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Dear all,
My 2nd bub is due in a few weeks, and I'm just wondering at what stage of labour should I start heading into hospital. With my first, I'd planned on labouring at home as much as possible (didn't happen in the end as I was induced), but I've heard that 2nd births can be much quicker so you should head off to hospy earlier.
Any advice would be appreciated.
With my 2nd i left as soon as the pain was unbearable and began screaming for an epidural (which i still never had...LOL). She was born 3 hours after i arrived and id been in labour for 3 hours prior (6hr labour).
You'll know ;)
My DH was all antsy but I kept telling him to wait. We went to bed and an hour later I woke up to "those" contractions and knew it was time. He was born a tad over 2 hours later.
We had a 10 min trip to hossie though so could fly in quickly if things moved faster than the first time. Which thy did lol!
I went in when my contractions were about 3 min apart and they were beginning to be unbearable. I had a 6 hour labour with my second, and was in hospital for 3 hours.
With my 2nd I planned on waiting til the contractions were only 5 minutes apart, even though I was a 40 minute drive from the hospital.
I ended up having contractions on & off for 20 hours though. Then when they became regular they were 30 minutes apart, but they were unbearable, so I woke DH up to go.
As soon as I did they hit 5 minutes apart. I got to the hospital at about 3am, 7cm dialated & she was born at 7.08am. So we were still there for 4 hours.
yeah the subsequent labours can be shorter.. but if you were induced with Synto, there is no way of knowing for sure how long your first labour would have been. My sister went through this on her second as her first was induced too. I can only say what Raven does - you really will know. I laboured at home with Haz until 9cms (only because the hospy was 500m up the road) and went in when I was getting the contractions on top of each other. But you really don't do that if you arent on their doorstep - takes a long time to walk like that, lol.
Just go in when you no longer feel comfortable without someone there. Always the best barometer is how you feel at the time.
Even ourselves can mess up our birth plan because for all the best intentions, we have to follow our own instincts at that time.
With DD2 I woke at 1.30am with an almighty pain. I got up straight away. My contractions started at 5 mins apart. By 2.30am they were 3mins apart and getting a little ouchy. I woke up DH and we went to the hospital (after stopping at Maccas for his sake). I got to hospital with 45 mins to spare.
I lost my plug that morning so I knew some thing was going to happen very soon. At the time I lived 10 mins to the hospital so I wasn't worried about getting there.
If live a distance from hossy then give yourself plenty of time. You'll know when the time is right
Everyone's different hun. I'd trust your instinct. My second labour was 3 hours and he was early so I didn't even have a bag packed - I had to leave without one! But I knew when labour started that it wouldn't be long so I followed my instinct and went - luckily because I didn't make it by much LOL!
I went in when my contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart. We only lived about 5minutes from the hospital. I was 4cm when i got checked and had him 1 hour 29 minutes later :) My dh is worried about me not making it to the hospital this time :rolleyes: