Myth or Fact? Predictable pregnancy, labour and delivery?

[MrsMystery]

I've read online that your mother's pregnancy(ies), labour(s) and deliver(ies), are reliable predictors of what your own will be like. Does anyone have any experience to confirm or deny this?

I asked my mom about her experiences:
- when she was preg with my bro, she had it easy - not much illness at all just some mild nausea, mostly tired, very few stretch marks, and headaches here and there. her labour and delivery were short, about 3-4 hours.
- when she was preg with me, she said she suffered a lot (wow i feel awful!) - tons of morning sickness, everything was off, she was miserable. her labout and delivery were a bit longer, about 7-8 hours.

My MIL said that all three of her pregnancies (2 boys and 1 girl) were easy. Not much for illness, weight gain or anything. She didn't really notice any differences between her "boy" pregnancies and her "girl" one.
- My hubby (first born) was born one month premature, and her labour and delivery were less than an hour!
- His sibs were a week early and they both took less than 8 hours to come out.


Does anyone believe these are indicative of what I can expect to experience? My mom's symptoms of her pregnancy when carrying my bro are the same as mine are for my first pregnancy!

Can't wait to hear the thoughts and experiences on this!

 

[LisK]

I hope it's a fact, because my mother reports easy pregnancies and easy labor/deliveries, so that'd be great for me.

 

[Skadi]

I doubt it. My mother had absolutely no Morning Sickness to the point where she told me she had FUN during her pregnancies and couldn't understand why I wasn't. (I am now!)

My mother was also induced with all three of us as she was gestational diabetic so even if it was a reliable predictor I wouldn't be able to tell.

 

[trudie100]

My mum had good pregnancies and quick easy labours with me & my two sisters and my sister has two boys, who were both also quick (and early, even her first)! so im hoping this is also true x

 

[littlemamana]

I hope not . My mom had her first baby naturally but that baby ended up being a still born (I'm terrified that'll happen to my baby...) and then she had three more children through c-section because she had to. I really hope I don't follow in her footsteps there.

 

[lozza1uk]

Hmm, i hope so as my mum said it was pretty easy!

However, I've got a friend who gave birth a few weeks ago - 36 hours of "labour" followed by an emergency C-section as nothing was happening.

Her sister (so same mum...) has literally popped 2 kids out in less than 3 hours each start to finish, so doesn't look like this always holds true (unfortunately for the younger sister!)

 

[AngelUK]

I hope not! My mother suffered so much giving birth to my brother. He got stuck, and her OBgyn didn't come cause he felt it was inconvenient to deliver babies during his practice hours! Midwife didn't know what to do and shouted at my poor mum who was exhausted after 24 hours of labour and only wanted to tell her that the air/gas mask didn't work. My dad didn't get that either and kept pushing it into her face and she struggled to get it off of her. In the end when he doctor finally came to help my brother was born blue. He had a slight defect in the form of ADD but luckily nothing worse!
My birth was ok though and it took her only 12 hours. Also mum was sick from beginning to end of both her pregnancy and mine went away on week 14.

 

[shopgirl771]

i seem to vaguely remember one of my mw's saying i should ask my mum how her labours were as mine would be similar.
as it is all three of my mums labours were quite different so which one mine was supposed to be like i have no idea!!!! lol. x

 

[xAmiixLouisex]

If this is true, I'll probably still have no idea! My mom has 5 kids, including me (even though I'm not a kid anymore but yano). All her pregnancies were very different. If I go by the boys she carried it could go either way. My one brother, great pregnancy, easy labour. Other brother, sicky pregnancy, always feeling crap and long painful labour.

 

[Nat0619]

I always reckon there must be a strong chance you'll follow your mum in a lot of things. Makes sense genetically! I take after my mum in a lot of things, ie minor ailments I suffer from etc. My mum never had any period troubles and neither have I.

My pregnancy so far seems very similar to how my mum was when having both me and my brother Only slight feelings of nausea in First Tri but have never been sick, just a bit tired in First Tri and am already starting a bit of heartburn which is the main thing my mum suffered from. Her pregnancies were exactly the same with me and my brother so doesn't seem I can predict the sex of this little one from how I'm feeling

As for birth, think she had an ok time both times but I ended up having to be pulled out by forceps However she thinks this was because she was left alone for ages and started pushing on her own before the midwives checked on her! My brother was born reasonably easily and quickly I think but he was born with the cord around his neck but was fine x

 

[MrsMystery]

WOW some interesting thoughts! Keep them coming!

 

[Kielee]

I doubt its nothing to go by but I hope it is because I was with my mum at 16 when she had my sister, she was a STAR and a half. She didn't make a and got on with it. Yeah she said it hurts but its coming out one way or another so don't waste time and energy screaming save it all for pushing. Shes a warrior my mum lol xx