Is your labour time related to your mothers labour times?

[travelmumma]

Does that make sense?

So if your mum had short labours you will too??

How has it worked out with you/your mum?

Just writing this now makes me think it might not be true.. What if she had breech and I don't etc..

I just wanted to see your experiences with how things do or don't match up with your Mum.

As for me- My mum had two short labours (5hrs and 3 hours) then 24 hours of pre labour before 5 hours of serious labour with number 3.

You?

[Peony]

There have been threads about this previously. Wide range of responses!

For me, no. Both my mother and I had uncomplicated, regular vaginal births. Her labor times were shorter then most of mine, just a few hours rather then the 4-20 hours that I have experienced. 

[Just1More]

My midwife says that women tend to labor more like their sisters, than like their mother. But, fwiw, my mom, sister and I all have had short labors. My grandma and aunts did not.

[BroodyWoodsgal]

My mother had four births that ALL went almost exactly like this:

Water broke. 24+ hours passed with no ctx, no cramps, nothing. Then active labor came on out of nowhere and in 90 minutes she was holding a baby. Wasn't more than two cm dilated before going into active labor. Didn't push once in any of her births...babies just came flying out like cannon balls.

I have had two births so far that BOTH went exactly like this:

Water broke. 28-30 hours passed with no ctx, no cramps, nothing. Then active labor came on out of nowhere and in 90 minutes I was holding a baby. Wasn't more than two cm dilated before going into active labor. Didn't push once with either..babies came shooting out like cannon balls.

My sister:

Water broke. Nothing happened...6 or so hours into "nothing happening" she got impatient. Went to the hospital. They gave her pit, she endured a day of Pit labor...body didn't want to open up, simply was not dilating. As she approached 27 hours or something like that of broken waters, I BEGGED her to make them hold off..I reminded her of the way her mother and sister birth...something about that 28-30 hours, all of the sudden our cervix just goes flying open....she told begged them to give her a chance. They gave her an hour or so. Came in an hour and a half later, told her that her body just wasn't going to do it...went to prep the OR, called the anesthesiologist, etc...they had already let her go way past the hospital cut-off after rupture of membranes with no real progress being made.

Minutes after they tell her this, at almost exactly 30 hours after her water broke, her contractions start getting so intense she can hardly stand it...she labors with intense intense contractions...begs her MW to check her..MW checks her and she's dilated like CRAZY in just a short while...OB says "don't care, we've waited too long, your baby is in danger, oh look, heart decels...blahblah" my sister just cries and gives up. Poor girl was so freaking tired, handled pit ctx for so long with no meds...she was a limp kitten. She said "okay"...and my beautiful, sweet nephew was born via c-birth.


So, I think sometimes it has no bearing at all...but in some families there seems to be a strong tendency to birth a certain way. I'm absolutely convinced (as is my sister) that if she had waited, my sister would have had a very similar birth experience as her mother and sister(me).

My mother has no sisters, but I know that both of my grandmothers births were at home and very quick. I don't know what that means. But is it what it is I guess. I'm about to have my third baby, we'll see if she comes the same way!
 

[TheDivineMrsM]

I don't think so, but I've only had one child so far and my mother had 4. She had a wide range of births (I was an all day, all night, intervention heavy birth. My sister arrived after a drug-free 4 hour labor and a few pushes. My brothers' births were somewhere in the middle). My daughter was an all day, all night, eventual emergency c-section.

[Plummeting]

For me, yes. My mother had short labors that all started with water breaking first, except for one of my sisters, who was premature. I had 2 short labors that both started with my water breaking. My sister had 3 short labors, but 2 were induced. The third was not induced and started with her water breaking. I have no idea if there's a genetic component, but short labors definitely run in my mother's family.

[Cyllya]

I'm guessing there's some genetic component. But like pretty much everything else with a genetic component, that doesn't mean your trait or experience will be identical to your parent.

But my mom says her labor was fast and painless, so I hope I have that in common.

[JudiAU]

Somewhat similar. What I wish I internalized from her birth stories is that having your pelvis or back messed up can really delay labor. If I had seen a chiro with my first my labor would have been much shorter. It was very, very helpful with my second.

[lilaviator]

My mom had a long labor with her twins (they were her first) and I had a really short one - 4 hours altogether.  So in my case no.  But maybe twins are different.

[Marissamom]

my mom: 1st 8.5 hours, 2nd 4.5 hours, 3rd 2.5 hours, I don't know total time for the 4th, just that 2nd stage was too fast. 

me : 1st 7.5 hours, 2nd 4.5 hours

my sister: reached 10 cm in the same amount of time as my mom and I did with our firsts, pushed for 5.5 hours and had a csection because baby was posterior and didn't have her chin tucked. 

[KristyDi]

My mom's and my labors were pretty similar, except hers ended in c-section and mine didn't.  Mom has no sisters and I know nothing about my grandmothers labors.  I wish I had thought to ask them before they passed.  But that was before I had kids so it wasn't something I thought of.

