Length of first labor

[megan sacha]

Is it correlated at all with your own mother's length of first labor?

[MaerynPearl]

not at all in my case

and considering every labor can be different, even in the same lady... and the third labor can be longer than the first... I don't think anything you can measure will have any effect on the length of labor.

[BlackSheepPDX]

I think my labor was VERY much like my mom's labor, for both of our firsts, with a day of intermittent "real" contractions and a relatively short actual time. I'm an only child, so I've got nothing to go on for my second, other than a gut feeling that my fast first (7 hours of active labor) will translate to an even faster second.

[kalamos23]

My mom's labor with me (1st) was 2 hours long. My labor with DD - 48 hours. We both did have weeks of prodromal labor leading up to the birth though. I'm really hoping that this next one will be a little bit shorter!

[Sk8ermaiden]

I dilated 0-10 in less than 9 hours - my mom took 29.

[JorgieGirl]

My sister laboured very much like my mom. I laboured nothing like either of them.

[RedOakMomma]

I don't know about length, but my mother started both of her labors with her water breaking at home. For me, that's been the case, too.

[LilMama23]

Not at all. My mom had a horrific 36 hour labor that ended in an emergency c-section.

I had a 17 hour labor, only 4 hours of what was considered "active" labor, ending in a vaginal delivery.

[klocke]

Mine were totally different from my mom's. My mom had very long labors that lasted 30+ hours. When she had me she stalled at 7cm and was stuck there for nearly 12 hours with contractions coming every 3 minutes but no progress being made. My labors have all been super short lasting 7 hrs., 5 1/2 hours, and 3 hours. I take the longest to get to about 5 cm and then I go from 5 to 10 usually in under an hour. My sister had a fairly short first labor as well lasting about 10 hours.

[rightkindofme]

Oh, that's a good one. Uhhhh no. My mother's first labor was six hours long start to finish. My first labor was 49 hours.

But I had significant cervical scarring from previous cryosurgery. Who knows what it would have done without that damage.

[magrat]

I'd say so, my mom had a relatively short labor and mine was 5 1/2 hours. I was born at 35 weeks (no known reason) and DD was born at 38 weeks.

[megan sacha]

Thanks everyone. I was hoping there was some correlation since my mom's longest labor was 7 hours and they were all relatively straightforward.

[mirtodd]

My mother had 8-12 hour labours.

My first was 2 hrs from first contraction to birth. My second was 90 minutes. My third was an emerg. cesarean following a placental abruption.

Edited to add, my mother went over with both of her kids. She had me 4 weeks late, and my sister 2. I have gone early (32 W, 37W, 38W) for all of mine.

[moonshoes]

My mom couldn't remember - 4 babies 40 years ago - they all probably blended together. But I know they were vaginal births without complications.

My first labor was 8 hours, start to finish, no complications.

[buckeye_bebe]

My labor/birth was nothing like mom's or MIL's. Mine was 6 hours at 270 days, mom's, grandma's, and crazy MIL were several times as long and way overdue.

[berrymama]

No. My mom's first (of nine!) was long and she also said she had back labor - probably due to baby positioning. My sisters and I have had relatively short labors, with my first being 3 hours (we will see how this one goes!). We must have gotten our good birthing pelvis from my dad's side of the family.

[Honey693]

Yup. I was about three weeks early and so was my daughter. My mom's labor was 5 or 6 hours and so was mine. Our pregnancies were pretty similar too.

[mamaonthefarm]

My first labor from start to finish was 3 hours. (2nd labor was 1 hr and 3rd labor was 2 hrs)
My mom had us as twins with our heads & chins locked together so she had a c-section. But my aunties' labors were all short.

[Ashes]

Mothers labours were 18 hours and 15 hours. Mine was 42 with my first. Likely because of malpresentation of the head (which did end up in an emergency c-section).

I think the answers vary wildly...

[CountryMommy]

Very interesting responses!

I was my mothers "first" of 4 babies and came 7 weeks early after her water broke. I am not sure how long her labour with me was though.

For my "first", I went into (early) labour on my due date, lots of early labour discomfort followed by 6 hours active labour and 2 hours pushing. My water didn't break on its own, my OB actually broke it about 10-15mins (I think?) before my son crowned.