First vs second labour

firstfreakout

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Evening, my lovelies.

I’m looking for any experiences regarding the difference between your first and second labours.

What did you do differently; how was it different/same; advice?

Thank you!
 
My labours were very different. DD1 had been back to back for ages and I'd tried lots to make her turn but she didn't. The pain was horrendous in my back. I got to 9cm and she tried to turn in the birth canal getting stuck, ended up with an epidural, episiotomy and ventouse delivery. Labour was 15h

2nd labour was exactly how I would have liked it. I spent most evenings sitting on a ball from 32 weeks to try and stop her being back to back. Thankfully she was the right way. I'd also read lots about labour position and how being on your back isn't the best. Labour was just over 2h and I had her on my knees on the bed. I had the smallest graze but that was it
 
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Thank you for your reply, Shepherdess! Ah that sounds like a lovely labour compared to the first. I had an epidural, episiotomy and a ventouse with my first too and it was not how I would have liked it to go :( Glad you had a better labour the second time! :)
 
First labour recorded as 4hrs something active labour. Gas and air and diamorphine for pain relief. Laboured overnight in hospital as I was admitted at 2cm due to meconium in waters. On syntocin drip for most of it and ended up with ventous delivery with second degree tear.

Second labour recorded as 1hr 37 minutes, 2 minutes pushing and 25 minutes to deliver placenta! Laboured at home, arrived at hospital at 14.10pm and baby born at 14.12pm :shock: no pain relief and a second degree tear.

Apart from nearly giving birth in the car (thank god we didn't hit traffic or a red light!) my second labour was fab! Quick and easy in comparison to my first.

XX
 
1st birth
Waters went around 2000 went to the hospital to be checked and they sent me home with a letter to go back the following night as I had no contractions. A couple hours later they started and back I went. I was 4xm and stayed on the midwife led unit. Pretty straight forward until 0800. Had been pushing for a couple hours and nothing. She was coming die but going back up. In the end I had an episiotomy and she had a short cord. 12.5 hours start to finish.

2nd labour
Woke up at 7am 10 days overdue with slight pains. Carried on getting my 6 year old ready for school. On the way home had to stop a few times die to pains. Never thought anything of it. By 11am they were hurting so rang the labour wars they just said to monitor and ring back later. By midday they were every minute lasting a minute. 1300 we arrived at the hospital due to unexplained bleeding I was taken to delivery a natural labour. Waters were popped and I gave birth standing up at 1514
 
My first labour started at 38 weeks. First contraction was about 10.45pm... Contracted for hours at home. Went into hospital early hours and was 5cm dilated. Had him at 14.05 the next day. Pethidine and gas and air.

Was induced with my second due to high blood pressure.
Gel in about half 9 in the morning. Contractions about midday and had her at 7.25 that evening. Just gas and air.
 
Congrats ffo!!
My second labour was soooo much better. He did come.5 weeks early tho.
I got sent home saying I wasn't in labour, spent all night having contractions, then randomly stopped in the morning until 5pm then came back super strong, midwives told me NOT to come in and to calm down ha! Anyway I went and I nearly had him in the car, they checked me fully dilated (no shit) they told me I couldn't have the epidural (had it with my first) so I had a massive tantrum in the bed and was telling everyone they was arseholes xD well he was here within 15 mins of getting to hospital anyway. Labour isn't as painful as people make out imo.
Dd was much worse. Had tears and lost alot of blood, which I needed blood transfusions.
So its different with every pregnancy tbf x
 
Thank you, Loula and Linxminx for your replies!

PB, I remember seeing on here when I came back a few weeks ago that you had another! How amazing. You spent so long waiting and you not only got your little girl, but a boy so soon after! <3 Thanks for sharing your experiences.
If you were 5 weeks early with DS, why didn't they keep you for monitoring? I went in at just under 37 weeks for reduced movement and they noticed I was having contractions, and because I was pre term they kept me in for 3 bloody days until they established they weren't getting me anywhere! I then went a week overdue and had to be induced hah.
 
