do the 'hours' of labour go fast or slow compared to normal time?

[riskit4abiskit]

reading people's birth stories on here, I notice people saying they were having contractions for x number of hours before pushing - we are expecting our first baby and this sounds awful - hours and hours of pain?

so my question is, did the time in these hours pass slowly or quickly for you?

(please excuse this question if its a bit naïve and silly!)

Definitely fast. I went through to the delivery room a bit after 8pm and had the epidural sited at about midnight. I thought I'd only had a few contractions in there before it got done.

So those 4 hours flew by.

I have a friend who says similar, she thought it was particularly mean of the midwife to get her out of the bath after 20 mins or so. She'd been in it for about 3 hrs.

For your partner however, time may well drag!

Very very slowly for me I'm afraid.

My labours were both overnight and seemed to go very quickly. I was "in the zone" and time lost all meaning really. DH says it went slowly.

Mine went fairly fast, in early stages I focused on small time goals to help. Eg was watching friends on tv and thinking, will get to end of this episode then call hospital, get to end of next then have bath etc.

But to be honest and especially at the end it wasn't so much that time went fast, more I wasn't aware of time at all; just aware of contraction, rest, contraction, rest, contraction, rest etc.

I had six months of it (started before I knew, delivered at 29 weeks) it's like period pain for most of the early stages, so it isn't really being in pain for hours. It's also not constant pain, I always tell myself I'm not in pain, it hurts and goes, so I hold on for when it's past. Once you're actually in labour time doesn't exist, it seems to go on forever and seems over quickly. I always find it weird trying to account for time afterwards because there seems far more of it than I remember!

bit of both. Latent labour can drag. But for me, once in established labour, it speeds up. With DD2 I felt like 4cm to birth was about half an hour but actually it was nearly 3 hours.

interesting... thanks for the replies - sounds like you DO get in a 'zone' then?

It seemed to have been my whole life ! The pushing stage felt like eternity . Ds1 was 2 and a half hours but ds2 was only 20minutes but not really an eternity ! Both born just before 4 am so we were both tired .

I agree about losing all awareness of time. I was vaguely aware of things going on outside of me, but for the most part I was all that existed in the universe. And then all of a sudden it's over, and I was high as a kite on my own hormones!

I'd do labour any day of the week. pregnancy not so much

From first contractions to when my epidural kicked in was 21 hours and it went really quickly for me.

The neocortex, the thinking part of the brain, turns off which is where the zone comes from and why you lose all sense of time.

Hi. Had my first baby four months ago. I did hypno birthing and was in the zone. I requested not to have any clocks, time checks or info about How dilated I was. Time flew. Afterwards I said 'I was only in the pool for half an hour'. I was in for three hours! Many other examples like this. JUst got copy of my notes so it's really interesting to see how things really went. All the best for your own labour.

Very fast for me.

very reassuring stories thanks - interesting about the neocortex

ooh eco I am wanting a waterbirth - does hypbobirthing add to this? I would like to attend the classes if it will help with the waterbirth.

I was induced at 8.30pm and DD arrived 4 hours later. It went very quickly.

I found it went very fast - again I was in a zone. I pushed for 3 hours (!!) but it felt like 20 mins! It was 8.30 when I started pushing and the midwife said you'll have a baby by 9am, so I was quite shocked to find that by the time I'd done skin to skin it was nearly lunchtime! No wonder I was starving :)

I started having contractions around 7pm, went into hospital at 8am, started pushing at 3.30pm DS was born at 5.30pm.

The night at home felt very long as I was trying to sleep but kept getting woken up by contractions or needing the loo. Also, DH was asleep a lot of that time so was a bit bored.

The drive to the hospital (~45mins) seemed to take forever because it was torture having to sit down while having a contraction.

I had my water broken once I got to the hospital so contractions were a lot more painful but I had a few doses of fentanyl (not in the uk). That time seemed to go by very quickly for me as I was totally in my own world and not paying attention to what was going on.

By the time I was pushing all the painkillers had worn off and that stage seemed to take forever mostly because I was frustrated that I didn't seem to be getting anywhere.

I eventually had to get forceps and needed an epidural. The longest bit of the whole experience was definitely the 5 or so minutes I had to sit still while they put the epidural in!

I was in established labour for nearly 24 hours. I lost all concept of time. It may have been the gas and air and epidural or I may have been in 'the zone'.

Very slow at first (from Monday eve until Wednesday morn dragged) but then the 12 hours of established labour went pretty quick. I guess the gas and air helped by that point!

mortified the combination of water and hypno for me was great. You can birth however you like with hypno birthing but I know many choose pools. I had a planned home birth so the pool, along with tens and gas and air were Only pain relief options available. Only used pool in end but the instant I got it it made things feel much better. I think because I could sway through contractions easily. Hypno birthing for me didn't remove pain, although some say it does for them. The main thing it did for me was give me confidence, educate me about the physical process of birth, help my usually anxious self remain calm and empower me to make decisions about my birth. I don't want to hijack this thread but if you want to message me I'd be delighted to chat more. I can email over my account of the birth if that is interesting....tho I suspect not! Think I'm in the minority with my fascination for birth stories! I'd love to hear Kate Cambridge's!

eco I love a good birth account!! will.pm you my email if thats ok. Im.another one who would love to know Kates too.

Mine lasted 30 hours - all painful - so very slowly, really. It was a blessing when I drifted off, but contractions every few mins kept me awake for most of those hours.

Sorry, don't want to be negative! Hopefully your experience will be much better.

Of course it's not silly. Fast for me too but a bit surreal as night seemed like day. Odd.

Both my births were very quick and the pain was tolerable.

Second time around , I spent longer waiting for my discharge papers than I did giving birth. At one stage I was going to walk out but I knew how important it was for DS to have a National Insurance Number. Turns out it is a standard four hour observation time before you are allowed to leave. If only the MW would have explained that instead of disappearing but in her defence it was exceptionally busy.