How similar was Labour/birth for your 1st compared to the 2nd/3rd etc

[Mama09876]

39 weeks pregnant and just waiting to go in to labour now! Interested to know how similar everyone’s labour/birth’s were for those who have had multiple children? Or the lead up to the births.
Most of my friends have had similar birth story’s for there kids. For example best friend has only ever been about to get to around 6/7 cm and both then ended in C section with long labour of days before.

With my first I lost my plug on Sunday morning, on and off contractions throughout Sunday. Stayed in bed for most of the day & slept Sunday night then Monday still irregular contractions till afternoon, 6pm waters went with baby arriving by 11pm!

Just waiting for any sign now and wondering if it’ll be a similar journey as my first!

Stories of Labour & birthing to pass my time 🥰

First I lost half my waters, and because it went 12 hours and even though I'd started contractions, the hospital induced me further with a drip and it amped things up so pains went from manageable to awful very quickly. I got the epidural and everything took ages, ended up getting forceps delivery. In hindsight if they'd just let me go further myself I think it would have been better.

Second baby was really quick, started getting contractions at 10pm, waters went fully in my kitchen...I was too late for epidural when I got to hospital so had just gas and air, baby was born with me kneeling on the bed exactly 4.5 hours after first contraction. It was mental and felt so quick but I really felt my body could handle it and it was 100% better than first time round, for recovery after too.

I only have 2 but feel if I had a 3rd I'd feel much more confident re birth and managing contractions etc given the positive experience on 2nd. Best of luck!

My three were all very similar, except that each subsequent birth took about half the length of time as the previous one. All were spontaneous labours, close to due date, slow and steady build up of contractions and waters going just before the baby arrived.

Hope all goes well, OP.

My 2nd was much much faster than my 1st. My 3rd even quicker.

My second came out really fast and the third even faster. 😊

My subsequent labours were much much quicker. First took ages.

I coped so much better mentally too as I could kind of feel where I was in the process and knew it would be over and I would meet a gorgeous baby soon. With my first I felt like I may have contractions for the rest of my life and lost sight of the actual baby bit.

Had a really, really long labour with first (days long) and pushed hard for 45 mins. Second labour was around 12 hours but steadily progressing. Baby born around 3 mins after waters breaking, barely had to push her out!

Chalk and cheese!

1st labour - over 24 hours of contractions =
still only 3cm. Drip, epidural.. Hours later= 10cm. Couldn’t feel the urge to push because the epidural hadn’t fully worn off. Somehow pushed her out in 45 mins anyway. Episiotomy.

2nd - two hour labour, just gas and air. Instinctively wanted to squat - delivered her in a few pushes. Small episiotomy. Felt amazing afterwards.

Totally opposite dc1 spontaneous waters breaking at midnight baby arrived miday, 1 hour of pushing, lots of assistance, major bleeding, itu for a week, baby was fine.
Dt were induced and 9 hour labour on gas and air, no assistance. I was up and about within hours and home the next day.

Following with curiosity as expecting #3 and I've heard 3rd births can be really different and tricky!
I had a slow but straightforward first (waters broke, nothing happened for 24hrs then when contractions began they gradually progressed and he was born 8hrs from first contraction)
2nd baby again waters broke again nothing happened for 6hrs then when contractions started he was born 2 hrs later!!

Love this thread as also due number 2 and curious to hear stories of second compared to first labours!

Side question for @DramaAlpaca and @sunflowersblooming - during my first labour my waters also broke naturally just before the pushing stage, however prior to that I was gushing blood with every contraction. No one has really explained why or if that’s normal, so in my head I thought that maybe the pressure of contractions with unbroken waters may have contributed to some of that - curious to know if either of you experienced similar?

Not remotely similar. First in USA, lots of medical intervention and over a week in high dependency unit for baby. Second in UK, not even any pain relief and home within 24 hours.

Pregnancies were very different and that had a knock on effect on the labour

Pregnancy 1. Hyperemesis in first and third trimester otherwise no health issues, fit and healthy and active right up to the day my waters went.
My waters went just before midnight at 38+5, labour started early morning. Contractions were 3 in 10 from the start 30-60 seconds long. No build up and they were intense from the start. If I was on my feet they were manageable. I went in around 8 I got checked over and at 9 I was 2 cm and sent home. An hour after I got home I was starting to struggle. Managed to persuade the midwife to let me come back. There was room in the midwife led unit, I got there and was 10cm. I climbed in the pool and half an hour later baby was born. Her shoulder got stuck on the way out and the midwife had just pushed the emergency alarm when it managed to free itself and she was born. I needed a couple of stitches for "cosmetic" reasons whatever that means. I had a couple of paracetamol at the start of labour and gas and air for the pushing stage then some diclofenac for the stitches and then needed no other pain relief for labour or recovery.

