Double peaked contractions

[chattyprincess]

I am offically 20 weeks pregnant ! But now I have started thinking ALOT about giving birth. This will be my second baby and second labor. My first labor I would start to have a contraction, peak and start to release. About halfway through the release it would begin to peak again! It was MISERABLE and very very exhausting. I was hooked up to a moniter off and on and the nurses/docs weren't ever quite sure why this was happening. This happend from the beginning to the end of my labor.
I still have no clue why this happened or what its called and it seems that no one has ever really heard of it. The only thing they say is that maybe it was during transition. It wasn't, it was throughout every stage of my labor!
I know this is the biggest contributing factor to why I had an epidural. (not only were they peaking twice but they were lasting well over 2 min and sometimes into 3 min!) I want to start mentally preparing myself for this again but am really curious if any other women have been through this or know of any good coping methods. Or better yet if anyone can explain why on earth this happend!!!

[nudhistbudhist]

I had tht too for my first, and I was afraid for my second labor. My baby was posterior and asynclinc, and I had double and triple peaked contractions for 32 hours. My longest contraction was 7 mins long. I was exhausted too. Good news though I worked on positioning my baby for the second labor, which was 6 hours start to finish, with contractions that were only 1 min long, and 30 seconds apart. Piece of cake! I did hypnobabies becaause the first birth totally traumatized me. Hypnobabies totally helped keep me relaxed, and when my body started pushing, I was actually in shock that I had just gone through transition without eve noticing. I didnt feel any pain until her ears came out lol. Let this birth be it own. Its completely seperate and different than your first. Good luck

[Sk8ermaiden]

Every 3rd contraction I had double peaked, and every tenth or so triple peaked through my entire labor start to finish. My baby had a transverse head and did not turn, so judging off the pp, maybe malposition has something to do with it?

[LovnMyBoys]

I also had this with my first and he too was posterior (and I forget what else they said about his position) and yes it was the reason for my epidural for sure. I was also being given pitocin so maybe that contributed?
Second was also posterior but I did not have this. Contraction had a nice breathing space in between, until transition and that part was quick.

[chattyprincess]

intresting. Dd was not posterior so not sure what other postion could contribute to this...any thoughts?
I am definetly doing hypnobabies this time around and even though its crazy I actually cannot wait to go into labor...nutty women me! The place is just so lovely that we will be in that I just want to go vacation there! lol.

[nudhistbudhist]

Originally Posted by chattyprincess

intresting. Dd was not posterior so not sure what other postion could contribute to this...any thoughts?
I am definetly doing hypnobabies this time around and even though its crazy I actually cannot wait to go into labor...nutty women me! The place is just so lovely that we will be in that I just want to go vacation there! lol.

Could she have been asynclic? As in her head could have been coming down at a slight angle into your pelvis instead of straight down? I was also looking forward to labor with my second... it was sooo beautiful

[gardenmommy]

Had that with my fourth birth. It was very hard and tiring. My entire labor, ctx. double and triple peaked. I had no idea that was possible, but I'm thinking DS's position had something to do with it, since he was asynclytic. When I found I was pregnant again, I wanted to sign up for a c-section under a general anesthesia I was so stressed out by the idea of birthing again. However, my MW helped me deal with it alot. She reminded me that every baby is positioned differently, every birth is different. Also, I did a hypnobirthing class, and have been working really hard to process the emotions surrounding the birth. At 35+ weeks, I have to say that I feel positive about my upcoming birth, and am not afraid or anxious AT ALL about it. I know that my body can do this, and do it well. You can too!

[etsdtm99]

I had this with my first but not my 2nd.. she was slightly asynclytic, and i had pit (with both births) so either of those things could have caused it.. but for whatever reason i had text book ctx with DS..

[InMediasRes]

I had it at the end of my first labor. OB called it "coupling". She told it me it was because my uterus was tired (and it would have been after 10 hours in transition!), but it may have been a positioning issue. I was so tired that I had been lying down in various positions for a while, and when I sat up for my spinal, I suddenly felt like I needed to push. I'm sure that changing positions helped the baby get into the right position.

I didn't experience it at all with my second, and the labor was much shorter, so I was able to make it with no meds. (Being in a FSBC helped a lot too )