Did your labors get more intense or stay the same?

[mrscompgeek]

Those of you with more then one baby- did each labor get more painful/intense or did they stay the same as the first labor? With my daughter my labor went really fast, 6 hours total and the first 1-1/2 hours we werent even sure it was the real thing. . Contractions went from 6-8 minutes apart to 3-5 minutes apart within 1/2 hour time. So it was really intense and I was just wondering if your second, third labors were the same or more intense or less?

[alegna]

My two were really very much the same. Especially in terms of intensity.

-Angela

[Marisgirl]

My second happened to be more intense than the first. With the first I labored at home until I was 8.5 cm dilated and with the second I only lasted at home until I was 5 cm. I did everything naturally, but I felt that I needed my midwives at those points so I went into my birthing center/hospital. I'm a bit anxious about this pregnancy and labor, we shall see.

[homemademom]

I won't count the baby where I was induced early, but of my others, the first was 12 hours long, and didn't feel crazy intense to me. The next two were 8 hours and they had more intense transition phases and a lot shorter pushing phases (minutes, compared to the hour and 20 min with my first).

[DirtyHippyMama]

same in intensity, yes, but speed? no. they have gotten faster because my body knows exactly what to do now.

my first labor was 17 hrs and i was totally zenned-out until i reached transition (around hour 14).

with my twins, well, it was a special situation -- their heads became locked together after baby A's water broke so i had a "loose" cervix by the time i hit 7 cm and didn't dilate further until they dislodged from each other. total "labor" (i.e. from water breaking to birth) was 14 hrs, but i did not feel painful contractions until their heads dislodged and i went from 7cm--->10cm in a split second (literally, and yeah, OWEE!). still, zenned-out until transition, if you can call it that -- they were both out within 30 minutes. so my suffering was very short with them... but my theory is that if their heads were not locked the labor would have been MUCH shorter, but who knows how much shorter.

baby #4 was a perfect 8 hr labor. about 7 hrs of "active" labor, followed by a very rapid/intense transition (6-7cm--->10cm in *15 minutes!*), then ~20 minutes of pushing and he was out. textbook, just really fast toward the end. fwiw, i was upright for the ENTIRE labor; shower, walking, swaying, leaning over, sitting on birth ball and toilet. i'm sure that helped!

i am predicting a very short and intense labor for #5. maybe 5 hrs. i'm truly fine ("zenned-out", as mentioned above) until transition hits, but i know i'm not unique in that and i'm not afraid of a fast labor, either. i figure, the sooner it's all over with, the sooner i can rest and enjoy my freshie

so yes, i think the more babies you have the faster labor/delivery goes. i guess "more intense" is a good way to describe it, but really, your body is doing the same thing every time, it just gets more efficient (as a general rule, not counting huge babies or shoulder dystocia, etc).

[terra-pip]

My second and third were easier. efficient is a good way to put it...you know what is going on. I felt less anxious than with my first. Labors were shorter too. I could handle the contractions easier. I pushed for about 2 hours with my first...but there were moments to rest in between somewhat. I pushed 30 min and 20 min with my 2nd and 3rd...and I would say the pushing was more painful only because of the speed. I had to really stay on top of it! Any thing could happen but as a general rule of thumb I would expect labor to be faster with subsequent babies.

I labored for some 20 something hours with my first. About 15 hours with my second. And about 12 hours or so with my third. I'm not much of a clock watcher...i've never timed a contraction

[birthjunkie27]

Length wise mine were:

#1 19 hours

#2 4 hours

#3 7 hours

Intensity wise, my first was my most intense but she was posterior, so that's probably why. My second was a breeze and my third was pretty much a breeze as well. She just took a bit longer to come out.

[47chromosomes]

I don't know that I could accurately compare my two births. My second birth WAS more intense overall. It was also twice as long. But DS2 was malpositioned (acynclitic) and nothing progressed in the textbook way it did the first time.

Pushing wise, my first birth was WAY more intense. The second time felt very natural. It was my favorite part of the birth (by then DS2 had found a favorable position).

[Jazzmin]

Mine were the same intensity and did become slightly longer (or maybe I recognized labor earlier) with each subsequent child.

[emilysuek]

My first labor was a standard 12 hour textbook labor, but my second was way more intense because of an OP labor. I will say though that the pushing phase was much better with my second, like my body knew the way.