Fast labours (5 hrs from first twinge, or less!) Can you tell me about yours?

[Gerdticker]

My first DC’s labour was about 5 hrs start to finish. I had her in the pool at a birth centre, it was a great birth.

I had syntonetrine 20 mins after birth, then the cord snapped and I had to have my placenta manually removed in theatre, plus a blood transfusion.

I’m really interested to hear about other people fast labours?

Did everything go to plan, did you choose to have syntonetrine/syntocinon for the third stage?

Is there anything you’d have done differently, or regretted? Or any thoughts or advice?

Thanks

@OpEdnin so sorry the second was so traumatic. Had you made it to hospital to deliver?

Was your DC2 very big, or just positioned in an awkward way?

Do you think you might have had more kids if DC2 hadn’t been so traumatic?

Sorry for all the questions! I’m finding this thread so informative and helpful x

Third baby, waters broke at 3.30 am. Took a few hours to get into active labour, but then it went all fast. On my notes active labour is recorded as 48 minutes and second stage 3 minutes. No time for any pain relief, barely made it to the delivery suite.

It took 4 DCs for me to realise that I have a silent latent stage - meaning that I don't feel my contractions. The first real pain I get is when I push.
DC1 was back to back. My waters broke at 36 +1 at about 9pm. Went to hospital expecting to be examined and sent home but they kept me in. By midnight I had a bit of mild backache. DH was away and I sent my mum home. At about 7am the back ache was worse so they called my mum and took me to the Labour ward for an epidural. The monitor had shown I was having contractions but they stopped/slowed down after the epidural. They gave me sintocinin (sp?). At 10 they asked me to push. After an hour nothing was happening. She was delivered by ventouse at 12.
DC2 came at 40 +3. At about 8.30pm I felt uncomfortable, particularly sitting down, so went to hospital. I got in the bath at about 9.30. By 10 I just felt so uncomfortable, but no discernible contractions - the discomfort was continuous. No time for an epidural. I was making involuntary mooing noises like a cow. Pushed for about half an hour. He was born like superman, hand first and arm outstretched, at 11pm. I had a small tear.
DC3 & 4 were twins. Born at 37 +2. Waters broke at about 3.30pm. I felt completely normal and decided to go for a bath. When I got out I realised I was in denial so went downstairs and asked our nanny if she would go home and get her overnight stuff and come back. When she returned we left for hospital. No pain at all, although DH was in a slight panic and drove like a loon and I do remember going over bumps and straining against the seatbelt being a bit uncomfortable. We must have arrived at about 5. It was in my notes that I was to have an epidural ASAP and that I had a history of quick labour. I was left sitting in reception for 5 or so minutes. By then I was too uncomfortable to sit. Then they put me in a room and ignored me for a bit. I paced around because I couldn't sit. After about 10 minutes a midwife came to examine me and all hell was let loose. I was wheeled to theatre (twin births are in a theatre setting because of the high chance of a CS). I asked if I could walk because I couldn't sit. They said no. So I knelt up on the bed like a mad woman as I was wheeled along
DC3 arrived within about 2 minutes of arriving in theatre after only 2 pushes. The midwife said "it's out" and I kept asking her what she meant when she said "the head". It was very surreal. They then pumped me full of sintocinin to keep labour going (the body apparently doesn't initially realise there's another baby) and then broke DC4's waters which were still intact. DC4 was born exactly 30 minutes after his sister, later after about 5 pushes. No tears at all.
Because I don't feel contractions, i go from 0-100 from discomfort to spontaneous mooing and pushing. So the actual moment of birth was always really shocking. Particularly the DTs.
There was a man waiting in reception when I arrived. He was still there when I was wheeled through to the ward an hour or so later. He obligingly glanced into the cot to admire the baby and did a massive double take and a "fucking hell" when the second cot appeared. A midwife greeted me a day or two later as "the lady who almost gave birth in the car park" so I think I gave them a bit of a fright.
I can't really remember the placenta deliveries, so they must have been drama free.

With DCs 2-4 we took stem cells from the chord which are frozen at some cryo facility somewhere. The collection has to be done ASAP after the birth, so the panic of doing that rather detracted from the delight of the baby arriving. DH did the collection while midwives looked on with interest. This was a bit of a thing in the early noughties, don't know if anyone does it now.

@TooTrusting

My goodness, another amazing story! Congrats on all 4 DC’s!

Do you think you have a high pain threshold? I haven’t heard of a silent latent stage before.

Hm I’m not sure about the stem cell thing - while I have heard of it, I don’t know anyone that has done it. I wonder why it’s gone out of fashion.

Yes I'd have thought it would be very in fashion with all the developments in stem cell research. I think the cost is probably off putting.
I do have a high pain threshold. I recently had a corneal ulcer and the optician asked me that and said he was amazed that all I felt was a bit achy.
The DTs birth in particular was very shocking. I had no time at all to process it.
After all my births I felt very ill for about half an hour before violently throwing up. And then felt normal. So to me the births were not wondrous happy moments of instant joy. More of a slow burner!

First labour was just over 7 hours.
With my younger, now 20 years old, son, I woke at 4am with backache. Really painful backache. I was sure it wasn’t contractions despite being 2 weeks overdue. My husband wasn’t so sure so called the hospital and was told to bring me in so they could take a look.
My mother in law arrived at 4.30am to look after our older son.
My waters broke on the hospital car park just as my husband ran into A&E and he was followed out by a nurse with a wheelchair who took me up to the delivery suite.
I just about managed to get onto the bed, one push and our son was born at 4.49am.

I was sitting at home helping ds with homework at about 3.30pm when my waters went. I got into the shower at about 4PM and the contractions started then. The next hour was a blur of getting organised and arranging for my aunt to take ds and a cousin to take the dog as my parents had picked that week to go on holiday! We left the house and started on the longest journey in the world, getting stuck behind every tractor in the county. We got to the hospital at 6PM, things were progressing quickly on gas and air. I remember talking about an epidural but the midwife said it would slow things down so I kept going and ds was born just after 9PM. I did tear but not too badly.