Your third birth

Ok I'm just after some stories about your 3rd labour and birth.

I'm not even 15 weeks yet and already slightly freaked out that I won't be able to do it again. For some reason I have complete distrust in my own body to be able to do it! Like, the first two vba2cs were flukes or something, I dunno. Maybe its because I'm going through a different care provider than my last two times, and I trusted my old midwife - and I've only met my new one once (next appointment is tomorrow).

So how was your third labour and birth? Does it hurt more, the more you have? I remember that my contractions with DD2 were a lot harder to deal with than DD3 - so are they easier to deal with because you've been there and done that?

Was your labour shorter? I've read that the third one is kind of a curve ball labour - anything can happen. Could be half the time of the second, or could be in between the time of the first and second!

And when you take the time of labour - is that all up from first weak contraction or from active labour to birth? Because in that case my first one was 4 hours, 20 minutes and my second one was 2.5 hours (or total time was 13 hours, 20 minutes and 7 hours)

Did all your labours start the same? My labours started the same - weak contraction at 5am in the morning and slowly built up.

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just wanting some reassurance that it will all go ok I guess.. lol

Obviously no advice from me ;) but I believe you can do it :) ur a pro!

Aww thanks Kitty! xxx

You'll be ace!! My third labour was by far the quickest and easiest :).

I had way more pre-labour in the days leading up to actual labour than with the other two, my body did heaps of great work beforehand which is why it was quicker I guess? I think your body really knows what it's doing by #3.

It certainly didn't hurt more - I had a pain free calm birth, it was wonderful.

It was MUCH faster than the others - only 4.5 hours of active labour compared to my marathons with the boys lol!

All labours started pretty much the same way with fairly gentle contractions that built up. The only difference is that I went into labour in the evening with #3 whereas it was in the early hours of the morning with the first two.

You know I'll be here to cheer you on when you're in labour!

Let me think back that far...

Around midnight I felt contractions and were around 4/5 minutes apart, no warm up, just hit. I took some panadol and went to bed. By 2am things were pretty full on but I denied being in labour. Xdh called the hospital and they told me to come straight in as things were moving very fast. Arrived and they weren't ready so made me wait. Time from first contraction to birth was recorded as 3h 24m.

Less painful contractions, or maybe I was more controlled and listened to my body with breathing? I birthed differently from first 2 (they were on the bed, 3rd was standing). All 3 I tore, but nothing to bad, just 1st degree, all needed stitches though.

After birth pains were 1000x more painful too :(

My labours all began with a day of the runs, with #1 and 2, the contractions gradually got stronger and ouchy, but 3rd just hit with no warning. Waters never broke with any baby until just before birth of bub (except #1 where it was AROM 4 hours before birth).

Mine was probably my best labour. First noticible contractions were at about 5am, active labour was at about 3pm, he was born at about 11pm. I do seem to have slow labours and his wasn't the fastest from active labour to birth, but was the fastest over all, lol.

You can do it Melly. As you said you have done a VBAC twice before. Have faith in your body and it's ability to give birth to your amazing new little person.

Third labour and birth was freak out fast for me. Too fast - I felt stressed and out of control until I got to hospital and saw my MW.

First contraction 2.30am, got up then as a second came straight away, called mum 3am, woke up DH 3.30, he rang mum and confirmed it was on while I had my in labour power vomit and subsequent shower, DH called hospital at around 4am, I was outside pacing from 4am, wanting to go. Felt stressed and strung out, like it was all happening to fast.

4.15 mum arrived, we left not long after, arrived at hospital 4.45am and DS2 born 5.10am. And it took me a good ten minutes to walk from the car to the birth centre.

I basically walked in and said I needed to push, the MW held me off til she was sure and then two contractions he was born. So it was not even 3 hours from first punch to last. No prelabour, no real warning it was coming.

