Second labours...

[hanni]

Stalking for more answers!

My labour was 42 hours long, baby was twisted and unknownly had his hind waters intact and his cord bundled up by his head. I managed to get to 8cm and then ended up going back down to 7! I then ended up with an emergency csection under a general anesthetic. I don't think my 2nd labour could possibly be worse than that 😂

 

[pinklizzy]

My second labour was far easier than the first, I think some of that was due to the fact that my DD was a breech baby but it was shorter and easier to cope with the contractions.

 

[Pink Sarah]

My first was a premature baby labour was 24 hours from waters breaking but only had noticeable pain for about 7 hours and had to have stitches. 2nd was full term and only 3 hours of contractions, the midwife did break my waters to speed it up slightly as my BP was too high for 2 readings and as it was a midwife led unit if the next check was too high I would have been transferred to hospital about 40 mins away - I told her there was no way I was going anywhere so she said we had better get baby out then lol! No stitches needed!

 

[Buttercup84]

My girls were both inductions but very different! First time I needed the hormone drip to go into labour and had an epidural which wasn't too bad in itself but I suffered a nasty tear (2nd bordering on 3rd degree) and a 2.5 litre hemmorhage requiring a blood transfusion. Second time the cervical gel put me into labour and my waters went on their own which was like pressing a fast forward button lol cos she was born 1.5 hours after I got to 4cm with half of that being pushing as she had turned back to back! I never tore at all though and felt great afterwards, in stark contrast to after my first labour when I felt like I'd been run over!!

 

[LoveCakes]

Stalking! I'm not even pregnant again yet bit I was pushing for 2 hours and only missed a forceps delivery by minutes thanks to my amazing midwife. I felt like I'd been beaten up the next day as my muscles were so sore from pushing. I had a second degree and a few first degree tears, I really want to avoid that again!

 

[NotNic]

Second much easier. First was back to back and I pushed for 5hrs. He got stuck and I had an episiotomy and forceps. Second was a water birth. Had manageable contractions up until 6cms. From 6cms - delivery it was less than 2 hours and waters only went 2 pushes before his head came out. I think if my waters had gone sooner it would have been even quicker. I had no drugs except local anaesthetic for some stitches. Only complication was that he had the cord around his neck but he was absolutely fine. Still in shock about how well it went.

 

[stripeycat5]

First labour was 24 hours and 12 in active labour. Ended in forceps and episiotomy. I went into labour at home and had to go into hospital as there was meconium in my waters. So all in all it was pretty crappy!

2nd labour was induced as she was 11 days overdue. I had the pessary which overstimulated me so then had to wait until the morning for them to break my waters. I then was in active labour for 5 hours and had a vaginal delivery with another episiotomy. I had gas and air and cocodamol this time and had diamorphine, gas and air and an epidural first time!

So overall second time was much better than the first she just needed a bit of convincing to come out lol 😜

 

[Zeri]

I've heard that second labours are a lot faster and that was definitely true for me!

With my 1st, I had contractions on a Saturday morning, and was in labour all the way into Monday (my water bag had to be broken, and I was given Pitocin to speed things along), and she finally came on Monday afternoon at 3:30 pm!

With my 2nd, I went for a walk on Friday afternoon - had a bloody show on Friday night at 9 pm, strong contractions after that, and baby came at 8:30 am Saturday morning!

So over 48 hours for 1st (with induction), and less than 12 hours for 2nd (no induction needed). My 2nd was also a lot more intense and painful than my 1st, and it all came on so quickly. I was not prepared and still had to hustle to get my hospital bag packed and baby room cleaned during strong contractions! It was not fun.

Be very prepared!!