Does your experience of labour follow your mother's?

[Chocalholic1]

I've heard this lately - that if your mother was overdue/had a long labour etc. then you are likely to share the same experience? Similarly, if her's was quick and easy yours is likely to be too! This is my first baby so I can't comment but I wondered what others' experiences were and whether they agreed?

Between my Nan, Mum, Aunt, 2 Cousins and myself we haven't had a labour above 3 hours and the shortish is half an hour. All fairly straight forward births except when my brother was born and they really botched it up (Mum had to have a hysterectomy a few years later because of it.) One of my Cousins also had a bad birth because of mis management. Heaviest baby 8lb 10 oz, smallest baby 5lb. So we all follow the same path in our family.

No. I practically fell out of my mother into the floor the ambulance. Mine needing prising out with a crow bar!

My mum (according to her....) had some labour pains, had pethadine, fell asleep and woke up just in time to push us out......, so no, my labour (and pgs) were nothing like hers apparently were.

Yes - My mum had me 2 days early, 3 hours start to finish. I had DD 2 days early my notes record me as being in labour 2.5 hours (although it was a little longer at home)both straight forward. I think because my mum was in labour for a short time, I convinced myself that I would be too from the very earliest stages of pregnancy.

Fairly similar in some ways, my brother and I were similar weights to my DD1 (7lb 12) but my mother never had to experience my chunky nearly 10lb DD2! Both 6 - 8 days late for all children. Good luck!

Interesting - my mum's labours were 4 hours with me and 5 hours with my bro (vaginal breech delivery - ouch!). I have 2 boys, 1st breech (is that hereditary too...?) but c-section and 2nd was a 4 hours VBAC. We were pretty much similar.

On timings though, both mine were early, and she was induced both times - but for high blood pressure I think (mine was always low).

Good luck chocaholic, hope it goes well!

Nope
She tells me it's the only thing I'll ever be able to do better than her...

Nope ! My mum told me she didn't even feel any contractions !! Me and my two sisters just "popped" out....

My 1st labour took 42 hours .. and errr yes the contractions did sting "a bit"

Nope - Mum had two short(ish) labours where her waters broke long before her contractions began. I had two longish labours (22 and 18 hours) and my waters broke in the labour room when I was almost ready for the second stage. The pattern I have seen is that a lot of mums have similar labours with their own children. Sorry, this is not much help to you ...

Before I had dd(1)Mum told me to put a plastic sheet on the bed because her waters went in the night. This never happened. I got irregular contractions from 10am on a Friday. After my dh phoned to tell her I was in the labour room on the Friday night my Mum turned up at the hospital at 8am on Saturday morning expecting me to be in bed with a new baby beside me!! I was still in labour - until I had dd at 2pm. (Mum thought that dh had been deliberately ignoring her.)

(My grandmother died long before my mum met my dad, so mum never bothered to find out about how her mum's labour went. I'm really not sure why she assumed my labours would be similar to her own)

No, mine was 24 hrs, slow, was induced, epidural, pushed to no avail and ended up with emergency c section.

Both me and sister were born within 2 hours, as mum kept reminding me when i was hobbling around post op having lost loads of blood and in shock. (Cheers). She had pethidine and apparently they had to tell her when the head was there

DS was 2 weeks early, waters broke, induced, no action, emergency c-section as stuck in my pelvis.

Mum - 3 children - me second, all late, all long and painful, only gas and air for pain relief - all vaginal deliveries.

I'll elect for c-section again. I don't want to go through what I did another time. I'm not a campaigner for VBAC either - might sound lame, but that's me !

Am I the only one with a mother who would not think of discussing such a thing. In fact when I lost my 2nd baby she told my brother I had made a mistake and that I wasn't pregnant after all!

Nothing alike....my ds was born after a 24 hour labour, no pain relief, small tear. My mum had all 3 of us in hospital in the 1970s - I was an induction, pethidine, gas and air, forceps, stitches, the works. My sister and brother were both about a 3 hour labour each. My sister has had 2 sections (an emergency one at 27 weeks and an elective one at 38 weeks) Am planning to have another baby myself so hope I get a 3 hour labour next time!