DD - started earlier in the night, around 10pm. Long slow labour - 40 hours. DS1 was almost identical to DS2 but longer - first contraction 2am, rang parents 6am and went to hosp around 7am, born 9.20am. Just over 6 hours. Much better to handle, IMO.

I have heard the curve ball theory too. And it was right for me. First 10 hours from first contraction to birth. Second baby was 3 hours from first contraction to birth and born only 20 minutes after arriving at hospital. So they were all freaked out that the third would be quicker. I went in after about 2 hours of active labour at home with contractions 3-4 minutes apart. But she wasn't born for another 5.5 hours of painful, intense labour. I had an anterior cervical lip and no urge to push until 10 minutes before she was born. She also had shoulder dystocia (4.9kgs!) and so no wonder it was a hard labour. All three I didn't have any drugs for pain relief.

You can totally do it. Get a team of people around you who know how awesome you are and get a good known midwife. My 3rd midwife was the worst and possibly contributed to it being the worst labour.

My first two births were super quick, one was under two hours and the other was 50 minutes from first contraction to baby. When I got pregnant with number three, 6 years later, everyone was saying the curve ball theory and I was feeling quite scared and wondering what would happen. As it turns out she was two hours from first contraction to baby, it was longer then the last baby but that was because I laid down and tried to slow my labour.

I have since found out that the 3rd labour curve ball is not really valued amongst midwife circles.

Go well!

My third wasn't my quickest but it was the easiest. Seriously! I just knew what to expect, so I was more relaxed, and I believe the more that you relax, the less painful it is. I am sure you will be fine.

Thanks everyone. I don't know why I'm so scared already, usually it doesn't hit until closer to my due date LOL

You have lots of time to build up a great rs with your new midi.
Tbh my 3rd labor/birth is my favorite. I felt in control and it wasnt too short or too long (6 hours from first contraction)

I know you can do it. Deep down you do too. I know its scary and hard to trust your body but you have months to build that trust with yourself too xx

My 3rd was the one I felt most out of control. The only labour I had an epidural which didn't work but it was the quickest (3.5hrs)

My 3rd was my first natural labour. The other 2 were induced. On the Tuesday afternoon I had what I thought were braxton hicks. On the Wednesday morning I told Andrew not to go to work as I was in early labour. 7.30pm on the Wednesday night Andrew was throwing stuff into the boot of the car as I hadn't even packed. Ashton was born just after 1.30am on the Thursday morning at exactly 36wks gestation.

I was more scared with my 3rd than the first two. I don't know why though, my 3rd was the quickest easiest by far.

My 3rd labour was quickest too. Out of all 4. I wasn't prepared. From first contraction/waters breaking mine were 18.5 (10 active I think), 30 (not sure where active labour started, got to hossy at 7cm & only had regular 30 min cxns for about 3 hours. Another 4/5 before she was born...)
DS was hard & fast. 5 hours from start to finish, maybe 2-3 hours active? then DD3 was 12 hours (5 hours active).

It was #4 when I started to doubt myself. I was trying to prepare myself for a c/s. Didn't work, I was terrified! For some reason I just lost all confidence & thought there was no way I could be 4 times lucky. But I did it & I did it posterior!

Pain was no different 3rd time. I just wasn't prepared for how fast it happened.

ETA: None of mine started the same. DD1 my waters broke, contractions started about 2 hours later & built up very gradually. DD2, all that prelabour, waters were broken by ARM as she crowned. DS contractions 15 minutes apart, waters broke about an hour in, no regular contractions from there. Some 7 minutes, some 2 minutes! Same with DD3. Nothing was regular. It started through the day with her. All the others woke me up! That wasn't expected either :lol:

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I've read that the third one is kind of a curve ball labour - anything can happen. Could be half the time of the second, or could be in between the time of the first and second!

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This probably sums up DS3's birth. My first two were fairly "standard", I guess you'd say. Approx 7-8 hours max from first mild contractions to babe in arms. They were both born just prior to their EDD. I delivered them without pain relief and without any dramas ... so all in all, fantastic births.

