Q - Is it true - 'stop & start' labour for 'grand multiparas' ?

[Trish]

Dee, I will be watching this keenly for some answer's. I so hope it's not the case. Although, my labour with Tehya was quite drawn out compared to my other births.

Fingers crossed for the both of us that Number 5 is a breeze. Afterall, our bodies really should know what they are doing by now.

Oh and how lucky are we to be "Grand" !!

OK, so I found this and thought it was interesting. Probably moreso for me as I am planning a homebirth.

What is a labour like for a grand multipara?

Anecdotally, it seems that when women have given birth several times before, they often have a long prelabour period where contractions may build up, but labour does not become established. It may be hard for them to be sure when they are going into labour, because labour appears to start, then contractions stop. This pattern may continue over several days; with my own fourth baby (fifth pregnancy) it continued over about a week.
This can be frustrating and tiring, especially when you have several older children to look after. However, these on-off contractions are usually doing some work; they are helping to move the baby into a good position and to efface and perhaps dilate your cervix. It is common for the established labour to be short, or easy (but not necessarily both!) after a long prelabour.
A woman planning a hospital birth, who was having contractions every five minutes, and then found that her contractions stopped, might be put on a syntocinon drip to bring on powerful contractions. This augmentation of labour is generally more painful than natural labour, and it can lead to other interventions. That's fine if you are finding it extremely stressful dealing with the uncertainty of when your labour will finally get going, but if you are happy to wait then be aware than you do not have to consent to have your labour sped up in this way.
If you are planning a homebirth, you have more flexibility - you can accept the stop-start labour, make the most of any rest you can get, and stay close to home, or you can transfer to hospital to have your labour induced. You might also have the opportunity to have your waters broken at home, to see if this brings on established labour. Breaking the waters is known to increase the risk of foetal distress and of infection, and it can make labour much more intense, very suddenly, which some women find hard to deal with. Research suggests that on average it only shortens labour by a small amount, but some midwives feel that there are cases where it makes a real difference.
As long as you and your baby are healthy, and your baby's heart rate is not showing any signs of distress, remember that there is nothing "wrong" with a labour which progresses as a series of rests and jumps. You don't have to transfer to hospital just because your labour is not progressing according to the same timetable that applies to a woman having her first baby. Some women feel it is a very efficient way to labour - like so many other parts of your life, you fit this task into family life in manageable chunks, not all at once!