My mum won't really talk about it tbh. All she would say before I gave birth was "well it's not nice" - understatement of the century I'd say, but I think I'm glad I didn't get gory details. I think she can't really remember tbh but I gather she found it pretty horrendous, as did I. I had a bloody awful back labour though Chocalholic1 - I'm sure you'll be fine!

Secondhand rose .. hmm perhaps we're related, my mum (apart from the contractions don't hurt comment the only thing she'd say about labour) also told said (after being diagnosed with cervical cancer at the age of 28.. oh well "no grandkids for ME then"

Shes a joy

only read op but:
My mum didn't realise she was in labour for ages. Gave birth very soon after getting to hospital. No drugs. SHort easy birth. Same when she gave birth a second time (except she realised she was in labour). She also had terrible morning sickness during her pregnancies and I think only put on 1/2 stone with one of them.

Neither my pregnancy or my labour was anything like my mum's at all. Couldn't have been much different if I tried.

However cos my mum had had such 'easy' births I wasn't scared of giving birth at all - so that made a difference.

Not really, I've had 4 quick easy births, all went the same i.e. contractions first, with waters not breaking till 2nd stage.

I know my own birth started with waters breaking in the middle of the night, as my mother was fond of recounting how she went off to hospital at 3am leaving my father, who was in the middle of a nervous breakdown at the time, out of his head on tranquilisers to look after my siblings , then she 'had' to have a drip to speed things up and I wasn't born till 3pm.

She also had one premature birth (32 weeks?) with lots of blood so I suppose the placenta abrupted, and the baby was born breathing ok but they whisked him away and told her a few hours later that he'd died . She never found out why, other than 'prematurity'

So all in all, I'm glad I haven't followed in her footsteps, although her last baby (me) was her biggest at 6lb 10, and my first and smallest was exactly that weight, so it would have been nice to copy that bit!

my grandmother had pre-eclampisa with both her daughters (i think she called it hypertension something then), my mother was induced early due to severe pre eclampsia with both my brother and I, AND i had eclampsia and so induced early with ds1 and severe pre-eclampisa with ds2 (also induced early).

there seems to be a definit pre eclampsia gene in our family, luckily i had 2 boys so i dont have to watch my child go through the same thing.

First thing my mum said to me after I had given birth is that I didn't follow the 'family pattern' - her 3 labours, my auntys 2 and my sisters 3 were all quick and easy - mine was 24 hours, DS got stuck and ended in a c-section!

Helpful comment from my mum though

Nope - my Mum had great pregnancies and deliveries 'natural' with both of us. I had the labour from hell - but apparently my Mum told me afterwards she was worried as my Grandma and Great Grandma had terrible labours. I felt awful all during my pgn too - just your luck I think.

Unfortunately not.

My Mum appears to have just popped us all out during home births with very short labours and sudden appearances by us.

My labours in contrast have been long and tortuous.

I wonder whether its because we all lead more sedentary livestyles now so our bodies are less efficient perhaps?

Foxabout2pop - there is something in your theory, it's possible that women nowadays are more likely to have a posterior/OP baby and difficult labour because of sedentary lifestyles, sitting on chairs and flopping on sofas etc. Hence the advice to get on your knees and scrub floors in late pregnancy to get the baby into a good position....

My 3 labours were nothing like my Mums 1.
She had a tough time and I ended up in special care because I was tiny even though I was almost 3 weeks late.

My babies have all been late, between 1 and 2 weeks.
Longest labour was the first, 9 hrs.
Second was induced but only took 1 hr 55 mins.
Third was induced and took 1 hr 24 mins.

I had positive thoughts about the staff all 3 times and couldn't say a bad word about being induced. I heard so many horror stories about induction but I am proof that there are positive experiences too.

No, but she was induced due to pre-eclampsia. In the days of automatic shaving, stirrups and injections to dry up your milk as b/f was something only weirdos did! I had 'natural' birth in a midwife led unit. Regretted not being able to get an epidural, though!