I was being monitord on the machine... And it does show I was having small contractions... They told me it was Braxton Hicks. Then on the phone at 10pm (hubby called cos I couldn't breathe with the pain I was in) the same midwife that sent me home told me to have a bath and calm down!! I was hysterical because I believed them it was BH and I'd have to be in that amount of pain for another 3 weeks minimum. I kept feeling the need to poop or pee (I had epidural with dd so had no idea that it was because I needed to push)... So I was trying to go toilet and was pushing on the toilet!! They basically nearly let me have my premature baby in a toilet because they didn't take me seriously. I told asked them about 10 times if they were sure because if feels the exact same as labour pain. I put a complaint in about it. Also they lock the doors to the maternity building at night we got there around half 10/11pm and the buzzer was ringing for ages, I was screaming outside and there was 2 porters at the side having a cig just staring at us, they could have come over and opened it.
Oh I forgot, they decided that when i got there, I had something wrong with my bladder and tried to put one of those pee things inside me to get pee out BEFORE checking to see of I was in labour. When i kicked her hand and pulled the thing out the dr decided to check dilation... She was like OK we need to get her to delivery, my warters went, they bought me a wheelchair I told them they can fk off and I started just pushing so they just rushed me down on the bed lol. She was trying to force my legs together as i was trying to push so you can imagine the abuse I was screaming haha and then we finally got there and got gas and air and he was born within seconds.
So I think it fairly acceptable for me to put a complaint in!! But on the whole much better birth still. Maybe number 3 will go lovely xD
 
I was being monitord on the machine... And it does show I was having small contractions... They told me it was Braxton Hicks. Then on the phone at 10pm (hubby called cos I couldn't breathe with the pain I was in) the same midwife that sent me home told me to have a bath and calm down!! I was hysterical because I believed them it was BH and I'd have to be in that amount of pain for another 3 weeks minimum. I kept feeling the need to poop or pee (I had epidural with dd so had no idea that it was because I needed to push)... So I was trying to go toilet and was pushing on the toilet!! They basically nearly let me have my premature baby in a toilet because they didn't take me seriously. I told asked them about 10 times if they were sure because if feels the exact same as labour pain. I put a complaint in about it. Also they lock the doors to the maternity building at night we got there around half 10/11pm and the buzzer was ringing for ages, I was screaming outside and there was 2 porters at the side having a cig just staring at us, they could have come over and opened it.
Oh I forgot, they decided that when i got there, I had something wrong with my bladder and tried to put one of those pee things inside me to get pee out BEFORE checking to see of I was in labour. When i kicked her hand and pulled the thing out the dr decided to check dilation... She was like OK we need to get her to delivery, my warters went, they bought me a wheelchair I told them they can fk off and I started just pushing so they just rushed me down on the bed lol. She was trying to force my legs together as i was trying to push so you can imagine the abuse I was screaming haha and then we finally got there and got gas and air and he was born within seconds.
So I think it fairly acceptable for me to put a complaint in!! But on the whole much better birth still. Maybe number 3 will go lovely xD

Oh that sounds horrible! It's like sometimes these midwives/doctors think they know better, which in the majority of cases is true, but when it comes to a woman knowing their body, nahhhh. I'm glad it was still a positive experience despite that!

You're already thinking of number 3?! :p
 
LMAO. Im gonna give it minimum 3 years before ttc number 3. Want them both in school/nursery. God imagine 3 under 2! Heart attack.
 