Mom

42 weeks Her water broke, no contractions.  She was at the hospital hooked up to pit with a couple of hours because the birthing class had told them that's what they should do.  She was on pit for 18 hours before she was sectioned for failure to progress.  She then had 3 more sections in the next 7 years because her dr told her "the same thing would just happen again" plus her uterus might rupture.

Me

42 weeks My water broke, no contractions.   I stayed home for more than 24hrs before going to a routine MW appt. after which I was hooked up to pit about 30 hours after my water broke. 12 hours on pit zero progress.  I was 3cm when they started it, I was 3 cm 12 hours later.  They started talking section.  I was so tired I was almost ready to agree.  Then I puked and something changed.  I could feel it. 30 min later I was fully dialated and 30 min after that I was holding DD.

My mom told me she thought if her labor had been handled more like mine she thought she could have avoided the section.

We'll see what happens with this next one.  I hope my water won't break before ctrx start, but if it does I have no problem waiting and maybe trying some natural induction.

[Just1More]

Originally Posted by KristyDi 

My mom's and my labors were pretty similar, except hers ended in c-section and mine didn't.  Mom has no sisters and I know nothing about my grandmothers labors.  I wish I had thought to ask them before they passed.  But that was before I had kids so it wasn't something I thought of.

Mom

42 weeks Her water broke, no contractions.  She was at the hospital hooked up to pit with a couple of hours because the birthing class had told them that's what they should do.  She was on pit for 18 hours before she was sectioned for failure to progress.  She then had 3 more sections in the next 7 years because her dr told her "the same thing would just happen again" plus her uterus might rupture.

Me

42 weeks My water broke, no contractions.   I stayed home for more than 24hrs before going to a routine MW appt. after which I was hooked up to pit about 30 hours after my water broke. 12 hours on pit zero progress.  I was 3cm when they started it, I was 3 cm 12 hours later.  They started talking section.  I was so tired I was almost ready to agree.  Then I puked and something changed.  I could feel it. 30 min later I was fully dialated and 30 min after that I was holding DD.

My mom told me she thought if her labor had been handled more like mine she thought she could have avoided the section.

We'll see what happens with this next one.  I hope my water won't break before ctrx start, but if it does I have no problem waiting and maybe trying some natural induction.

Wow.  With that kind of history, I'd skip the pit...

[BroodyWoodsgal]

Originally Posted by Just1More 

Wow.  With that kind of history, I'd skip the pit...

Amen

[eggsandpancakes]

Pit is the devil. I wouldn't wish it on a dog that bit me unprovoked.

[StudyingStones]

My mom had two 24+ hour labors for my brother and I (both ended in c/s). My labor was 8 hours, and DS was delivered vaginally. My step sister (no blood relation) only labored for 4 hours and DS was born naturally with no meds! My nearest female relative is a cousin one year older than me, and she is due the beginning of August, it'll be neat to see what her labor is like as a comparison.

[StudyingStones]

I thought I would update this to add that my cousin did give birth just last week. She labored for 33 hours and pushed for 3 hours, compared to her mother whose labors were all pretty short (they both have big babies, ranging 8-9lbs).
So, in my experience labor has been nothing like the mother's experience!

[dommismommi]

Mine was short only lasting 9 hours including one hour of pushing. My mothers was super short, around three hours, but she was also very young. I was 33 and she was 20 so when you factor that in I'd say we were very close.

[kitteh]

I have also read that your own labor is more apt to be similar to those of your sisters rather than your mother. I dont have any biological sisters, though, so no comparison available for me. My labor with dd1 was 28 hours long, 2 of which was pushing. No pain meds, but I did get a few hours of pitocin about 22 hours into labor, when I had stalled at 8cm for 8 hours.

My mom had two natural labors, but mostly because they were fast(ish) at 6 hours with my brother and 9 hours with me, so she just never had the time to get an epi.

[expat-mama]

My older sister just had her first baby and her labour and birth of her son was almost exactly like mine. No intense or regular contractions, just a looooong period (12+ hrs) of irregular-timed cramps followed by around 40 mins of pushing.

My mom's first labour and birth was like this but with her second (me!) she was convinced to go to hospital waaay to early, made to lie in bed with monitoring and convinced to have an epidural to help "speed things along"- so things were different. Seems like she would have had the same type of labour the second time had she been able to let things go naturally.

I'm hoping my second birth is like my first and follows family tradition.

[Sabijo]

Nope! I anticipated a nice 8 hour labor with my first, since that is what happened to my mom. I was in labor for almost 24 hours since the time my water broke.

However, this could also be due to personality differences: I was more afraid of the whole process, and resisted/ ran away from it instead of embracing it (the pain and also the idea of motherhood, maybe). My mom was probably more innocently excited--less exposure to all the bad things that can happen might be one factor! She was telling me that athese days everyone is so much more aware of all the bad things that can happen, and all the movie images of people in the throws of labor pain and screaming and stuff.