How long was your labor with your 2nd in comparison to your first?

[Evelynmia'smom]

I know there is no way to tell for sure, but I am trying to get an idea of how long my labor might be with this baby due in November. I live about an hour away from the birth center that I am delivering at and am starting to get a little nervous about getting there. My labor was 22 hours with my daughter, so I've heard it will most likely be about half that time for the second....I have also heard it can be ALOT less. Has anyone else traveled far with their second or third? How was the experience?

[GoBecGo]

I had homebirths.

#1 - waters broke 3am, regular, painful contractions 5mins apart at midday, 2-3cm/50% effaced at 2.30pm, wanted to push at 3pm, told not to, DD crowned (still no pushing) at 6.15pm, born at 6.20pm. Labour written up (by questionable midwives) 1hr24min 1st stage, 5min 2nd stage, 14min 3rd stage.

#2 - painful-ish, strong, long, totally irregular contractions from 11pm. every 10mins from 2am, every 3-4mins from 7am, fully dilated at 7.50am, DD2 born 7.56am. Labour written up (by very good MW) 1st stage 55mins, 2nd stage 6mins, 3rd stage 20mins.

So you might have a short labour but plenty of warning, if you see what i mean.

[littlehoneybee]

With my first, I was induced at 42 weeks. My labor lasted around 18 hours. I had my second at 38 1/2 weeks. My water broke on its own at 0630 in the morning. Mild contractions started around 11:00 am, but didn't get regular and strong until I started walking around at 1:00 pm. The baby was out at 4:20 pm with no drugs or interventions.

[nadia105]

#1: 13 hrs
#2: 5 hrs
#3: 14 hrs

So, well under half for me. You will have a better idea of when it is 'time' with the second, I know I did.

[craft_media_hero]

There's really no telling how long your birth may be.

With my first: six hrs from first contraction. Hospital birth with all labor @ home, 30 mins in hossy til I was holding her, water broke as she was crowning, easy peasy not nearly as much pain as I was expecting.

With my second: 17 hrs from first body-rocking contraction, or 24! hrs from first notable (not BH) ctx. Home birth, first medium fluid gush @ six hrs before he crowned with second GIANT gush right before he crowned. I worked my tail off through this whole birth, and I learned to understand exactly why women request pain meds (tho we stayed all natural)! Because the intense part lasted a really long time, and the REALLY intense part lasted quite a while, too.

I really thought I was in for a fast and easy one with the second, based off of my experience with the first. My mw was 3 hrs away, and I was worried about her getting here in time. She arrived 15hrs before he was born!

[lookatreestar]

1 - over 24 hours contractions were endless, like i never got a break but supposedly i did sleep for a bit out of sheer exhaustion. it was like a marathon, i was so out of it, no birth high. i was so happy she was out but then thank goodness my mom was able to be there and hold her/bring her to me when she needed a feed b/c i was passed out!
2 - 45 minutes at the most. once contractions started, i could not talk through them. and i had to in order to tell my dh what to do. not fun. very unbearable contractions but this birth i noticed the "change" in contractions when it was time to push, my body started pushing on its own really. very intense.

like night and day! how funny they were similar at birth, no crying just looking, nursed right away with no issues etc.

[babyjelly]

I had a 24h labor with my first, textbook labor...if a touch long for today's textbooks.
With my second, I had one good contraction at 3:30a. It woke me up. I did not have another until she crowned at five til ten. No joke.
I labored for two days with my third. He was posterior.
I'm not expecting or planning anything for this time around!

[Funny Face]

37 hours with dd (she was OP)
8 hours with ds ( acynclitic, nuchal hand)

[luvmybaby333]

Much, much shorter. I had 33 hours of "real" labor with my first (after a few days of "fake" induced prodromal labor). With my second I only had like 3 or 4 hours of "real" labor. I'd experienced about 24 hours of prodromal labor prior to that, though. I'm thinking the prodromal labor the second time was related to the membrane stripping I'd consented to. My body just wasn't doing much of anything with those contractions. Then my water broke spontaneously and I went from 3ish centimeters to pushing in less than 4 hours.

I had back labor with my first daughter, which I think contributed to the length of the labor. I'd also been put under a lot of physical and emotional stress thanks to a non-necessary induction and poor treatment by the hospital staff. The second time around, I was under a lot of stress for other reasons, but my body was allowed to do what it needed to because I delivered at a freestanding birth center and had lots of support.

ETA: I guess that was a little wordy for this kind of thing.

First labor: 33 hours.

Second labor: 3 or 4 hours.

[em123]

#1 8 hours
#2 8 hours

[AdalynsMama]

#1, 33 hours
#2, 6 hours

[jenfl]

#1: 3-4 hours
#2: 4-5 hours

[homemademom]

#1-12 hrs
#2-8 hrs

[Peony]

#1 19 hours
#2 8 hours
#3 4 hours

[kalamos23]

Wow, now I have hope that it will be shorter than the 48 hours I had with DD! She was asynclinitic so that didn't help.

[Nicole730]

#1: Water broke - 15 hours later, contractions - 11 hours later baby
#2: Water broke - 3 hours later, contractions - 5.5 hours later baby

I'm hoping for even faster next time around!

[karika]

dd1- felt twingy at 1 am, went to hospital at 5 ish. They gave me pitocin and an epidural (I wasn't all natural all the way then). She was born at 2 pm ish.

dd2- I had lost my plug in bits for days. Felt ctx at 11 am... began being very reg at 1ish... had to wait for someone to came to drive me to hosp, she was born at 3ish within an hour of getting there (no drugs or iv, etc).

I agree you will know when to get moving towards birth center. your midwife will tell you her idea im sure, buti would say when ctx r10 min...sry typos acrobatic nursling nak

[mommathea]

0

Edited by mommathea - 5/11/11 at 4:23pm

[noobmom]

My second labor was half as long as my first, and I also pushed for half as long.

#1: 12 hours, pushed for 2 hrs
#2: 6 hours, pushed for 45 mins

[mamakaikai]

#1: 6 hours
#2: 45 minutes