Anyone NOT counting on a short labor..

[completebeginnings]

There seems to have been a lot of shorter labors with all these new babies..6 hours or less.

I only wish my body was that effective. My labors were 36 hours, 7 hours, and 18 hours. I'm counting on at least 6 this time around.

Any one else expecting it will take some time for baby to arrive?

The plus side. I have zero prodonal labor. So when I go into labor I know that is it. No false alarms for me. My midwife always arrives when I am 8 cm.

[cileag]

As a first time mama, I'm planning on around 24 hours of discomfort--hopefully not that much in active labor, but of not sleeping due to being uncomfortable at least. So anything shorter than that, and I think I'll be pretty happy!

[treehugginmama]

From start to finish I always go close to 24 hours. The nice thing though is I only experience about 1-2 hours of intense pressure waves. The stuff before that is just uncomfortable.

[jaylily]

I wish! My labour was long with my son so I keep thinking this one might be long too. Who knows though!

[fyrebloom]

my only labor was an induction and was 36 hours long. I don't know what to expect from this baby but I'm not expecting anything fast. I HOPE it will be a short labor but I'm not counting on it.

ETA: I'd LOVE a 6 hour labor! That IS short to me!

[Serenyd]

My last labor was 8 hrs and I thought that was pretty fast ..... my 1st was 18 hours with pitocin the last 9-10 hours of it. I'd be happy with a 4-6 hour for this baby. Here's hoping we all have fast, easy labors this time around!

[susanl1202]

My first was 60 hours my second 12 hours, like the first poster I'm lucky that I've never had days of promordal labour, when it starts that is it. I've had a show this morning and I'm cramping up a bit so I'm confident that we're going to kick into gear soon. I would love 6 hours, but don't expect to be anywhere near that fast!

[StephM76]

My labors were all over the place.

1st- back labor for almost 50 hours
2nd- induction lasting 5 hours
3rd- 12 hours
4th- 6 hours

I'm hoping for a 6 hour labo again!

[Spiralshell]

This is my first, so I'm counting on a MINIMUM of 24 hours of real labor. (All the books and websites say that first time moms will have active labor of 14-16 hours. I'm adding on to that for my own mental preparations!)
I figure that I can survive anything for a day. That's my hope at least!

[kjs]

Me! I am not counting on a short labor, mine have been close to 40hrs, and over 12 hours, so anything under 10hrs will be great! This is baby #3, which everyone says is unpredictable- i just hope that means SHORTER!!

[Andel]

I'm not really counting on loooong but I'm counting on around 12hrs. Which is long enough! You would think after 5 kids I would catch a break and have one of those 6hr labours. I thought the last one would just fall out, no such luck.

[Contrariety]

My labor with DS was 14 hrs start to finish. I'm hoping for at most 6-ish this time... we'll see. My mom had fast labors.

[Spiralshell]

(Also, can I just say that it's really hard to get information on how long an "average" labor lasts? A lot of the time I get the impression that the times given are for labors with interventions... what I want to know is how long average labor is when nobody messes with it!)

[tayndrewsmama]

I am hoping for a semi longish one if what's going on now is 'it'. Dh can't get an earlier flight than the one he already has and it doesn't arrive until 8:30 am tomorrow. I am kind of torn really. It would be nice if he could just swoop on in just in time to be here for the end, but it would also be nice not to have to deal with the kids myself and have others here that I really don't want to be here either.

Spiral....I think you are right. Any birth 'facts' seem to be skeewed based on that stuff. Quite annoying really that there's no solid info on a natural birth anymore. Even more annyoing is the medical field's refusal to even believe there is such a thing anymore.

[Pookietooth]

My last labor was 8 hours and extremely intense pretty much from the get go. But it can go either way the second time, I've heard. Although usually they shorten, you never know.

[susanl1202]

I can't quite work out how long my labour yesterday was. I woke with a bloody show and contracting. I was able to go to the supermarket, make soup, bake bread and prepare an evening meal, all the while with my contractions becoming increasingly intense. I think I was still in early labour and expecting a long night of it when my waters broke at 8.45pm, I phoned my midwife who was round within 10 minutes, from that point on I was contracting about 2 minutes apart and moaning through them. Struan was born at 11.42pm after 3 pushes (which I always thought sounded great, but scared the living daylights out of me - it was so intense). So do I count my labour from 7am (17 hours) or just the last 3 hours, when I couldn't do anything else? Either way, I'm glad it's over and hoping those still waiting get the births they want.

ps. this was my third birth and I was still surprised by the intesity of it, you really do forget!

[completebeginnings]

Originally Posted by susanl1202

I can't quite work out how long my labour yesterday was. I woke with a bloody show and contracting. I was able to go to the supermarket, make soup, bake bread and prepare an evening meal, all the while with my contractions becoming increasingly intense. I think I was still in early labour and expecting a long night of it when my waters broke at 8.45pm, I phoned my midwife who was round within 10 minutes, from that point on I was contracting about 2 minutes apart and moaning through them. Struan was born at 11.42pm after 3 pushes (which I always thought sounded great, but scared the living daylights out of me - it was so intense). So do I count my labour from 7am (17 hours) or just the last 3 hours, when I couldn't do anything else? Either way, I'm glad it's over and hoping those still waiting get the births they want.

ps. this was my third birth and I was still surprised by the intesity of it, you really do forget!

I would say 3ish hours. I don't count till I can't do anything but focus on contractions. Yeah for you and your new baby! Enjoy.