RRL and prior precipitous labors...

[Just1More]

I know there is a tribe, but that thread is sort of headed in one direction, and I'm looking for specific info.

I want to drink RRL tea, but I'm not sure it's a good idea for me.  All the posts I've read say they had an amazing 5 hour labor with 10 minutes of pushing or whatever. 

Well, without the tea, I have a 3 (or less) hour labor, and 2 or 3 pushes.  It's a little scary to think of that being any faster. 

If you drank the tea, and already had a precipitous birth, what happened?  Did it make it faster?  More manageable?  Slower?

[carmel23]

Each of my labors was so different... it is hard to say.  But the 2 out of 4 where I drank a lot of RRt  were both pretty fast... and the pain was maily only during transition (the other contractions were a lot of pressure, but not like Oh my goodness, this hurts! 

I think drinking a moderate amount with help strengthen the muscles, but not really make labor faster.... it is just a tea.... but that is my opinion and not anything scientific.

:)

[XanaduMama]

My first labor was 3.5 hours from first contraction to birth. I didn't really drink much RRL during that pregnancy. I drank it religiously during my second pregnancy, and did the super-strong RRL brew when labor started, and that labor was infinitely easier and more pleasant (and not only because it was at home!): 7 hours from water breaking to baby, but only about an hour of actual suffering :) I did bleed much less with #2: had a pretty bad PPH with my first (due to a number of factors, IMO, not least my precipitous labor and terrible third stage management), but only bled a bit with #2, so perhaps the RRL helped there.

So who knows? I don't think it's going to make a huge difference either way, honestly. I'd suspect it's more helpful for things like PPH and uterine tone, rather than the actual strength (or speed) of contractions during labor.

[BaileyB]

I mostly drank it to reduce the after pains. I did not drink it with my first and had horrible after pains. I did drink it with my second and had maybe one day where I took Ibprofin. My first labor (sans tea) was induced early (because the baby was stillborn) was 24 hours with 20 minutes of pushing, and my second labor (induced early because of having a stillborn the first time) (with tea) was 12 hours with about the same amount of pushing. I started drinking the tea in my second pregnancy I think around 30 weeks.

Oh yeah....and I will add that with my first induction I had to have effacing drugs all night before my labor started and with the second they never had to give me the contraction inducing drugs. As soon as they gave me the effacing drugs my contractions started every 20 minutes. So maybe it helped in that capacity??