Close age gap = quick labor?

[Perplexed]

My mom had a close age gap between my sister and brother, around a year and a few months. Similar to the age gap between my DD and this new LO. She says she believes that having them closer together made laboring my brother a lot easier. She knew for sure she was having contractions, but there were nothing she couldn't handle yet so she just carried on as normal. My dad had come home from work and when she told him she's in labor he asked if she wants to go to the hospital. She said not yet. So he took a nap, lol. An hour to an hour and a half later her contractions were closer together so they dropped us off at grandma's and drove to the hospital 30 minutes away. Once they got there it was only around 30 minutes more before my brother was born.

Similarly, my aunt had a close age gap between her son and daughter. She didn't know she was in labor with her daughter until much later and even then her husband kept trying to discourage her from going to the hospital. When they finally went to the hospital, they found her to be fully dilated and didn't even make it to the delivery room. When they told her it's time to deliver a baby she tried to tell them that she wanted gas and air and since it wasn't even a delivery room there was no gas and air!

Both my mom and aunt are convinced that having babies close together made the latter delivery much easier than the first. It makes sense in some ways but who knows?

I'm terrified of the idea that my aunt didn't know she was in labor! She had pains but just didn't know what they were...assumed she was having a stomach ache. But I doubt I'll ever get like that, I symptom spot to much but I do have a longer drive to my hospital...

What are your experiences? If you had a close age gap between your LOs how were your labors? Were the quicker or longer?

 

[babykate]

There are 17 months between my two sons and the second birth was MUCH easier, but i definitely knew i was in labor.

Son # 1: produrmal contractions start at 41 weeks, we go to the hospital on day #1, get sent home cause only 1 cm dialated. Day 2 is the same story. Finally after water breaks we check into hospital on day 3 and are dismayed that i am only 2-3 cm dialated. We agree to induction but it is still around 16 hours until i give birth (after 2 hours of pushing) shortly after midnight on day 4.

Son #2: one day before my due date i feel achey and hot at night and start contracting at around 3/4 am. At 9 am contractions are 5 min apart and feeling quite painful (more intense than i ever felt with son #1 yet more managable because i wasnt afraid like first time around). We got to hospital and are pleased to find i am 4 cm dialated. I lose my plug and my water breaks shortly thereafter. Things move smoothly, no pitocin/induction needed, baby is born at 3 pm after just a few pushes. He also weighed 2 more lbs than #1!

 

[ssjad]

I believe in this theory, although my labours can't really prove it as I also had a couple of large gaps with fast labours too.
My first labour was 19 hours.
Second labour 13 months later was 2.5 hours.
Third labour 7 years later was 20 minutes :O
Fourth labour 10 years later 1.5 hours.
Fifth labour 14 months later was also 1.5 hours.

 

[Cattia]

I'll be interested to see if this is true. My two are 16 months apart, with #1 I had a 50 hour labour ending in epidural and pretty close to emergency C sec, second labour was 6 hours from the first contraction to birth, no pain relief. I didn't realise at first that I was in labour with my son, I just had what I thought were constipation pains but I worked out pretty quickly that they were contractions! This time there is an age gap of almost 4 years so I REALLY hope that doesn't mean a slow labour! I think the more pregnancies you have the quicker your labour in a lot of cases but obviously it doesn't always apply.

 

[Perplexed]

Thank you for your experiences.

My mom had relatively quick labors, except for two which were breech (I was a breech delivery). Apparently back then breech didn't mean c section at all.

 

[d_b]

Second labours just seem to be a lot faster/easier in most cases! Mine was, with a 22 month age gap. My second labour was only two hours and wasnt painful. My doctor had warned me that the labour would be fast (my first was only 6 hours) so that's why we left for the hospital, I felt like we had tons of time but DS2 flew out about 45 min after we got there. 20 month age gap this time and I really hope labour isn't any faster this time!

 

[Perplexed]

My active labor was around 6 hours also...but I was induced. But they didn't augment my contractions till after I was fully dilated. I'm curious to see how it would go if I go into labor myself this time.

 

[HappyBump25]

Mine are 15m apart, almost to the day. Both labors were natural--no epidurals or pitocin involved. Not sure if that bit's relevant or not, but I've heard epi's can slow progress and pit drips can stall you if you are trying to achieve natural.

Went into labor with #1 at 39 weeks, with only a few instances of BH before then...maybe a handful at most. Labor lasted about 13 hours and pushed for 30 minutes.

Went into labor with #2 at 40 weeks with PLENTY of BH beforehand (started having them at around 30-32 weeks!) By the time I went into labor, I was convinced they were just more BH so I kept insisting to DH that we needed to wait longer before packing up and going to the hospital (mostly because I didn't want to get my son up in the middle of the night if these were just more BH!) Husband finally couldn't take it anymore and made us get up and go...we had a half hour drive to town to go to hospital, plus we had to drop of DS before we could head that way.

By the time we made it to the hospital I knew they were real contractions for sure because they were definitely more intense in the 45 minutes it took to get out of the house, drop off our son, and get to the hospital. Imagine my surprise when she said I was already dilated to 6! It was hilarious because before she told me the number I saw her eyes get huge as she checked me. I should add, I had a dr. appt. that morning and I was barely 1/2 cm when he checked me then.

Whole thing took about 7 hours from start to finish and that included only about 10-15 minutes tops of pushing!

I'm curious to see how #3 plays out, as there will be 18m from my last pregnancy!

 

[george83]

I had a 2 and a half year age gap between my two so I wouldn't call that close but my second labour was still much easier than my first. Both were relatively quick - first was 4 hours, second was 3 1/2 hours - but they got worried about ds1 whereas ds2 was totally straight forward, the midwife practically left us to it right up until the end