Poll - how big was your baby and how hard was your labour?

[beartime]

I've been reading the Gentle Birth posts about dieting leading to a smaller baby which means an easier labour, so wanted to see if this is really true. Also should take into account if the baby was healthy or not afterwards - because maybe small means less healthy?

So can you give your baby weight, length of labour, any complications and health of baby?

Mine was 8lb 7oz, 17hrs from first twinge, got cord stuck round his neck which led to episiotomy and ventouse, very healthy. Also tore.

5 hours of "real" labour... ds was 7 lb. 6 oz. I'm a small (well, short) woman so I looked huge! Needed ventouse and episiotomy and then he had low blood sugar so in NICU for the first few days, a bit scary but in the end fine.

garfields girl what's the secret of no pain??!

10lbs 4 oz - 18 hours, 6 hours without an epidural overcontracting (has anyone else had experience of this?) then 11 hours with an epidural and with nothing happening. Drip to strengthen contractions and eventually pushed him out in 45 mins, with help of ventouse. It hurt - alot!! Tore but not badly and had no probs after.

LOL Kama - mine came out arm first, like superman!

First baby (DD)8.3lb 2weeks early, 4.5hours (start to finish). She had the cord around her neck and was also a compound presentation (arm/hand over her head) and third degree tear which led to removal of labia (hhhhmmmmmm it brings tears to my eyes when I think about it, but my dd is an absolute angel so I'd do it all again) Due to the speed and type of delivery her face was a strange blue/purple bruised colour for weeks. She has had no problems relating to birth and was breast fed until she was 18months. I managed to pile on 4 stone with dd.
Ds was 9lb and 3days early. Labour was 1.5hours start to finish and was absolutely spectacular (in an extremely painful way). No pain relief (labour was too quick) and surprisingly not a single tear. He is absolutely beautiful, and is on the 99.6 percentile for his size/weight without any probs relating to birth, and still bf happiny at 7months. I managed to pile on 3stone with ds.
With DD i obviously went in blind with regards to the pain of labour and allowed the midwife to boss me about and all but strap me to the bed, so with ds I was absolutely scared witless around 2months before he was due, because I could remember the pain of my first labour. However a few weeks before dd was born my husband found out he had cancer, which managed to put things in perspective somewhat (hence a very short, relatively painless not getting bossed about by anyone labour, as there were other things on my mind other than physical pain). All is well in my house and I have the greatest admiration for every woman who gives birth....whatever the circumstance!!! (Apologies for the longest thread...I dont get a chance to talk about it very often)

Sorry, reading thread backwards as usual - what's this about dieting during pregnancy for a small baby? Where I came from people used to smoke to get the same effect (not me tho, I got out of there as soon as I left school )

I had a whopper but didn't put on much weight, say a stone. I'm a veggie too.

sos i meant a few weeks b4 ds was born (aug 05)

Ds - 9lb 12, 12 days overdue, 13 hour labour, 2nd degree tear, lots of stitches

Dd - 10lb 2, 14 days overdue, 3 hour labour, no stitches, very easy birth!

DS was 9lbs 11 on due date 9 induced). Epidural and long 2nd stage - 2 hr 30 mins and episiotomy. DD was 1 wk overdue, 9lb10 , 6 hours, gas and air, 35 min 2nd stage and 2nd deg. tear. DD 2 was 8lbs 4, about 6 hours in the water, no tear and came out after 3 pushes in just a few mins. Fantastic. Don't know why she was so much smaller - prob. running about after 2 under 4s for 40 wks and throwing up constantly.

Absobloodylutely Mrsaek, me too!

oh well I'm confused now!

Baby 1 - 8lbs 13 oz - 30 hour labour
Baby 2 - 8lbs 7 1/s oz - 15 hour labour
Baby 3 - 8 lbs 10oz - 7 1/2 hour labour
Baby 4 - 8lbs 10 1/2 oz - 14 hour labour
All very healthy baby. Only complications were in first labour when I had an episiotomy, was hooked up to a drip and ended up having a post-partum haemorrage.
When I was pregnant with the fourth, my ante-natal yogo teacher told me about the theory of not eating refined sugar so that the baby wouldn't be too large. I followed this as rigorougly as I could bear and still ended up having a baby of almost exactly the same weight as the other three. It did help in trying to lose post-baby flab as I didn't put too much weight :)

Bloody big and bloody awful!

