ladies who went "overdue"...(41+wks.)

[wwinorth]

I'm working on a theory. If you went more than 41 weeks (for my purposes :wink ) How was your labor? Was it long? Painful? Also, how far along were you?

My theory is that "late" births are quite a bit faster and less painful than "on time" births. (this is probably to make me feel better I'm 42 wks. + 3 days and have been having contraxs for over a week) Mainly because both mom's and baby's bodies are so ready.

thoughts?
thanks! :love
Mel

[Village Mama]

I went to 42 weeks with my first son. My labor was 4 hours long! What I loved was how "done" he seemed. He was strong and nursed like a champ. I hope you have a fantatic labor. Give your little beauty a snuggle for me!!!

[crazy_eights]

Would be true for me. Not so sure about less painful though. My easiest was the only one that was early - 2 lbs. smaller than the others, slightly longer labor. My first was 10 days overdue and a 4 hr labor.

[annakiss]

15 days "past due" w/DS1. 10 hours from 1st contrx to baby out, 6 hrs active labor. Pretty good, I'd say. DS2 was one day early according to ovulation (6 days past due according to LMP) and labor was 4 1/2 hours from first contrx, 2 1/2 hours active labor.

[dkenagy]

I'm sure someone will eventually post and kill our buzz here, but I've had this theory for awhile. My first was 40w6d and actually induced because my BP was topping out. Scary, but the labor was only 6 hours from first drip of pit to delivered... painful because of the double and triple peak ctx (thank you pit), but not intolerable... no epi. My second was 41w1d and completely natural... just under 3.5 hours from first ctx to delivered! Woohoo!

Darci

[Stephanie L.]

My 2nd baby was born at 41 weeks. The labor and birth were amazing, graceful, uncomplicated, ahhhh! A truly devine experience. :love

I labored for a few hours walking around the neighborhood in early labor w/ my toddler & DH. Then had about 3 hours of fairly intense contractions-not too bad really! The birth happened quite quickly and calmly.

I feel like it had more to do with memory of the last experience. First baby was "on-time", but I had so much pain from fear of the unknown. The second birth was a breeze because I taught myself to relax and meditate on Opening up.

I didn't feel like going past my EDD was a factor on my happy and serene 2nd birth experience. It was all about concentration, focus, and peace.

[Trishy]

My ds2, third baby, was 1 1/2 weeks late. Active labor was less than 4 hours.

[Amylcd]

15 days over due - 12 hours of hard, horrible back labor.. ended up with an emergency csection.

[pageta]

According to the US, ds was due 6/28. According to my charting, 7/5. He was born 7/10 after 24 hours of painful back labor including 5 hours of pushing.

Just because there are exceptions, though, doesn't mean that the premise is incorrect. There is an exception for everything. So even though my birth doesn't fit with the original premise, I still say I rather agree with it.

[katja]

DD was 12 days late, labor was 14 hours and super intense. After 5 hours of painful contrax, I was only dilated to 1 cm. Despite being late, I don't think my body had done any preparation. However, dd was a pretty advanced baby!

[Devida]

DD was 10 days overdue when my waters broke - had a 12 hour labour - all managed without drugs, so I guess my body was well prepared and ready! She is my first (expecting again in 7 weeks) and was a big girl - 9lb 1oz

Dee
x

[crayon]

With my first I was 2 weeks late, and my labor was "humm..." I will spare you :lol ... It was long, started at Sat night at 6pm and went until monday at 12:01 pm when DD was born, I will say my "Hard" labor was only about 12 hours and most of that I personaly feel was my fear of trying an UC never having a baby before.

My second was born on her due date :D and she was mabye 4 hours, and 1 hour of hard labor- but that was very easy compaired to my first baby!

ETA: both of my births were also drug free! :thumb

[proudmamanow]

I'll support your theory :D
Dd was born at 41 weeks and labour was great...16 hours long, w/about 8 intense hours, natural, empowering, even ecstatic homebirth! (still painful, but pretty great! :thumb )

[cuqui]

#1 was 39wks 1 day, 17 hrs labor & push total, all natural at a free standing BC w/ MW. 7lbs 3ozs. Bradley.

#2 was 38wks 1 day, 3 hrs total labor & push, all natural at same BC with same MW. 8 lbs 2 ozs.

