True or False : 2nd Labours are easier and faster?

[pigleychez]

Basically as the Title says.
Share you exepriences with me Im currently due with DB2 and had a horrible 27 hour labour with DD.
Really hoping for a better seccond one!

not for me.
Ds1 was 10 hours
Ds2 was 10lb and back to back.(11 hours) I also had to have an epesiotomy again.
DD was slightly quicker but not much (9 hours).

Tillycoutmum i think the afterpains are worse with each pregnancy

Am so relieved by many of these answers - thanks for starting it. I had 34 hours of pre-labour last time - so depressing, you can't sleep, eat, whatever but 'you're not in labour'. Was actually relieved at first when cx got much worse! Am now 37 weeks and getting a bit anxious...

Although not everyone one on here has found it (mine was shorter, but actually harder due to massive head on DS2) the norm is that labour gets shorter, afterpains worse.

Went to an ante-natal refresher course last week and the midwife said that first time your cervix thins out first, then starts to dilate. Second time it does both together so it should be faster, and even if you had a section 1st time but laboured for a while so you got reasonably dilated (she said something like 6-7cm) will still be like a second labour if you then go for a VBAC.

Apparently 3rd one can go either way but will find out in about 4 weeks.

Agree about the after pains, but I took paracetamol to keep on top of it. It was only for the first few days, then it was fine!

Um, not for me. Though I enjoyed my second labour much more even though it was harder

dd1: 2hours 20mins (had pethidine cos mw kept telling me I had another 12 hours to go and I thought I was going to die without pain relief )

dd2: 19 hours (transferred in from home, 3 hours on g&a, epidural)

However, my second labour was only longer because baby was back-to-back. She was born less than half an hour after she turned.

chasingsquirrels "for me 2nd was quicker, easier, but resulted in a little grazing which I hadn't had with dc1.
dc1 - 2 hrs
dc2 - 15 mins "

I'm sorry (falls off stool) 15 mins?!!!!!?

1st - a long time ending in emcs
2nd - 13 hours from first twinge
3rd - nearly 5 hours from 1st twinge

1st - hospital birth - about 12 hours
2nd - home birth - mild contractions started about 7am, mw arrived 9:30, dd born 10:00!
3rd - home birth - about 8 hours altogether.

DD1 - waters broke 5am, meconium stained, hospital, induced, monitoring, spinal block, ventouse, baby navy blue and pretty unhappy.

DD2 - waters broke 3am, TENS machine, stood at 10am doing ironing, thought 'oo-er, this is getting a bit nippy', 10:24 am DH & next door neighbour delivered baby purely by accident while I leaned against the Dyson. Practically pain and problem free. Happy baby, b/fed 3 mins after birth.

true for me, 7.5 hours first time, 2.5 second! ds2 practically shot out...

def true about afterpains, mine were nearly as bad as labour second time.

my first was 27hours, second 3 hours!!! both girls :-)

Mine were both incredibly similar almost to the hour though they were both lovely.
Throughought my pregnancy with dd2 my wonderful Midwife frequently told me this would be the easiest baby that I would have. Completely confidence inspiring. Mind you nothing would phase this Midwife, she is really special and I would trust her implicitly

Thanks for this, pigley. I was 42 hours from waters breaking and contractions starting, through induction when things stopped, to delivery with DD. Due with DB2 in Dec and now feeling much better about the prospect!

It wasn't true for me.

DD was 8 hours start to finish, DS OTOH was 25hours start to finish, ending in spinal and forceps delivery.

I am now pg with DC3 and I am dreading it.

My labour with DC2 was much faster (he was born within an hour of arriving at hospital) and much easier, almost enjoyable, not too tiring, & at the time I felt as if I could have done it all over again.

Now DC3 was a different story...

Hope it goes well for you.

True for me, pain seemed different and could cope with it much better for longer. I was a little period for much of the day, with twingy pains. Took DD1 to the park in the afternoon, ate dinner, by 7ish, was in labour ward dilated to 6 - 7cm at midnight, delivered using gas and air, plus meptid by 03:40.

I still had the big transition flap, but altogether knew what I wanted, explained why and got what I wanted. Altogether a more positive experience that DD1.

Oh and two stitches, rather than the 14 from first time around

True for me. In fact, second baby arrived so fast that my whole undercarriage seemed to ping back into shape almost instantly and I didn't have any of the incontinence lack of muscle tone associated with having a baby wedged in your fanjo for a couple of hours.

Sorry TMI

PipWereRabbit - thanks for that! And thanks everyone else too. DC2 due in March and hoping for easier birth, was in labour for like 3 days last time.

1st birth - DD, 28 hrs - pushed for 50mins
2nd birth -DS, 2.5hrs - pushed for 5mins

Mine were very similar, first was a 9 hour labour resulting in a ventouse
second was an 8 hour labour, nearly had to have another ventouse because she'd swallowed meconium ( sp?) I did have 7 years between my 2 though so don't know if that makes any difference?

oooh es here too!
dd1 24 hr labour pushed for 1hr
dd2 3 hr labour pushed 4 mins!

Well I hate you all

1st - 15hrs start to finish
2nd - 26hrs start to finish

I am a bit scared tbh what this one will be

1st - DD hospital- 22 hours from first contraction to baby- posterior w/ long latent stage- pushed for 3 minutes

2nd - DS home- 19 hours from first contraction - long latent stage as he turned from posterior to anterior- went from 6cm to delivery in less than an hour- pushed for 3 minutes.

Very true for me. First was sixteen hours gas & air, pethadine, assisted delivery and pph - not nice. Second woke me in the night at 3am and was born in hospital at 5:20am, no pain relief, really uplifting empowering experience,