V healthy though

7lb on the dot - and 50 hour labour ending in crash caesarean....

DD1 - 16.5 hours from waters going. Easy labour and birth because of epidural. Not tears/stitches 6lbs 6oz

DD2 - 7.5 hours from first twinge. Epidural failed, arrived face first and back to back. Labour was hell, but easy. No stitches or tears. 7lbs 4oz

oh, you wanted the health info - he was fine despite crash C/S, scored 9 & 9 for Apgar tests when newborn and had no health problems - had absolutely no inclination to suck or latch on though so BF failed. He's been a healthy baby compared to most of my friends/family, only a couple of viruses and a few mild colds in his life.

the size of a house judging by the pain

6lb 13oz - 32hr labour ending in emergency caesarean (small pelvis) - but very healthy baby!:)

DD was 7lb 14 oz, almost exactly on the median percentile, and my labour was 37 hours. That said, she was a posterior baby which definately contributed to the length of labour and the second stage went very smoothly.

DD1 7lbs 1oz, 17 hour labour, forceps, low blood sugars
DD2,8lbs 10oz 8hour labour, normal delivery healthy baby.
DD3 7lbs 4oz 12 hour labour, normal delivery, needed resuscitating.

7lb 1oz
37.5 weeks gest
3 hours labour from start to finish
No intervention, painkillers or health problems for either of us

DS1 induced labour of 16 hours (established) at 36+ weeks ( because I was pre-eclamptic) 5 lbs 5 oz. Very healthy once jaundice passed and feeding established so from about day 8-present. Slight tear resulting in 3 stitches.

DD1: 6 hours from first twinge to 2 push delivery. Denied being in labour it was SO much less painful than induction. 6lbs 15 oz. Less healthy. Again very jaundiced followed by many ear, sinus and chest infections despite being exclusively breast fed (and a natural feeder from birth). No tear but retained placenta that led to infection for me...

DS2: 4 1/2 hour from 1st twinge to two push serene homebirth. 7lbs 8oz. Even less healthy. Very jaundiced and then septic with a serious bacterial infection that caused him to spend 3 seperate spells of one week each in hospital on IV anti-biotics. He was also exclusively breast-fed for the first 6 1/2 months.

DD2 (only two weeks old) After many false starts, labour was augmented with pitocin and membranes ruptured. By far my worst labour. No pain relief and 'forced' to labour on my back in bed so baby could be monitered. Horrific experience but in fact only 7 hours. 6lbs 13 oz. Very challenging to feed so far (but given a bottle both nights at the US hospital where she was whisked off to the 'nursery' for 'observatons', 'weighing' and 'bathing' despite my teary, insane protests!! . So far very healthy and mush less jaundiced than her brothers and sister before her.

Re-reading my post I am thinking that if I was the only persn to respond that it might throw your whole theory as my two smallest were my longest labours but went on to be my healthiest children... HMMMMM.... (I am also aware of the fact that I still sound very bitter about DS2's birth. I will go and sort myself out since she is such a blessing that it doesn't really matter how awful a start we had.) I am off to have a big snuggle with her and DS1 who is on the sofa sick with a tummy bug at the moment.

Hope you find the answers you seek. (meant to add that I gained about 1 1/4 stone with each pg except DD1 where I only gained 1 stone and all after 20 weeks as I was so ill with morning sickness during her pg.

7lb 14oz
24 hours est labour
posterior position
epidural
ventousse
forceps
em section
1 week in SCBU
pissed off

No tears, stitches or complications with my biggest 3 either...

DS - 9lb 10 oz, 9.25 hour labour, had to have oxytocin drip because of long second stage, episiotomy and lots of stitches. But only had g&a for pain relief.

DD - 8 lb 12 oz, 4.75 hour labour, 5 min second stage, no stitches, just a slight graze, couple of puffs of g&a.