[wallermama]

Just like Raven who posted before me, I had a surprise unassisted homebirth last month. I had my daughter 4/28 after 21 minutes of labor. She came out in one incredible contraction and fell onto my living room carpet! She too had tears in her cord, so we called her the Bungee Jumper.

No one ever prepares you for how fast labor CAN be!

Ellen

 

[ozzyemm]

WOW!!!!! That is crazy!!! Congratulations! Is this your first? I want a fast labor

 

[Raven]

Ellen - congrats!!

Having short labours are not easy... I was in labour for 2hrs 40 mins with my second birth and from my waters breaking to third stage (expulsion of placenta) was 3 mins with my third birth. It takes a toll on the body. I was shocked afterwards and needed a fair amount of Rescue Remedy to stop the involuntary shaking.

The way I see it is that the body still has to do the same amount of work in terms of dilation, etc and a short labour means the body is under a huge amount of pressure in a very short span of time... Psychologically it can be a bit hectic too. Its nice to be able to keep up mentally with your body.

 

[shireen]

I totally agree; fast labors are a blessing in that they're over quickly, but with DD #4, she had a bit of transient tachypnea of the newborn (TTN) because she literally flew out of me! All my other labors were about 2 hours, but DDs did fine. I agree; your body does so much in what takes an average of 10 hours in a matter of minutes!!

P.S. Raven, I have the same first name as you...Shireen!

 

[Nikki Christina]

wow.. Congratulations!

my 2nd labor was 2 hours 5 mins.. after her birth my uterus didnt contract back very fast & I almost needed a transfusion.. but my doc gave me pitocin & massaged me & was able to get it to stop
I was so afraid of a quicker birth that I induced with my last birth

it was still short.. 4 1/2 hours.. but that was a good time & I was prepared..lol

 

[mauiwith3]

Short is not often easier. I it a shock and sometimes more stressful

 

[Artisan]

Wow -- my goodness!

 

[Stacymom]

I had a super fast labor too- about an hour and fifteen minutes start to finish. It went so fast that I ended up delivering in the fron seat of our minivan, on the side of the freeway, with just my husband attending.

I agree that it can be both wonderful and terrifying. I ended up with extensive tearing because she came out so fast.

The evil OB/GYN that stiched me up said it looked like I had sat on a hand grenade. I really wished I would have had someone there to guide me through the pushing stage.

It also took me a fair amount of time to process. My daughter was born around two in the afternoon, and around two in the morning, I started shaking and couldn't sleep. I couldn't believe what had just happened, and a poor nurse that came in to check on me ended up staying and talking with me for about a half hour until I could calm down.

And this is a fun thread for me, because my little freeway baby turns two tomorrow.

 

[2+twins]

I had a 90 minute start to finish birth. I think 4-5 hours would be nice.

I equate it with the 50 thousand brick analogy:

You have 50 thousand heavy bricks sitting at one side of a football field and you have to move every last one over to the other side. There are 3 ways of going about this. Slow, medium, or fast. With slow, it takes a long time and the work is hard and wearing, but you can deal as you aren't carrying many bricks at once (except that it *is* taking a long time so that can be physically & mentally exhausting). Medium is a nice steady pace. Not too fast, not too slow. Very hard work but you get through it without being overly tired. Fast - well, you're lifting hundreds of bricks at a time and RUNNING across the field to get it done. It's VERY hard and VERY fast and you can't help but be taken by the intensity of it.

Anyway, that's one (very general) way to look at it.

 

[sarathan]

I agree, I think super fast labors can be hard. My 2nd birth was soo fast. The labor part was a breeze, I probably only had about 8-10 contractions total. But the pushing stage was awful! It was way too intense and there was no break. I would have preferred a longer pushing stage with breaks between the pushes, kwm?