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Talk to me about dealing with a super short labor.

634 views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  soso-lynn 
#1 ·
It's funny, I've been hoping for one all along, and now that I'm getting close, I'm getting freaked out about it!

My first two labors were long, start to finish, but that's because they started with SROM. Active labor with #1 was about 12 hrs, and with #2 was more like 9...even that is a long estimate. With #1, from 5cm to delivery was probably 6 hrs, with #2 it was 4ish. Dd's labor was super short for me, 4 hrs total, and 1 hr between a 5cm check and birth. So I am thinking ... it is very possible we are going to be fast and furious!

We are homebirthing, and I am planning on having dh take the kids over to our neighbours' for the birth if it's during the day (just our personal choice, they are small, and numerous
and I don't have another person who can watch them at our house).

How did you make it through a short and intense labor? Was your house in a total uproar? Tell me about it...did you like it?
 
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#2 ·
well i didn't birth at home and i only had 1 at the time...but since we have no family and were driving to a birth center i guess i will throw in my experience. our babysitter was called at 8p.m. and didn't arrive till 9. doesn't seem that long right? WRONG....it took 15 minutes to get out of the tub, into the car and another 15 to drive, get back OUT of the car and into the BC....dd was born a few minutes shy of 10 pm. i was in SHOCK that it happened so fast. nothing seemed to be in an uproar as ds went to bed right before the babysitter got there and didn't even know we were gone! had it been during the day i don't know WHAT was going to happen (our friend wasn't really a GOOD friend just someone reliable about kids but flaky about plans.
)

the most advice i have (or would think about) is to try and be super prepared. if you can be hyper caught up with the entire house (you should ask for a late moms day present for a top to bottom house cleaning) and then do all the little things every day. that way if the kids have to be home you aren't worrying about what to feed, what to wear, where in the FREAK your birth tub is (under that mountain of dirty clothes right??!
) etc. since you have 4 already i would say that you are already well indoctrinated in the world of half minded chaos. you'll do great! congrats!
 
#3 ·
My first contraction hit me like a tornado at exactly 5pm (for some weird reason I thought of looking at the time). My brain completely shut off and it did not even occur to me that I could be in labour. I starting throwing up immediately and went in the shower to clean off the vomit from my hair. I could not not make out any contractions, just a big, unstopping one. Around 5:30 I called my friend, just to let her know. Apparently, the only word she could make out was baby, so she decided to come over, but did not get there until baby was crowning. The rest is a bit of a blur. I know I called the midwife around 6, she got there around 6:20, I was in the tub by then (how, I do not know). I started pushing, wanted to get up and stand up but ended up jumping on the bed and lying on my side. I had no control over anything, nothing was being processed in my mind until the midwife said, peaking from the door, that I should reach down and feel the beautiful dark hair. I re
gained reality for a second there, long enough to see my friend in the other room and the head crowning. I got really excited and gave a conscious push which hurt like hell. The midwife came closer and put a warm washcloth on my perineum then. The head came out right then (no tears!) and I just stared at her as she was turning (it felt like everything was in slow motion) and then the rest of her came out in a gigantic gush of fluid at 6:45.

The whole thing was just crazy, I did not fully re-enter reality until later on that night when I woke up with a baby next to me and everyone was gone. I think it was a great experience. The reason I think I was able to just go with it and not be overwhelmed was that I truly had no expectations at all. I had not visualized anything, I did not have a preference for any specific scenario (except bad ones, of course) and I really trusted that I would just go with it. I had several episodes of contractions in the days before and even then, it never occurred to me to time them or wonder if I was in labour or anything like that. I know it is not necessarily how most people go about it, but it works very well for me.

As for the uproar, I think that, not counting the exploding fluid, the house would have probably been more messy if I had laboured for several hours, going from room to room, etc. I had no other kids (or anyone else living with me) so that was not an issue, but I assume that if I had them there, my labour might have slowed long enough for me to get them to safety if it was a concern. I was very loud, screaming my head off the whole time so I can see how having children around might have either scared them or preventing me from doing that.

Basically, my point is that a fast labour can be really intense but I don't think it is something to fear or worry about. My advice would be to just go with it and try not to think too much. Perhaps you can prepare your neighbour, Dh and whoever to know to come get the kids and do whatever else needs to be done if you call them babbling incoherently. I barely remembering calling anyone, so expect to not be able to explain anything in detail to them. Do not, however, expect it to be fast, so you don't get all excited at the first contraction and then have it slow down because of stress.
 
#4 ·
We had our one and only child at a hospital, but I had a super-fast labor, especially for a first-timer, so I can chime in on that.

My membranes broke at about 2:30 a.m. at home, and 4 1/2 hours later, I was ready to push. Labor went MUCH more smoothly, quickly, and easily than I ever imagined. I went into labor understanding that I needed to surrender to the process and moaned my way through it as I walked around the house.

Then we jumped into the car and went to the hospital, but I should have had enough trust in myself to stay home, darnit! Next time...
 
#5 ·
My "super short" labour with DD was AMAZING.
Truly, I'd do it all again in a flash if I knew I could have one exactly like that again.

I had my first pains at around 2am in the morning, and they were about 5 - 10 mins apart. I rang my mum to come over and rang my midwife. Mum got here at 2.30am, and my contractions suddenly sped up to 2mins apart and very intense.

I sat on the toilet with DH rubbing my back (just felt like the best place to be, LOL!) and the midwife arrived at 3am. DS (aged 17 months) was still sleeping at this stage.

