Long latent phase- positive stories!

[bravelittlepenguin]

Looking for your positive stories of very long latent phases that have progressed to active labour. Second baby so assumed I wouldn't have such a long latent phase but 2 days and 3 nights of random contractions and stop/start later I'm still waiting for contractions to establish properly. Has anyone had similar and progressed normally? Lost my plug and had a show which I'm hoping is positive...

I wish I had a positive story but just to say I'm in like the exact same situation. Also with my second baby (first was emcs after failed induction). Irregular contractions started at 3am on Tuesday and are still going on and off. I've went from 1cm to 2cm but that seems to be it. Also lose mucus plug an hour ago.

@Mcemmabell sounds just like me! I lost my plug yesterday and day before so was hoping that would be a good omen but I've had zero contractions today 😟. It's so disheartening isn't it 😭

With my first I had a three day latent phase, which then did progress to active labour and baby was born by ventouse 24 hours later. Pretty long process, but we got there in the end and he's now a rowdy 8 year old.

Mine was four days- kicked off on Monday morning, dd was born on the Friday morning.

It was exhausting- keep hydrated and rest rest rest!

@bravelittlepenguin it is super disheartening! I never had contractions with my first DS, so I was like YAY THIS IS IT. And then it's been 60 hours and they're still super irregular and going nowhere. At night they really ramp up though and I've hardly been getting any sleep. And during the day they just disappear again. It's so not fun. Sending you lots of sympathy!

I've been there (3 days of off/on contractions) and the midwife broke my waters and hey presto I went from 2cm to fully dialated and she was born within 90 minutes!! 2nd baby too. Good luck. Long latent phases are awful, so tiring.

So my labour really started to progress on Friday morning (three days after latent phase had started) DS2 was back to back and got stuck when I was 8cm. Because of the previous section they decided to do an EMCS before something happened with my scar. I did a crazy 12 hours of super painful contractions but proud that I gave it my best shot. And baby turned out to be an 8lb 8oz chunk so no idea how he was going to get out without help anyway! I'm a petite 5" 1". 🥴

It took 3 days to get to 4cm for me, but once I was admitted and got an epidural things progressed quickly and he was born less than 12 hours later (ventouse). I hadn’t slept in 4 days so that epidural let me rest which I think really helped. I didn’t originally want an epidural but I’m glad I had it! Hope all is well and your baby is here now

Two long latent phases for me!
First started Saturday, born Tuesday, second started Friday, born Monday.
Both times admitted by the skin of my teeth at 3/4cm despite holding out for days at home.
But on the positives, pushing phase was under 20mins and under 10mins respectively (after waters were broken by midwife)
and no tearing or injuries either time.
Good luck!

My latent phase both times was over a week! I had just resigned myself with my second that he would probably go all the way over to induction at 42 weeks when my waters broke. But he took another 21 hours! He was back to back and things really sped up after the midwife had me leaning over the birthing ball. He just needed to turn.

Ps. It’s great to talk about this. First time midwives laughed early on and said I would know when I was ‘really’ in labour, but both times I found I laboured particularly heavily every night and some of the day but then eased off in daylight. But the pain of those contractions was significant and exhausting even in hindsight of two full births. With my first I went in twice to hospital only to be sent home, the second I knew better and held out and held out, and still only managed to be admitted thanks to a midwife taking pity on my obvious exhaustion.

Hi all- thanks so much for these responses. They genuinely really helped. I don't think we hear much about long latent phases so it's so easy to feel hopeless when it happens to you. My baby finally arrived just after midnight yesterday. I arrived into hospital on Thursday night thinking I must finally be getting somewhere with dilation as by that point my contractions were regular and strong but was only 2cm!! Fast forward another 12 hours and I was still only 3cm 🤦‍♀️. Had an epidural and waters were broken. Epidural was absolute bliss in taking away my pain and allowing me to actually rest and then progression was "normal" and baby girl was born about another 12 hours later. There were various twists and turns along the way but she's here and absolutely perfect and I'm so pleased I was able to have my VBAC.

I had similar with my first baby..3 nights where contractions would start around 6pm - 6am ..not really really painful but enough to keep me awake! I was so exhausted by the time they did finally kick off properly but once things got moving it was actually very quick, no time for painkillers, no interventions, no issues and a very positive experience!

In my case my midwife thought the baby was having trouble manoeuvring (no idea on technical terms!) ..so she had me do lunge position during contractions and it was like she’d pressed a magic button as I went from 4cm to fully dilated and pushing in an (intense) hour. Might be worth going in to get them to look you over in case there’s a similar structural reason why things aren’t progressing?

Sorry just realised you’d posted an update! Congratulations on your baby girl! :)

Congratulations!! So pleased for you! Yes it’s tough when it takes a long time but for some of us it just does.

Congratulations! Well done you for getting through it! Hope all is well with you and your little girl. Thanks for this thread, it was nice to share with others with similar experiences!