Is pre-/early labour shorter second time around?

[parsleymad]

I had a really long pre-labour/early labour with my ds1, leaving me exhausted before I even got to established labour and then a fairly traumatic birth. I am now 40+1 with ds2 and wondering what people's experience of early labour was like second time around. The consensus is that established labour is often much shorter, but what about early labour? What was your experience?

dd1 was born 40+6 wks and labor was 8 hrs from onset. dd2 was born 42+1 was in slow labour for 2 weeks when it finally started was 7hrs. ds 3 was born 40+2 onset at 9am in morning when front waters went but no pain changed at noon he was born at 5.41 so 5.41hrs from pain onset. My 1st and second were the same sorry that I can't give you the question you'd like but both of mine were fairly fast.

My first labour lasted 50 hours from start to finish and ended with a traumatic forceps delivery. My 2nd labour, from the first contraction to the birth lasted 5 1/2 hours and was totally natural with just a couple of tiny stitches after, so there is hope.

dd2 was exactly same labour time as dd1 7 hrs, but was quicker with pushing 13 mins, as opposed to 40 mins for dd1

not for me.

2nd was longer than first and first was bloody long and horrible!

It is statistically more likely that second will be easier/quicker though.

In my experience as a midwife, the early/latent stage of labour can be longer and sometimes the signs of labour can go on for a while although are usually much more bearable and relaxed so its more likely that you'll want to stay at home during this period or may not even notice as much as with the 1st. More often than not, once labour is established, it does go more quickly, mainly because your cervix has already done a lot of the hard work. I would suggest that during that early part of labour, as much as is bearable, to get on with tasks or activities that distract you in between plenty of rest and regular snacks so that you're not exhausted by established labour. In addition, look into natural ways of accelerating labour, such as nipple stimulation, herbs etc to help get things moving a bit quicker.

With my 4th and 5th babies I had very strong bh's for a week or so beforehand. Then when I went into proper labour there was no gentle build up. The contractions weren't there one minute and were in your face and excruciating the next. The babies came very quickly. THB I would much rathr have a slower more gentle labour.

I was in labour for 22 hours with DS1- and in active for about 8 of those although the pre labour was seemed just as painful to me!- and it took me 2.5hrs to push him out.
My waters broke with DS2 and I went straight into active labour and gave birth 4 hrs later after 7mins of pushing. The only 'pre labour'I had with him was a bit of back ache.
Hope that is reassuring. (it was also though a big shock that DS2 was so fast and I was glad I had a home birth as I would never have got to hospital as I would have left it too late)