#3 was 5 yrs later 41wks 1 day! 6 hrs labor and 3 pushes, all natural at same BC with same MW. 9lbs 5 ozs.

I musy say #2 was easiest, she also had the biggest head. #3 i squatted out, most empowering! I will also add that a well cooked baby is by far the best, I'm glad he stayed in as long as he did, not that i had problems with the others, he just seems more sturdy somehow, more mellow too, can't really put it into words.

[Hayes]

Baby #2 was +12 days. My fastest labor, from water breaking to baby was less than 5 hours.
Baby #3 was +8 days. My easiest labor, but not the shortest. I didn't push at all. Once my water bag fully broke, I had a babe in less than an hour
Baby #4 was +8 days, my biggest babe by a full pound and my toughest labor. I pushed for over 2 hours, shoulder sytocia, etc. If he had weighed what my #3 babe did, maybe a whole different story.

Dates are post due date not post 41 weeks.

[thismama]

41 weeks 6 days (13 days overdue), I had 48 hours of labour, stalled at 6cm, but with a lot of support from my midwife and birth helpers, I had a natural birth. My daughters Apgars were 9 and 9. I remember it as a wild and very cool experience.

[flyingspaghettimama]

nak
har...i was hoping for the same theory...

i went 18 days overdue with my second, still had a 14 hour labor. it was just right for me though, it was perfect in fact. homebirth, birthtub, very chill atmosphere. i felt much less stressed during labor because i felt like, thank goodness it's FINALLY happening!

[OtherMother'n'Madre]

Depending on which due date I used (yes I had many...three actually....idiot doctors! :lol) I was anywhere from 41 weeks to 43 weeks when I had DD. :lol Based off of my calculations it was closer to 42 (I'm not sure how I figured my due date but it was the exact same one on the second ultrasound we had...the one AFTER I figured it out, yeah. I'm good :D :lol).

My labour was fast I think. 14 hours from start to finish. I did take castor oil though. We were planning a UC and the pressure was mounting. DH was threatening to take me in to see a doctor and knowing they would strap me to a bed and keep me there :lol I drank the stuff! As a result I'm betting it was more painful than it would have been had I waited. To top it off DD was face up (which I think it because I used the castor oil. Had I waited she would have had time to spin kwim?) so my pain level was a bit high. :lol

Interesting theory you have though.

[alegna]

41 weeks 2 days Labor was 31 hours. Not super painful, but I didn't sleep at all so I was TIRED.

-Angela

[momto l&a]

All my labors where short IMO and easy.
First dd was on time and 5 hours
Second was one week late and around 5 hours
Third was 3 weeks late and about an hour.

[mrzmeg]

Theory doesn't work for me. My ds was born at 43 weeks; labor was 21 hours long and much more painful than my labor with dd (who was born at 40 weeks).

[Evergreen]

Wow! What an interesting theory. My mother went 15 days late with all four of us. I, being the first, took about 10 hours. My brothers and sisters all came in two hours or less from start to finish.

I also went 15 days late with my daughter, but it took 29 hours total.

[hipem]

Before dd was born, I was hoping this theory would prove true for me. My mom went super late with both me and my sister (43+ weeks) and had QUICK labors. Mine however did not turn out that way - dd (#1) was 12 days past edd, 56 hours of labor and ds was 17 days past and 13 hours BUT both of them were positioned quite poorly...so who knows. I still think it's a great theory.

[nichole]

my son was born on time and "easy." thank you bradley method. even when i got close to my due date there was a tremendous amount of pressure to discuss an induction date etc. lots of people were calling my house trying to find out how dialated i was. like i knew ha!

anyway, do you think it is bad to fib your due date by a few days. i think a few days would take some pressure off. i think 2 weeks would be too much in case the baby came early. hopefully i want have any problems and i can ditch the u/s this time.

edited to add: he was a fussy baby, not colicky but very particluar and prone to meltdowns

[anonymommy]

Both kids were over 41 weeks. First was 24 hours of labor, I guess about 8 hours of active labor to full dilation. Second was a short daytime labor, easy labor in the morning, had him mid-afternoon.

[coobabysmom]

i gave birth (unmedicated) 41 wk 4 days post due... 24 hours of labor +2 additional hours of pushing... it was long but manageable.

