length of 1st labour...

hi ladies

my aunty is in labour at the moment and 28 hours after she was induced she is still going! so this has kinda brought the whole birth / labour thing home to me as I hadnt really or rather didnt want to think about it up until now! and have just realised that you may have not slept for over 24 hours by the time bubs actually arrives! eak!

So I was wondering how long was your first labour? I know it all varies from person to person but just curious to hear others stories

Mine technically started 2 days before Daniel was here. What I consider real labour though.. woke at 1am with bad contractions, he was here at 11am so 10 hrs

I had no prelabour etc. Woke up at 7am one week over due after a good nights sleep ( well as good as it gets at that stage), drove my hubby to work, had a walk around the city and then drove home about 12.00noon. My waters broke at 12.30pm and had her at 4.10pm that afternoon so under 4 hours for labour from start to finish.

Everyone is different but i think the most important thing is to make sure that you get plenty of rest when you can in the lead up to labour.

Edited by Kicker

I was induced also - gel at 5pm, drip at 12am, baby at 10.54am... so no sleep all night and not alot after the baby either - makes for a lot of tears!!

But my SIL realises that she is in labour and has a baby in her arms less than 2 hours later. The lucky b*tch has done this with all 3 of her babies!!

Pre-labour from Friday am

Waters broke 1am Sunday morning

Delivered 4.30am Sunday morning.

Labour was 3.5hrs

My waters broke at 2pm, and my labour started pretty much at the same time. I was fully dilated by 4.15pm and had my boy at 4.43pm so all up my labour was 2 hours and 45 minutes if you included the placenta.

I woke up with niggles at about 1am, waters broke at about 2am and it was full on from there - contractions about 4 minutes apart straight away. We were confused as to what to do cos everything we'd heard said the contractions start a few hours apart, or at least like half an hour!! Lol our thoughts of playing Rummicub whilst waiting for things to get going quickly went out the window We stayed at home for as long as possible and when they got really intense we headed into Birthcare at 5am. Our boy was born at 8.14am.

So about 7 hours all up It would have been shorter but I had a long 2nd stage (nearly 2 hours) cos he was trying to come out from the back of his head rather than the top.

From start of contractions to delivery was 41 hours but my actual clinical labour was 17 hours. Wed night till Thurs lunchtime I had manageable contractions, I didn't sleep much but that was more excitement and nerves than pain. By lunchtime on Thurs things were starting to get intense and I went to hospital at 11pm that night coz I couldn't handle the pain on my own anymore. She was born at 8.11am on Fri morning.

But bear in mind that she was posterior, so a lot of the early latent stage was her trying to turn into the correct position for delivery.

And like everyone else says, you hardly notice the lack of sleep. I stayed awake all day Fri just watching her sleep. For me the exhaustion kicked in half way thru the second night when she wouldn't settle and screamed all night in hunger.

arohanui wrote: Lol our thoughts of playing Rummicub whilst waiting for things to get going quickly went out the window

LOL, I love rummikub. I was playing rummikub during prelabour while at home with DH and Mum. We stopped playing when I couldn't concentrate anymore and went to hospital shortly afterwards.

My labour onset at 1.30am and went through til 9.25am. Officially (hospital notes) it was 7 hours but 8 from the first contraction to the last. (Hrmmm... I can't recall what contractions feel like anymore! Yay for memory loss)

I was absolutely exhausted by the morning even though the actual labour wasn't thaaaaat long. I think it was a combo of the drugs (pethidine), being the middle of the night when labour onset, and pushing for an hour. Sorta sucks that the part that takes the most energy happens at the end! hehe