frequency, length, strength accompanied with dilatation of the cervix of about 3cm. That's the first stage.
Second stage is when the cervix is fully dilated to the birth of the baby. You would expect this to last an hour to an hour and half in a first birth.
My first labour was 8 hours ish from being established to delivery (spontaneous onset)
Second one was 41/2 hours, which was an induction.
It really isn't that bad, and I found that the time went really quickly.

marywooyeah · 15 November 2011 at 9:41PM

I gave birth to my second child naturally with gas and air in a birthing pool and it was really painful but I somehow enjoyed it because I knew I was bringing my child into the world - you get through it and like others have said everyone's is different!

He was back to back and as it was my first birth I was told to expect 12-18hrs but it was 7hrs 45mins from waters breaking to birth.

If you really want a varied experience of birth I'd ask pigpen! she knows everything there is to know about pregnancy and birth!

bylromarha · 15 November 2011 at 9:44PM

DS - 7 hours start to end. Pain built up through the labour, TENS machine was fab.

DD - slight pain (oh, was that a contraction?) for 90 mins. 20 mins of full on labour. Then DD born in the car while hubby driving at 90mph - another unhelpful husband - he later told me he thought the pain was making me hysterical when I yelled "I can feel her head" at him, so carried on driving instead of pulling over. He realised I was not hysterical when he looked down to change gear and saw his daughter's face gazing back at him. I caught her myself! So she was under 2 hours start to finish.

Friend's DS was 2 hours start to finish, DD1 60 mins (born in the car too), DD2 28mins start to finish - baby fell onto the floor as hubby was on phone when she came. It can go very fast too!

OP - best advise is when you're about 34 weeks go find a girlie friend who has had a good birth experience and have a non alcoholic pub girlie time with them. Talk about ALL the gory details. My sister did it with me and I found her candid chat with me relaxed me no end and, I felt, made the birth go quicker as I felt fully informed. The fear of the unknown is the big deal with first labour and the higher the fear is, the longer the labour will be as you're tense and not relaxed. I now have had the candid chat with a few friends and they felt it helped them.

If you had bad teenage period pains (as I did - they used to make me bedridden for day 1 of my period) then labour can be compared to a slightly more severe pain than that.

And also, another thing that kept me knowing that I could give birth and got repeated like a mantra from about week 36 was

"If *insert name of wimpy woman here who freaks out at the tiniest of things* can give birth, I flipping well can"

And squeeze your OH - hard - every contraction. Or give him a passenger footwell full of birth gubbins to clean out alone as punishment...sounds like he's another man talking authoratitively about something he has no clue on....