[Beppie]

Mine was born at 42 weeks and the labor was very fast. Labored a few hours at home, and reached the hospital when I was 8 cm (at my checkup the day before I had been 2---I had no clue I was already 8, imagine my surprise and joy!), and the baby was born an hour & a half later. the midwife rushed from another woman in labor at another hospital, and when she arrived she told me I was 10 cm---the baby was born 20 minutes later.

At the time I was so impatient for the baby to come! Every passing day seemed like an eternity. But I would trade waiting 42+ weeks for a quick labor any time. I was blessed to have had such a wonderful birth experience.

Interestingly, my mom had 6 kids, and we were all born between 41-43 weeks, and all of her labors were fast. I think her longest was 4-5 hours. Her shortest came as soon as she reached the hospital, with my dad yelling for a doctor to come, his wife was pushing! Maybe your theory is right.

[neveryoumindthere]

41 weeks and 1 day
labour from first ctx to babe in arms was 40 *minutes*
painful?? Ummmmm....not sure, happened too fast :scratch :lol

(fwiw, it was 9 ctx total)

[TurboClaudia]

41w1d
36 hours of labor
including 4+ hours of pushing
homebirth
lots of braxton-hicks throughout my pregnancy from about 21 weeks on, but no prodromal or practice labor in the late weeks until i started feeling crampy, having loose stools and losing my mucous plug the afternoon before my labor began.

now i suspect that he was positioned slightly off, but there were no physical indications of malpositioning immediately after birth and there was no moment of "shifting" that i've heard some women experience with malpositioned babies.

so it doesn't fit your theory, but as someone else mentioned, just because some experiences don't fit your theory doesn't disprove the theory.

someday when i'm rich beyond my wildest dreams, my research foundation that i want to create will do just this kind of research... ;)

~claudia

[Mom2Madeline]

I went to 41 weeks, 4 days. My labor was a total of 28.5 hours. Transition was incredibly painful and crazy and difficult. Probably 13-14 hours of my labor was active labor.

[wombatclay]

42w1d

I'd had prodromal labor/non-stop braxton hicks for three or four days, my water broke on it's own and contractions started in ernest...32 hours after my water broke (and after 19 hours active labor) I had an unplanned c/s. I hadn't moved past 7cm and there was a concern of infection (due to the extended time with ruptured membranes). Turns out dd was well and truly stuck.

I wish your theory had worked for me though, it would have been nice. Maybe the next time round? :)

[DoulaSarah]

Baby #1 was 10 days over. 4 1/2 hours of labor start to finish.

Baby #3 was 17 days over. 11 hours of pain and 6 hours of HORRIBLE pain....but she was posterior brow.

[odenata]

15 days over due - 12 hours of hard, horrible back labor.. ended up with an emergency csection.

Mine is very similiar to this...I was at 41 1/2 weeks, had around 12 hours of hard back labor, then had an eclamptic seizure and ended up with an emergency surgical birth.

[DreamsInDigital]

#1 11 days overdue, hospital induction, 56 hours of labor, persistently posterior, born with vacuum assistance after 3 hours of pushing. Baby was 8 lbs. 12 oz.
#2 10 days overdue, hospital induction, 13 hours of labor, 20 minutes of pushing. Piece of cake compared to #1. Baby was 9 lbs 1 oz.
#3 15 days overdue, went into labor naturally, 5 hours and 24 minutes of labor, baby was born at home underwater after pushing for 15 minutes. Baby was 10 lbs. 2 oz. I felt like a million bucks afterwards and can't wait to have another homebirth.

[nichole]

41 weeks and 1 day
labour from first ctx to babe in arms was 40 *minutes*
painful?? Ummmmm....not sure, happened too fast :scratch :lol

(fwiw, it was 9 ctx total)

wow! was the baby born at home?

[neveryoumindthere]

nak
LOL. yeah. it was an (unplanned) unassisted birth
i wasnt sure if i was in labour..midwives arrived abt 15-20 minutes later (i posted in "birth stories")

[Mrs.Peanut]

Sorry but your theory doesn't work for me, either.

#1. 6 hrs. . 39w5d . 6 lbs 14 oz
#2. 5 hrs. . 36w6d . 6 lbs 14 oz
#3. 3.5 hrs. 40w1d. 7 lbs 4 oz
#4. 1.5 hrs. 41w1d. 9 lbs even

My longest gestation was my shortest labour, but I don't believe that is related. You can see the pattern, each pregnancy resulted in a slightly shorter labour.

