Anyone had LONG first birth and quick second birth?

[Wilkiepedia]

I am 33 weeks and worrying about labour. First was 26 hours total from first contraction and just seemed ENDLESS. Is there a good chance my second will be a lot quicker?????

My friend went from 48 hours to 6 with her second baby

18hrs first time
6hrs second time

First: from Friday at 3pm (first contraction) to Sunday at 7.30am!

Second: Decided I was probably in labour at around 5pm though not sure, DD born at 10pm so yes! Second stage was only 6 mins (as oppsoed to about 4 hours for DS)

However (and DH thinks I'm mad for this) but I actually found DD's birth a bit more stressful because I was really convinced I wasn't actually in labour and I'm not too sure I had time to accept it!

first labour 5 hours that ended in Csection (was only at 6cm when decided on CS)

second labour 48minutes!!!

DS1 - 30 hours
DS2 - 2 hours

YES!! DD1 like you a massive 26 hours!!!

DD2 was a BBA (born before assistance )after just 2.5 hours of labour

DS planned HB 3 hours.

27 hours from induction with DD1, 3 hours with DDd2 (from nothing to birth)

Oh thanks girls, you are giving me hope. I am just a bit frightened, it wasnt the pain I couldn't cope with, it was the length of time and extreme tiredness TBH.

DS1 - 7 hours

• admitted to hospital at 2.00pm gave birth at 2.40pm.

DS2 - 45 min

• admitted to hospital 7.58am gave birth at 8.03am!!!

had epidural with DD1, nothing with DD2 - I am rubbish with G&A and no time for anything else so v v painful - so quick and intense - but by the time I got to the hospital i was fully dilated and delivered 30 mins laterr - so be prepared for pain but hopefully for not very long.

had epidural with DD1, nothing with DD2 - I am rubbish with G&A and no time for anything else so v v painful - so quick and intense - but by the time I got to the hospital i was fully dilated and delivered 30 mins laterr - so be prepared for pain but hopefully for not very long.

I think my main fear is that I ended up with an epidural with DS1 after 20 hours or so and still only 4cm but this time I am going to a MW led birthing centre so no back up of an epidural if I need one (although I would like to avoid one anyway as had really bad epi headache afterwards and couldn't walk for a good 8 hours afterwards)

Your first birth sounds just like mine, but my second after days of stop-start contractions, finally went for just a 2.5hour proper labour, with just gas and air. So different that for dc3 I was well able to cope with a hb with no pain relief and total labour of 1.5hours.

It is very usual for second labours to be shorter and easier. Hope it goes well for you.

First birth - 40 hours, syntocin, epidural, ending in c/section (they had been planning a ventouse but decided it would be safer just to do the section). Second birth - less than 5.5 hours first contraction to holding baby, just TENS and then gas and air for transition and delivery (and stitches ).

First was 16 hours induction by synto after PROM without spontaneous labour. Ended up labouring for 5 hours and getting to 0.5cm dilated at which point I realised I would have to have an epidural to get through the rest of it. Subsequently ended up delivering with assistance by ventouse.

Second was 5 hours with a dash to hospital to deliver the baby which was a matter of minutes.

Third was less than 2 hours with delivery a matter of minutes again.

Fourth was expecting it to be a quick one, except there was meconium in my waters which went before labour became established. Hospital very keen to induce and monitor baby for distress. So no hope of being able to labour naturally :-( ! HOWEVER, a PMA helped a great deal and despite knowing from first hand experience how horrid the synto drip is, I was able to labour drug free with some entonox to get through transition, to deliver less than 3.5 hours later.

So it should be a lot quicker, but even if it isn't (eg in my case they weren't prepared to let me get established on my own this last time) the experience you have had should help you prepare mentally for what lies ahead. And I cannot tell you how much that counts for!

All my friends who had long first labours were much much quicker second time around, whereas I got a much less dramatic reduction, from 10 hours to 7 hours.

With DS1 induction started Saturday evening. 2 pessaries, ARM, synto drip, two epidurals and THIRTY NINE hours later he was born with forceps (but I was fully prepped for CS if that didn't work).

DS2. Woke up at 2am with contractions. Holding baby by 9.15am. Had G&A, but the evil cows midwives took it away because I was "not concentrating"

20 minutes!

My best mate's first was a 40-hour marathon and her second was so quick that her DP had to deliver him on the living room floor!

Do not fear!

First was 36 hours of contractions, very very slow to get going, synotocin, epidural etc.

Second was 5 hours, water birth at home, fast and furious. Loads more painful but a much better experience.

6 hours second

9 hrs first

first 10hrs second 1 hr frm start 2 finish

first 16 hours and second ( last week ) 5 hours ..

First was 22 hours in total, 14 hours in pain, 2 and a half hours pushing.

Second was one hour 15 minutes! 4 pushes and out he popped!

Good luck!