Practical ideas for labours that are hard and fast?

[Lolli]

Hi all,
My last labour was pretty quick- 5 hours from the first twinge of pain, three and a half hours of 'official' labour (according to the hospital papers). I went from a twinge of back pain to it being so bad that i couldn't speak in about the space of an hour.

I'm assuming this one will be somewhat the same (while keeping in mind it might not be ). So I was wondering if anoyone has any practical ideas for dealing with labour that progresses that quickly? I feel like it went so fast I had no time to regroup, to think about different strategies to cope with the pain (and my well packed labour bag didn't even make it out of the car!).

Any ideas, thoughts, experiences much appreciated.

[Tinks]

I had quick labours too. I didn't have any time to think about what was going on either. The only advice I can give is to focus on 1 spot and just breathe through every contraction. It will be over before you know it.

[Sequoia]

I would love to know too, 4 hours from go to whoa. Far too intense that I have basically forgotten the whole thing.

[~Raven~]

My last 2 were rather fast with the 4th one under 2 hours. Had a bit of prelabour over night but first real contrax was at 8am and she was born by 9:50!

Don't panic, relax as much as you can and get on with it Be firm with what you want too. A birth plan is a good idea because you might not be able to discuss stuff and have your partner be your advocate. Really get him or her to step up for you. I wasn't able to talk much at all during my 3rd labour except for screaming no when they were telling me to push lol. All I wanted was a bit of time to stretch but couldn't say it and DH forgot to tell them in the excitement.

Pain management was best with rocking and the shower with a bit of gas. Refuse to be on the bed as much as you can as I found it unbearable with contractions coming constantly. I had to do the compulsory monitoring but was up and rocking ASAP.

Try and hold off from weeing before you leave home if you can manage because I was hassled to provide a sample and I couldn't.

And um if you have a poo issue don't worry about it. That's the best part of going in the shower for a bit. You don't have to worry about the mess

If I think of anything else I'll be back!

[tan32]

Hi
My first labour was 4 hours, my 2nd labour was 45 minutes and my 3rd was 55 minutes. all started from nothing to full on contractions less then 3 minutes apart.no warm up.

I have to say that def staying of the bed was my best thing, the shower was great. I needed to get on the bed in my last labour but i knelt leaning over the bed which i got them to sit up..
I found in my last labour that i had to make myself think that with every contraction my baby was closer....not so easy when labour is so fast and hard.

[2CheekyMonkeys]

my second labour was 4 1/2 hours. my DH massaged my back pretty much the whole 4 hours. i had gas too. depending on how you feel try using different tools like bouncing on the fit ball or leaning into bean bag, shower etc because if anything it will kinda seem like the time is going by faster cause you are doing stuff. but yeah other than that i dunno, but i tell ya i would rather a quick on than a long one. i didnt even feel tired after second birth. (first one was a long slow one)

[Cricket]

From my own experience, I highly recommend water, in whatever form you can get in it - the shower, the bath, whirlpool tub, whatever. Really helps you relax and cope, I find. With this baby, I got in the shower on a birthing stool, and the contractions slowed down, but I also made good progress because of the squatting position, so it was win-win for me.
All the best!