What is the perfect labor length? - Page 2

[valeria_vi]

Originally Posted by ZeldasMom

If the birthing fairy were waving her magic wand for me I would ask for labor to start at 8am after I had a good night's sleep and to have the baby in the late afternoon/early evening.

There is something nice about laboring in the quiet of the night while everyone else is in bed though too...

to me, laboring at night always sounded perfect, because I associated the night's darkness with more security.
I did actually went into labor in the evening, labored through the night and had my baby in the morning.

Ideally, I woudl liek to go into labor in the afternoon and have my baby at night.

My labor was 14 hours and it didn't seem ong at all. So I would not protest if labor fairy brought me a 14 hour labor with another baby.

[the_lissa]

Mine was 36 hours. I would like 12 hours or so, but really up to 24 was okay.

[WinterBaby]

Originally Posted by the_lissa

Mine was 36 hours. I would like 12 hours or so, but really up to 24 was okay.

What she said.. okay, ideally, I think 8 sounds great. And if transition can be measured in minutes rather than hours, that would be Great!

[ldsapmom]

My last birth was 8 hours from first "different" contraction to baby, including such variables as a posterior, asynclitic babe who weighed 9 and 1/2 pounds and 90 minutes of pushing, and being stalled at 9.5 centimeters for a couple of hours.

Ideally, I think 5-6 hours would be good -- maybe I would have had that if my guy had been in a better position. I would even take another 8 hour if it were spread well -- I had a doula client with a precipitous birth and boy, even though it was under 3 hours, she was slammed! I would not want that .

[cathicog]

I would say, about 3-4 hrs is nice....I had my first in 4 hrs, second in 2.5 and third in 11 hrs(bigger baby, also posterior labor but turned and came out) I have had clients who had 2 hr labors,start to finish, and it is very draining for them. But so are the 24-30 hr labors I have doula'd at....

[Crunchier]

I had 19 hrs of labor, 12 magnificent, 7 horrible and full of interventions to speed things up, then 4 pushes.

I'm preparing for a 30 hr labor this time, maybe a bit more. My first 12 hrs were intense, 3 min apart, but slow and painless. I'd actually like to do it for a very long time, if it can stay that way, then I'd like transition to be very short--I'd prefer to skip it, but I hear that you can't, so I'd like it to be no more than an hour. I wouldn't mind pushing for more then 5 minutes, but not too much more.

[EmmalinesMom]

My first was 19/20 hours and I did get a bit tired. With my second, labor started and stopped several times for about 12 days before she was born. (She was in a funny position, among other things.) When labor finally started for real, it was about 13 hours and that's just about right for me I think. My body had plenty of time for the hormonal shifts and I had time to enjoy early labor.

[lactavia]

Short first time

I had about an 8 hour labor - first time. However my water was broken for 38 hours with no labor starting so I had to be induced. So, 8 hours total with 1 1.2 hours pushing. I think that was just right.

[KKmama]

Long enough to push the baby out.

Z's was almost 40 hours, which was fine. T's was 0, because he was an emergency cesarean. I preferred Z's. (Okay, the 1st 24 hours were fine, the rest of the labor was not fun, but honestly, better than the alternative. So there, Britney.)

[USAmma]

Both of mine were 8-10 hours long and I thought it was perfect. Of course that being said I had the epidural. I still enjoyed the process of knowing I was progressing, and being surrounded by friends.

[kerikadi]

I have had 4 labors ranging from 45 minutes to 22 hours and I think my third which was 6 hours was perfect!
But I have to say that I am glad that other Mamas that had SUPER fast labors feel the same way I do : WAY too fast! People think that those of us that had labors shorter than 2 hours got off lucky. My very fast birth was honestly traumatic and would have been so much worse if I had planned a hospital birth.
Thank goodness we had planned a homebirth and I made my DH call the MW BEFORE I had my first contraction, I just knew it was coming, it was like I could hear the train but not see it yet. Did anybody else experience this?
If we had planned a hospital birth my DD would have been born on the side of the road and I know I would have been wigged out and stressed if I were trying to get to the hospital.

My MW told me not to let people tell me that my labor was easy because it was so fast. She said "You experienced 12 hours of labor, it just happened in 45 minutes" There was no time to think and my body and my brain were fighting each other the whole way. I went from being asleep to holding a 9 pound 8 ounce baby in less than an hour.

My first was 12 hours and that was fine too. So anywhere between 6-12 hours.

Keri

[burke-a-bee]

My first was 8 hours...
Second was 3 hours...
Third was 35 minutes ( I took castor oil so I had some warning.)

My last birth, I was 5cm for a week and hadn't felt a thing. I'd take that again. Although I'd really like to have a waterbirth this time around so a hour or hour and a half would be nice. I'd have time to prepare the tub.

[crysmomofthree]

I had my first labor at 2 hours too fast, 2nd was 4, 3rd was 5 hours which was too long (induced, posterior) and baby #4 came in 4 hours on the dot

I like 4 hour labors they are short enough to not lose hope but long enough to get organize

[arimama]

my first was 37 hours. WAAAY to long!

The second was about 6 hours. It was totally managable. I labored from about midnight till almost 6am. It was enough time to settle in to being in labor, but it was over before i started to get sick of being in labor

[henhao]

My labor lenght was perfect--about 6-7 hours. I would want to push more, though, to reduce the tearing. One push is nice that it doesn't hurt while you do it, but it hurts for weeks afterwards!!

[ABand3]

I've had three, the middle one was the best
#1 - 40 hours of labor, 5 hours of that pushing; no one would ask for that!
#2 - 11 hours of labor, last 1 hour pushing - Great!
#3 - 5 hours of labor, last 1 hour pushing - too intense for me.

[Sharlla]

Both mine were roughly 4 1/2 hours start to finish. I don't think I could handle any more than that :LOL Call me a baby