The moment the midwife arrived my body started bearing down and pushing. I had no control over it at all and freaked out a little, crossing my legs to hold the baby in! I didn't want her to be born into the toilet!

The midwife helped me to the living room, but I refused to push, thinking it was all going too fast.

Finally I realised the baby was coming out anyway, and out she came at around 3.30am, still in her bag of waters. I hadn't pushed once - my body just eased her out by itself - a very odd feeling!

I was over the moon as I couldn't believe how easy it had all been. It was intense, yes, but not painful. My vagina wasn't even sore or bruised, possibly due to being cushioned by the bag of waters. No tears, no grazing, no soreness, and this was all after birthing a 10lb 10oz baby girl in less than 90 minutes.


DS woke up just as I birthed DD and came out to a happy group of people. He then went and played in his sandpit at 4am.
 
#6 ·
My labor with my first was 18 hrs, my second took 3 hrs 40 minutes, and my third took 1 hr 15 minutes.

My first two contractions with my 3rd were 3 minutes apart, and peaking after 30 seconds.. BUT, I couldnt talk through them straight off. I called my midwife, and because they were so short, she told me it would probably be a while. I kept timing them, and about 1/2 hr into labor, I had my DH get up out of bed, because I needed moral support. He started helping me with my breathing. The birthing pool was not at our house yet, midwife still had it. I asked him to go start filling the tub, and he did, and called the midwife back when I told him I was starting to feel pressure to push and had some significant bloody show. My midwife said she figured it was still too soon and that I must be wrong. So she is still at her house, and it gets to be about 6 am. I call my mom because I really really just cant deal with the contractions and I ask for prayer. At this point they are 1 minute long and 2 minutes apart. I hang up with her because I can feel another contraction coming, and it was a PUSHING contraction. I sat on the couch during that contraction and several things went thru my head... what happens if you push and its too soon, my midwife wasnt there so what should I do, etc. The contraction ended and I ran to the bathroom yelling "she's coming, she's coming" and scrambled into the bathtub. I said a quick prayer that I wouldnt tear badly and that baby and I would be okay, and sat down in the tub and the baby crowned! One more contraction, and she was out. My husband guided her out, and jokes that the force with which she expelled herself was so great that if his hands handt been there, she might have hit her head on the opposite end of the tub. She was like a rocket!

She was all tangled up in her cord, so DH had to turn her a few different ways to unloop her, and then he handed her to me. He turned the light off in the bathroom and turned the light on in the hallway, and then called the midwife. She was in her driveway getting ready to stop and get us bagels and stuff to settle in for what she was sure was going to be a much longer labor. She was shocked that I had given birth, and came over.

In retrospect, my midwife can't figure out why she got it in her head that I didnt know what I was talking about, she and I are good friends, and Ive never called her if I wasnt really truly in labor, but my "wildcard" labor turned out to be just that. With my contractions only being 30-45 seconds long, she interpreted that incorrectly.. its the intensity, not the duration, that you should be concerned about. She was thrilled that we got to have a UC, and was so glad it was us and not other couples in her practice who might have been really freaked out by it. She knew my DH is really level headed.

It was thrilling, and its a great story. But it did freak me out and I did need to process it afterward. Having a birth that is under 1 1/2 hrs tends to feel like youre on an express train.. fast, furious, superpainful, no time to recover between contractions, etc.

Also, in that labor, my placenta took 45 minutes to come out. My midwife said that its not uncommon for it to take longer than usual in the case of a precipitous birth.

Felicity weighed 9 lbs even, and was 20 1/2 inches long. I had a small tear where I always tear, worth about 2 stitches. And my recovery was a breeze.

(Now, after a 3 hr 40 minute labor with #2 and a 1 hr 15 minute labor with #3, you'd expect my 4th to have come out in 20 minutes right? Wrong. He took 5 hrs and 45 minutes, and I pushed for over an hour! Its no guarantee that they just get faster and faster.)
 
#7 ·
My fastest birth was baby #2. About 1hr40mins start to finish. Hurt like hell, but essentially began with transition contractions, and husband and midwifes arrived as I was pushing. I had put my 15mo to bed two hours before and he slept through it all.
 
#8 ·
ifmama~ i am not sure what our 3rd birth will be like but thanks for the times! ds was 16 (or 10 depending on how look at it) hrs and dd was just under 4 hrs.....i totally exspect a 2 hr labor for the 3rd. as for your sons labor....it was longer cause he was a boy!


i enjoyed my fast and furious birth tremendously. in fact to me it was so short that i didn't even really have any time to b1tch and moan about pain or do much wondering or self reflection! dare i say i almost wished it was longer!!
i was all prepeared with pretty music, and techniques and all that stuff and didn't use it once.
 
#9 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by IfMamaAintHappy View Post
Also, in that labor, my placenta took 45 minutes to come out. My midwife said that its not uncommon for it to take longer than usual in the case of a precipitous birth.
I heard that too, but my placenta came out in about 5-10 minutes. Maybe it was because DD was nursing vigorously from the first second she was out. She literally jumped from my uterus to my breast. I think that was perhaps the most shocking part of it all. She was on my chest, actively moving and pulling herself up while searching for the breast. She did not unlatch for at least 45 minutes after that. Made me feel sad for all the babies who are ripped from their mom's arms into a bath or a scale or whatever as soon as they are born.
 
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