Are you meant to have relief in between contractions?

[sophiebbb]

A funny question this, but, would love to know everyone's experiences as just about to give birth to no.2 (35 weeks pregnant). When I had no.1 I cannot remember there being any relief (in terms of pain) between contractions ie I was bunched up in permanent pain. My labour was very quick and I did surprise the midwives with how quickly no.1 was born but I was expecting the contractions to stop and start and my labour just felt like one long contraction. Is this normal for a short quick labour?

Every one of my labours was different- only the last was as you describe (also the quickest of the three). With the other two I had may minutes between contractions sometimes. My personal theory is that if they need to come out quickly, they do.

I had 2 long labours (48h and 27h) and one short (2h). They didn't feel much different, apart from progressing faster. There were gaps between the contractions, and as far as I remember, there were never any continuous contractions. Though in transition I couldn't relax between contractions, so they might as well have been continuous. I wonder whether the being "bunched up" affected your perception of the pain? Not saying that it wasn't real! Just that the way I behaved during transition made it feel like I was having one continuous contraction, when I know I wasn't.

my labours were
5hrs
45mins
about an hour

so all pretty quick and intense. and yes, i had gaps between contractions in which to make sarky comments, eat my breakfast, catch my breath, that sort of thing.

There was quite a long patch of my (short!) labour where there were no breaks between contractions. My midwife informed me about that lovely thing, the 'linking' pain, that fills in the gaps between contractions. I never found out any more about it - wasn't in the right place for a lengthy chat...

Mine sounds like yours! I've not heard anyone else say the same though so it's nice to know I'm not the only one!

I had a 32 hour labour, and then a very very quick one, and both times once I was into labour there were no gaps - I've never understood why this happened - both times I had a very long pre-labour when contractions were very close together but weak, but once it got going they were continuous. The second time I was told it was an adverse drug reaction, but that doesn't explain why it happened the first time, so I have no idea, but would like to know.

I stopped to have tea and toast between the second and final stage of labour. I recall very clearly have quite intense contractions, it all quietened down a little, we stopped for a break ate some food, then, about 20 mins later, the final throes, or should I say throws?!!! (chucked up all over DH!) and about hour and half later I gave birth.

All 3 of mine were fast and sound like yours. I had no breaks between contractions really, was very intense. Ds2 was a back to back labour also but was still fast, he was the most painful of them all.

First was about 2 and a half hours, with my second I went from 1-8 cms in an hour but then 2 hours pushing and 3rd was under 2 hours they had it down as. I went from 5cms to fully dilated in a matter of mins. Felt the urge to push at 5cms so they checked me and I was 7, then checked again twice and I was ready to push. Very intense and painful.

Never asked anyone about this before so interesting to see the replies. Like Boco I also had a night of prelabour where the contractions were very weak but very close together. Isn't it amazing how different we all are! I love the tea and toast bit - would have liked that. I ate 3 Fry's Turkish Delight just before labour really got going and on all my post delivery photos you can see it!!!

My 3rd labour was very much like that. Maybe a minute apart from the very beginning and that was only for the first hour. Then the pains were constant (labour was just under 4 hours).

Totally different from my first two labours in which i had time to gather myself together between contractions ...

Good luck btw

My DD was OP and I only had relief in between the contractions when I was in the birthing pool. On dry land, I had definite contractions, but it was exhausting and painful in between them too.
Sadly I didn't have a quick labour (also due to OP) and so I had to get out of the pool, which wasn't much fun. I had 3 days of early labour and 14 hours of intense active labour.

How short was your labour, Sophie?

My first gave me time between, it lasted 8 hours. My second started with them being every few minutes and there was about half a minute between one ending and the next starting, toward the end - barely time to breathe - it was 3 hours in all.

no mine was 27 hours from first contraction to the last and was relentless. i gather this was because dd was back to back, otherwise there maybe would have been gaps between contractions. i did ok though, just gas and air.

No, I didn't have any of those gaps either, and very pissed off about it I was, too. The Nct promised that I would be able to hold normal conversations, eat sandwiches, etc etc., in the painfree spaces between contractions! Ha! The agonising pain was unrelenting! [stamps foot] I also understood this to be because DD1 was in an OP position (back to back) like ruddynorah's DD. I had done all those foetal positioning exercises, angry cat, sexy dinosaur, etc which had no effect at all.

Ah, mine was OP too, girls...

No backache though. Not sure why? He was the right way round when labour started, he must have been turning as he was born looking at the stars

I think maybe it only affected the second stage, they told me it should have been 15 minutes but it was twice that.

They felt him 3 hrs earlier and he was ROA so I'm glad I got a quick first stage anyway!