Long first labour, nice short second labour? Quick survey...

[Groveregg]

I'm 31 weeks pg for the second time and finally trying to face facts and prepare myself for things. Yes I know that this is a "how long is a piece of string" sort of question and noone can tell me for sure how long things will take, but I am trying to get a bit of a feel for things and how much cover I might need to organise for looking after ds, as I haven't got family nearby...

In my first labour, I started to feel contractions late on a Wednesday night and it went on for days with quite a few trips to the hospital, only to be sent home again because I wasn't dilated enough and contractions weren't coming fast enough. Ds was finally born on the next Tuesday afternoon after a lot of spicy food and pineapple and a few hours on a syntocinon drip. So I was at it for nearly 6 days in total. I've heard countless stories of how second labours are quicker but I'm thinking how many days quicker?! Does anyone else have experience of a long first labour like mine and if so how long did your second labour take?

Dd1 - no labour,emergency c-section
Ds1 - 13hrs
Ds2 - 2hrs
Dd2 - 7hrs
I woke up at 6am in labour with ds2 - could of been having contractions all night,bit of a heavy sleeper! Think dd2 thought she was the 3rd labour, had false labourn the wk before and was niggly the whole wk . She did make up for it though because i didn't actually have to push,she kind of just came out. Doeen't say much for the state of my fanjo

both planned homebirths, both transfered to hosp for slow progress. i measure the length of the labour from when i first called the midwives - painful contractions around 3-4 mins apart - even if that's not "established" labour cos not 3 or 4cm or whatever it is, it still counts as part of the hard work imho.

1st: 42 hours
2nd: 30 hours

so yes, shorter, but nothing like as much shorter as everyone had assured me it was bound to be. but the birth itself was more straighforward and didn't need drip/ventouse/episiotomy like first time.

1st: 7 hours (induced, horrible)
2nd: 30 mins (at home, glorious)

1st 7.5 hours from first pain to finish (however I did have strong braxton hicks for about a week and quite possibly something was happening very slowly for a while)
Second 2.5 hours from first pain to finish
Third will be a home birth (not that I'm pregnant yet )

Good luck

from waters breaking to baby born:
1st: 12.5hrs
2nd: 11.5hrs
much longer pushing stage on the first one though.

1st 10hrs
2nd 2 hours (induced,quick but v painful)
3rd 10 hrs (induced)
4th 14 hrs (induced)
5th csec
6th csec

Yes my first labour when I was induced at 41 weeks lasted sixteen hours and ended in an emergency section because my daughter's heartrate was dropping. Luckily everything went ok and she was and is fine. My second labour was with my son, who was stillborn at 37 weeks last December. When I found out he was dead, I was screaming to be given another Caesarian, as I didn't think I could cope with another long labour in the circumstances. The doctor refused and sent me away to think about it, apparantly they will only give you a section if the baby is in danger. During this time I went into labour naturally and my son was born about three hours later. He was small - only five pounds one, which probably made it easier, but he came out in five pushes. Obviously the whole event has had a huge effect on our lives, which we are still struggling to come to terms with. The one positive thing to come out of his birth/death is that I was able to give birth naturally. I hope this hasn't been too shocking for you if you are about to give birth, but I feel that stillbirth is treated as a taboo subject, yet it is surprising common. Did you know there are seventeen stillbirths a day in the UK? That's seventeen families that have to go through what we have been going through every single day, yet it is not often discussed, and I for one have never seen it mentioned on these pages - please correct me if I am wrong. All I would say to anyone who is at all worried about their baby - get it checked out - don't worry about bothering people - that's what they are there for. Anyway in a sort of way my experience follows the premise of the subject thread, but I would give anything to be able to have also had a difficult second labour with a different outcome.

Oh beakerpeaker that certainly puts things into perspective, I really feel for you and for anyone else who has gone through something so awful. I cannot even imagine the anguish you must have been through.

Thanks to everyone for your input, it has been really interesting and it's helped me to come to terms with what will be happening very shortly.

I was too posh to push 2nd time round! Had been dreading it for the whole pregnancy as DS1 was a ventouse with only gas and air throughout....
For weeks I'd been told that DS2 was a small baby with head down but not engaged. Day before my due date at a 'term' consultant check the man said 'I think thats its bum' and sure enough, what the midwives said was the head of a small baby turned out to be the bum of a 9lb breech baby so they booked me in for an elective the very next day.
So there y'go, all those months of worrying for nothing, I just lay there in full makeup and looked gorgeous with perfect hair on the new baby pics!!!
(But honest having experienced both I'd rather push one out and it all be over with on the day than have a section and be an invalid with new baby and toddler to cope with..)

Ist was on & off for 3 days ventouse delivery.
2nd 12 hours, normal delivery.

I've just read the OP again and can say at last, there was someone else like me! Thank god, I was not imagining it then. I started with contractions 2am sunday and DS1 arrived 4am the following Saturday. Afterwards (not previous, she didn't want to worry me!!) My mum said she had the same thing with my older sister. Every night when I rang up the hospital in agony I just kept getting told I wasn't ready to come in and wasn't given the option of coming in for a check. Then finally, finally after a week of 20 min contractions all day and 10 mins all night, they went to 1 minute, got to hospital and he was out 2 hours later, but it wasn't pleasant and there was a ton of people in the room. As I just said in the last post, my 2nd was a breech csection but my mum's 2nd 3rd and 4th were all very speedy and over the same day it started and the 4th was the old coughing and she dropped out (apparently!). Me I have stopped at 2 so I won't be finding out for myself. I gave up telling people about my protracted labour as no-one beleived me, least of all the midwives?!?! So i'm very happy to read your post and wish you a very speedy and pain free labour this time round x

both my labours where short and sweet thank god!!! 1st 2hrs!! 2nd waters broke on wed didn't contract till fri 9pm she was born 12.35am sat 29th april

#1 - 24 hours all in - hospital
#2 - 3hrs niggly, 2hrs labour - domino
#3 - 2hrs niggly, 1hr labour - planned home birth
#4 - well we'll just have to wait and see but I want a home birth again. The way my labours go, there's no point in me getting in the car. No one would valet it afterwards

Long drawn out first, fantastic slipped out second, back to long drawn out third.
The order was boy,girl,boy. Obviously the boys felt they needed to stay in the comfort zone of their mum for longer.

First labour 4 hours start to finish, second labour 40 mins!!

Third (after 10 years since my 2nd) about 5 hours..... (home birth)

My darlings did get gradually bigger too - 7lb 15oz, 8lb 5oz then 10lb!!!

Thank goodness for Gas & Air.....

first was 7 hours, natural birth in hospital weighed 8lb 13oz..
second was induced but no pain relief again and only 3 hours and weighed 7lb 14oz.
if mad enough to have another would want to go on the drip they induced me on as the contractions came fast and controlled!!