Pregnancy 2. Minimal sickness but at 30 weeks I developed obstetric Cholestasis, at 32 weeks I started having contractions at 33 weeks I had a day where they were 2 in 10 and 20 seconds long and I had to be checked for preterm labour. At 34 weeks I developed extreme fatigue to the point I genuinely couldn't stay awake for more than an hour and was sleeping for 20h a day. I had to be admitted into hospital for investigation. My liver function was awful, I was put on blood thinners as I had markers for blood clots, I went on to develop low platelets and hemolysis. They couldn't see what was causing the fatigue other than maybe my liver. At 36 weeks the obstetric Cholestasis got worse so I was brought in for induction. I had a sweep at 36+6 which made the contractions I had been having for a month more regular and almost put me into labour but not quite. I also had a couple of contractions where the heartbeat dropped with the contraction so they wanted to check that wasn't a problem. They started the induction at 8pm with the pessetry and that did the job. At midnight I was starting to hyper stimulate if stood up so they took it out. Around 8am I was starting to struggle and they moved me from the induction room to the labour room. I had two doses of paracetamol during the induction and switched to gas and air. I was still extremely fatigued and was having to sleep as I struggled to be awake for more than an hour or so. Around 11am I no longer could stand up. This meant that the labour started to go backwards. My exam at 8am was 6cm with bulging membranes and 4h later it was 5cm and the head had moved up so the membranes were no longer bulging. They made the decision to break my waters after this which was about 12.30 which accelerated labour a lot and baby went into distress. There were 3 contractions in a row over about 5 minutes where they lost the heartbeat and baby had a drop in heart rate with each contraction and there was a call to press the emergency button followed by we have a heartbeat. They did another exam and I was 8cm and they said I'd be able to push imminently. They took the monitor off the belt and had a midwife chasing the baby down the pelvis so they could keep hold of his heartbeat. As predicted he was born pretty quickly after that. It was just over an hour from them breaking my waters and baby arriving. He was born with his cord around his neck and this was probably why he went into distress. I only had gas and air for the labour and 2 paracetamol and 2 Ibuprofen after the birth and nothing after that. I only had a graze so didn't need any stitches.

The details were quite different but there were similarities.
I didn't need much pain relief, I laboured best on my feet and swaying my hips. Labour sped up once my waters had gone.

Hi iv only had one (second due soon!) but to answer your question my waters also only broke after I was fully dilated to10cm, before the pushing stage and I never had any bleeding. That doesn't sound right.... Might be worth asking your midwife what is says about that in your notes?

@CityKity no, I didn't experience any bleeding before my waters went. I agree with @Blessedandthankful that it might be an idea to ask your midwife about your notes.

1st labour was 56 hours
2nd was 12 hours (had 3 days of mild cramping on and of beforehand)

2nd was less painful because the mild on and off cramping for me to 3cm where as it took about 36 hours of painful regular contractions to get me to this point with first.

Had epidural with both, was easier to access an epidural with 2nd because I got to 4cm quicker.

Overall 2nd was quicker, less painful and less exhausting.

Really loved reading all the stories! Looking like the 2nd onwards can be quicker on average. I was told this but you never know. I’m hoping it true for me as I was only 5hrs from waters breaking to birth so hoping for the same! 😂 I don’t mind those on off contractions in the lead up cause it’ll give me time to prepare childcare and parents coming round etc. just hoping it’s similar to the first.

I didn’t go until 40+4 with my first so I’m just guessing now I’ll go over.

Midwife asked what my birth plan was I just said the same as before but with more gas and air please! I didn’t have any until the 20mins of pushing, not by choice!

My first was induced due to being well past his due date. It took three days, pessaries, drugs, having my waters broken, epidural, episiotomy and forceps. My second was spontaneous labour with no pain relief and no interventions. Both were quite big babies.

First my waters started going at 1am, contractions started at 2am, waters fully went around 4am, and she was born at 7.17am. Second was an induction, pessary on the Tuesday at midnight, 12 hours of contractions, fairly manageable but back to back, then all stopped, waited around on the ward, on the Sunday waters broken and syntocin drip at 1.30pm, DD arrived at 6.33pm, so both fairly quick if you ignore the beginning but of the induction, but very different

With my first it was around 24 hours from first contraction to baby and around 3 hours from water breaking to baby. Around 1 hour of second stage labour.

With my second it was 12 hours from first contraction to baby, my water only broke when her head came out and there was no pushing stage at all. There was one contraction when my waters broke and her head was born completely just a few seconds apart. Her body came with the next contraction. It was a bit of a shock tbh! I did not know she was that close to coming out.

I had both of mine at home, I was very lucky that the midwife was already in the house with our second!

My three were all completely different. No comparison between them really.

DD1 - Labour didn't start spontaneously. It was a flood of meconium filled waters at 5am one morning, and thereafter 17 hours of labour and delivery which were entirely driven by a syntocinon drip.

DD2 - very much more of a textbook labour and delivery and much quicker (3 hours). However, I was in hospital with very high blood pressure and signs of pre-eclampsia.

DD3 - emergency caesarean at 35 weeks due to my waters having gone, DD being in distress, meconium everywhere again and her being unable to tolerate the drugs needed to kickstart labour (syntocinon again).

History doesn't necessarily repeat itself. You just don't know and there are so many variables.

Bizarrely both mine were exactly the same. 12 hours of labour, very long pushing stage. I blithely assumed the second would be quicker and easier but I guess it isn’t always!

Very similar is that both were natural, waters went then contractions started within a reasonable time frame and I was into transition almost straight away.

2nd was much quicker (15mins v 2hrs for first) with no real pushing stage as he just came out.

All my births were very different.

Update for anyone reading the thread:

baby arrived last week. Had to be induced in the end as baby weight was showing as decreasing on the centile thing when I had to be scanned.
Once the pessary was inserted though and things kicked off pretty much straight away it was a very similar birth to my 1st - time wise! Was another quick one.

Waters didn’t break this time till I pushed the baby out
Went from 3cm to birthing baby in 2hrs.
Has to be monitored continuously

Overall was another positive birth to be honest (even though I was upset at first having to be induced) but wasn’t as bad as I had in my head.

Would do it again in a heart beat! 😂

Congratulations OP! Enjoy these first precious few weeks.

I had to be induced for my 3rd DC at 40 weeks + 10 days, and like you, went from induction to birth in only a few hours. It was so much better than my previous birthing experiences, and I was kicking myself for not doing it with the others! 😂 There was no time for the epidural to wear off, which was glorious.

Im so glad it went well for you, and I hope you’re feeling good and can heal well. Xxxxx