third labours the hardest?

[maybemaybee]

I have had people tell me this, and my new midwife told me in her experience there is normally always 'something' in a third or fifth labour, thats not the norm! I know you cant predict labour and third time round i know pretty much what to expect anyhow, but i was considering a home birth. I am 30 miles away from nearest hopsital however for transferring. I have been told this isnt a problem should that happen, but not sure i feel comfortable. How was your third labours, just to humour me?

no 1 - C-section
no 2 - back to back, long and veterinarian (he was ok, they wouldn't discharge me...)
no 3 - labour ok up until birth then 5 weeks in SCBU
I'm not very good at this, am I? Don't think I'm playing any more....

My 3rd and 5th were both unattended hb (not through choice, but speed of labour!)

No. 1 - 12 hours, straightforward
No. 2 - 6 hours, no problems
No. 3 - 2 hours home delivery - wonderful
No. 4 - lots of false starts over two weeks then a rather painful 6 hours trying to get a very stubborn baby out. I felt cheated!

NO 1st worse hv said 3rd babies aren't harder just UNPREDICTABLE true i had to be induced at 40+13 !

for me - 3rd eaiest by a long mile

Would have to agree, and it was certainly the fastest and most furious. I wouldn't hang around when labour starts!

My m/w puts 3rd labour complications down to the fact babies have more room to move around because your womb is less firm! They can be breech until the final weeks. My DC had clearly tied herself in knots with her cord.

No point worrying about it though. Whatever happens, you'll cope, and you'll recognise the different stages which makes things far less worrying than in your first 2 labours.

DD (DC3) was born last week and took a bit longer (about 8 hrs) than DS2 (DC2) (about 6 hrs) but only the last couple of hours really hurt, so that was about the same. DD was facing sideways though so perhaps that was my "different" factor. DS1 (DC1) was longer and much worse but he was induced. On the whole I reckon the 3rd labour thing is a myth!

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