My first labor and birth was uncomplicated, but excruciating. My water broke at about 10:30pm at 40+5, and she was born the next afternoon at 1:21pm. I was up all night with contractions but they got so intense I couldn't talk through them by 7 the next morning. From about 8am-her birth, I was screaming in agony. I was in a birth center with no options for pain relief, but had I been in a hospital I would have been screaming for the epidural! It was just the reality that nothing was available there and the thought of getting my clothes on and getting in a car to transfer to the hospital (like 30 seconds away haha) was even more agonizing than the thought of giving birth unmedicated. I pushed for over an hour and screamed the whole time. It was AGONY. I was beside myself, totally out of my head. But of course as soon as she was born I felt great and recovery was wonderful. I went home 4 hours later and was going up and down stairs no problem.

My second labor was so weird, I had been having contractions on and off for days and then relatively consistently from midnight but then they stopped at 8 or 9am and I figured it was false labor. And then they picked up again around 11am but I was in denial and sent hubby to work. I dropped my daughter with a babysitter and went to the grocery store! I was having all these super intense but irregular contractions in the store... I left that store at 3pm (just over 2 hours before my baby was BORN!) and picked up my daughter and called the midwife and even then, at about 3:30pm, the midwife and I STILL thought it was false/prodromal labor because of the irregularity and the fact that I was still talking through contractions. Then suddenly like 10 mins later I realized I was in transition (I had decided to take a bath) as contractions were coming fast and furious and I could hardly move. It was insane! I called my husband at like 3:55pm, he rushed home, we left the house by 4:30 or 4:40pm (when our friend arrived to watch our daughter), and on our way to the car I told him "we're not gonna make it" because I started doing this thing I'd done with my first labor when I involuntarily squeeze my thighs together at the end of a contraction. And that happened RIGHT before I started pushing with baby 1!

He assured me we'd make it but it was rush hour and it was like a scene in a movie, once he had to drive over the curb of a sidewalk and a guy yelled at us (fair enough!) and my husband shouted out the window "SHE'S IN LABOR!" and we got to the hospital at exactly 5:08pm and he was born at 5:17 after like 2 minutes of pushing! It was absolutely crazy but I'd take that experience over my first any day!! SO much easier!
 
Your second labour sounds like something out of a movie, tbh! How exciting! It's amazing that you managed to go through those contractions for all that time.

I'm starting to see that second labours tend to be a bit easier and quicker than the first, which is helping calm some of anxiety a bit. Thank you for sharing :)
 
Yes, it&#8217;s a trend I see with like everyone I know, second babies come earlier and come fast. I think this will be a great birth for you.
 
My 1st labour was quick. Spend most of it asleep. 5 hours in total.

My 2nd was back to back and I was in labour for 24 hrs, 13 hrs established labour. When he eventually turned he came quite quick.

I've had 3 more babies since. 3rd was just over an hour from nothing happening until birth and the next 2 were inductions. 2.5hrs total for each one.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
 
I really hope so, Kholl. A copy of the positive birth book got delivered today so I'mma give that a read over the next few months as it's so highly rated.

P1ngu, your inductions were quick! Thanks for sharing :)
 
First labour induced 4 days forceps 3rd degree tear. Second labour water birth 4 hours then home was such a different experience from the first xx
 
Thanks for the positive stories....I'm really hoping for a better experience with number 2!
 
First time - went into labour at home on my due date, contractions every 5 mins for about 24 hours before I finally went to the midwife unit, 3-4cm dialated on arrival so they admitted me, a few hours later I was still 3-4cm so they broke my waters and found significant meconium and was taken to main delivery unit. 12 hours later - after hormone drip, failed epidural, gas and air, I was still only 5cm so taken for an emergency c-section, then had a haemorrhage and needed a blood transfusion. It was an absolutely hideous labour and birth.

Second time - decided to VBAC, went into labour at home in the evening at 39+3, went to hospital at 7am and was 4cm dialated. Contractions all day, they broke my waters and found significant meconium again, had an epidural, by 10pm I was still only 6cm and my contractions stopped, so I went for an emergency c-section. Totally different experience to first time - calm and positive.

Third time - I'm booked in for an elective c-section!
 

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