#3 was my easiest labour and I believe it was because from 4 months, my pregnancy was riddled with Braxton Hicks contractions. My uterus was warmed up and ready to go, and probably well effaced before labour even began.

#4 was my hardest labour. It's the only labour where I felt out of control. I had zero BH ctx during this pregnancy. I don't know if it's related, but I had an anterior placenta for this pregnancy. My uterus and body was *not* ready, even though I had thought it was in advance.

I have an anterior placenta again this pregnancy. But, I intend to have lots of BH ctx this pregnancy if I have to stimulate them myself. My uterus will be in shape and ready to go again this time, just like it was for #3.

So, my theory is - the more prodromal labour, the more prepared and ready your uterus and body is. If your labour is not stimulated, labour won't start until baby is ready.

wwinorth, I'm hoping that since we haven't heard back from you in four days, that you have been busy birthing. Hope things are going well. Let us know!

Nicole

[DesireeH]

41 weeks and 4 days, 5 hours labor, home waterbirth. Painful but normal painful. LOL

Nothing like my induced posterior 20 hour labor with my son (39 weeks 6 days).

my mom went 2-3 weeks overdue with all of us and had 4-5 hour labors too.

[DesireeH]

the more prodromal labour, the more prepared and ready your uterus and body is.

the prodromal part was true for me too. I had contrax every night for 6 weeks in advance. LOL

[fallingstar]

That theory doesn't work on me... 41 weeks 1 day if you go by the early ultrasound, 41 weeks 5 days by my charting. The labor was 56 hours long, three hours of pushing. It was painful, but managable. Extremely TIRING, though, for going so long.

[artgoddess]

10 days "past due" 8 lbs even and 34 hours of labor.

I think he wasn't ready. The OB office I was going to really wanted me to induce. I was adament against it and had one OB on my side. But he told me even he would push for induction in a few more days, so I better go for walks eat spicy food, have sex etc... We did all that and nipple stimualtion (OB recomended against nipple stim saying sometimes labor can come too fast and you can't slow it down, but we didn't care)and my labor started. But I think if I hadn't "pushed it" with the natural inducers he would have come on his own a few days later with a shorter labor.

[Soogie]

ds #1 born at 41 weeks. 88 hrs of prodromal labor (contractions every 4 minutes, strong enough where I couldnt walk/talk through them, no cervical change) 8 hours of active labor.

dd #2 born at 40 weeks 3 days 4 hours early labor 6 hours active labor

ds # born at 42 weeks 3 days 12 hours of early labor 7 hours of active labor. And it was my hardest and most painful labor and delivery. I started out at 4cm dilated. walked around like that for 2 weeks before I had him. i thought it would be quick once labor kicked in. nope. ds was posterior and nothing brought me relief.

[cchrissyy]

my 2nd baby was 41wd2 and labor was short- 6 hours.
but considering her big brother had been 9 hours (2 pushing), and second labors don't push as long, that was expected. I don't pin it to her age :)

[Lissybug]

Ds was 42wks 4 days late- 9 hrs active labor plus 1 hour pushing. I basically went straight into active labor (I'd been at 4cm for about a week). I thought my labor went really well :shrug I was just so happy to finally BE in labor :lol

I suppose the original poster of this thread has had her baby by now. Hope all is well!

[captain crunchy]

Hiya!

Our daughter was born at 42 weeks on the nose (and my dates were correct because we had an ultrasound at 38 weeks to be sure she wasn't presenting breech)

My labor was fast, for a first labor too... I had been having contractions on and off for the last couple of weeks but nothing major..

My labor was only about 5 hours of hard labor (what I consider *hard* -- not being able to talk through contractions, having to stop everything during a contraction)...and only pushed for 20 minutes.

She was born at home with the assistance of a fantastic midwife.

[sciencemama]

i started following this thread the day after my due date and finally i can post my experience. :) i went to 41 weeks 3 days. I was 3 cm, 70% at 40 weeks... and the whole labor from 1 st contraction to baby-in-arms was 3 hrs :D !! My 1st was over 20 hrs.

Baby was 7 lbs 11 oz... about the same size as my first... I definitely felt he wasn't "ready" before 41 weeks.

[mimim]

My babies were born successively closer to my EDD and my labors got successively shorter.
1st = 43 weeks, 9 hours
2nd = 41 1/2 weeks, 4 hours
3rd = 40 weeks (to the day), 2 hours

Although, the only time I was charting was the third time, so I don't know for sure how accurate the dates were the first two times.

The shorter the labor the more fast and furious the contractions came, so each labor felt pretty evenly painful.

[artgoddess]

i started following this thread the day after my due date and finally i can post my experience. :) i went to 41 weeks 3 days. I was 3 cm, 70% at 40 weeks... and the whole labor from 1 st contraction to baby-in-arms was 3 hrs :D !! My 1st was over 20 hrs.

Baby was 7 lbs 11 oz... about the same size as my first... I definitely felt he wasn't "ready" before 41 weeks.
Congrats on your new bundle of joy! :love

[EStreetMama]

10 days late and 18 hours of normally painful labor, as far as I can tell. Little bugger had a hand up, so my urge to push was messed up.

[mamapajama]

7 days past due. One hours and a half labor, pushed twice and voila: baby
the pain was very very intense

[Sagesgirl]

Youngest was born at 41 weeks 5 days. I had two weeks of prodromal labor capped off with roughly 41 hours of active labor, and it would have probably been much longer (the active labor) had I not gone to the hospital and all but begged for Pitocin. Of course, she was a completely posterior munchkin, which I do not doubt for a second was the reason for my hard time.

[cappuccinosmom]

I went 42 weeks and a little with my second. 4 hour labor, 15 minutes of pushing. Definately what I would call an easy birth. :thumb

[happyblessedmama]

I was 41w2d, had a 2 hour labor, and it was just about my most painful out of 3. #1's pain was pretty bad, #2 was easy, #3 was back labor & a distressed baby. I had no contractions leading up to actual labor. It was like one moment everytihng was fine and the next, bam, I'm in labor, and it never quit.

[Emilie]

41w5days with dd- 6 hours of labor- very easy.... as far as easy labor goes! lol

[EVC]

I was induced (basically bullied/threatened into it by the OB, but that's another story...) at 41 weeks 3 days. They hooked me up to the IV at around 11:30 AM and DD arrived just after 4 PM. I had planned on a totally natural birth, but as I had heard that induced labor can be excrutiatingly painful, I requested an epi. However, the labor went so fast (so the OB said), that they missed the epi-window and I had to go through without any meds. It was indeed excrutiating (I also had an episiotomy :angry ). But at least it was over fairly quickly.

[Bartock]

They had my due date wrong but figure he was 10-14 days over, i had light contraction, from the time my water broke till he was out was 1 hour 5 mins. Very fast and very painful i was told fast labour is painful, it was.

[limace]

I hope this is true, as I sit here five days overdue :). First DD was a week early and labor was drug free and 2 hours and 40 minutes. I actually hope this one isn't much faster than that, as although the experience was great overall, it felt very out of control in the midst of it, until I could push.

Sara

[Arduinna]

I personally don't consider 41 weeks to be "overdue", it's definately within the range of typical and normal. I went 4 weeks past the Drs "due date" and had a fairly long labor (18 hours) after induction and it was back labor the whole time because she was posterior. So yes it was painful.

[Lizzo]

This is very interesting!
My DS was 11 days overdue and I had 1 hr 45 min of active labor, about 7 hr 15 min total labor. Once I got to 4 cm, it took no time for him to be out.

[UmmBnB]

*42 weeks exactly with #1 (was charting so knew conception date) = 6hr easy labor. Baby didn't look post dates.

*42 weeks or so with #2 (conception date was unclear although we have a good idea) = 3 1/2 hour labor, more intense than first labor but still quite easy and baby literally fell out. Baby had all the characteristics of a post-dates baby.

[Godiva]

45 weeks, 5 weeks "overdue" (I hate that term, my baby came out perfectly on time) I woke up in hard labor after not having a single contraction all pregnancy, contractions about a minute apart for 4 hours, easy easy at that time. She would have been born within the next hour or two if I was at home, but stupid me went to the hospital against my plans, I came in at 7-8 with my labor nearly stopped at that time from leaving my comfy birthing place to somewhere I shouldn't have been. She was born there after 13 hours of labor, 4 hours of pushing (cause it's sooo great to push on your back). So yes I go along with your theory had I not been stupid and messed it all up.