Cue my third birth. I went 14 days past EDD and ended up induced, which was nothing like the drama I'd built it up to be in my head (and trust me, there were lots of tears, thoughts of 'what am I doing wrong', plus just about every natural induction method known to man ... including 4 acupuncture sessions, on top of the regular sessions I'd had all pregnancy). LOL, makes me laugh now but certainly didn't at the time!!! So I went in and had one shot of gel at 7.30pm, and was 1cm dilated prior to the induction. Straight away I began having mild contractions which built up considerably over the next couple of hours. At 9.30pm they checked me out - I was soooo sure I was approx 6-7cm dilated - nup, still only 1cm. I almost lost it, but had a brilliant midwife who centred me and helped me refocus. The middie talked me into having a snooze, so I went back to the ward, and the light was off at 10.30pm. Thank God for hypnobirthing - it totally got me through, breathing and really paying attention to relaxing and being at ease. At 11.30pm my membranes suddenly popped. OK, went to the loo ... all good. And by the time I got back to the bed five mins later it was on for young and old. I was in transition. Bub was born 45 mins later and I had to stop myself pushing, because DH was trying to get back to hospital after going home for a snooze. He made it with less than 10 mins to spare. It was a wonderful birth though - the midwives were terrific, I had the self-belief that I could do it. And despite what ultimately was a quick labour, it was controlled and certainly no harder than my first two. My first two boys' births were gradual, with labour ever increasing in intensity. Text book, might be a good explanation. DS3's birth was definitely different. ETA: DS3 was my heaviest at 4.5kg, the others were 2.9kg (DS1) and 3.6kg (DS2).

You CAN do it hun. You know you can, your body knows you can. The good thing is, you've got lots of time to start to focus, visualise and build your confidence up. And you've got us behind you who can cheer you on.

My third was the quickest and the easiest. My labours have been 5 hours, 4 hours then 3 hours. If I have a 6th child, I assume it will just appear between my legs.

My second was my quickest by a loooooooong way (active labour was 15 minutes!) so I was scared to death what my third would be. My little miss gave me a couple of false alarms where I went to hospital with very strong, regular contractions only to have them fizzle to nothing. In the end my hind waters broke just after 8am and I didn't get any contractions at all until about 3pm, and then no "real" contractions until more like 5.30 pm. Miss 3 was posterior and stayed that way so it was pretty ouchy but I spent a lot of time in the shower and just rocking through contractions. My second and third were both drug free and while DD3 was posterior, the labour was still far less intensel, albeit longer, than DD2's incredibly quick arrival.

The biggest thing for me was the post labour pains after DD3. They get longer and more intense apparently with each birth and that was certainly the case for me.

No worries Arimeh - you'll be just fine. :)

My third baby was a bit different from the rest, but it was my first homebirth, and I was a little unsure of how things would go. I was stuck in pre-labour for most of the day, right around 3cm with regular, but not strong, contractions that stopped whenever my midwife came to check on me. Finally around supper time, things started to get real, I made it to 4cm, with bulging waters, my midwife broke my water, and baby arrived within two hours or so, if I remember correctly.
My midwife said that third babies are a little unpredictable, and that a long pre-labour stage is somewhat typical. I don't think that third babies are generally harder - I think it's more about whether you get that long warm-up stage or not.

Here's my birth story, if that helps. :) https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...r-birth-49801/

my 3rd is my fav birth. my 1st spontaneous labour but all business.
1st was 16hrs , 2nd was 4hrs dd was 2hrs. she gave me a few trial runs and was born day before due date.

Im sure you will be great. your body knows, you know :).
don't stress too much about new carers, plenty of time to ease them into your wishes :)

Ooh, yeah those after pains definetly get worse. But you've been at my level there. Good luck for the 5th round. Panadeine forte & Nurofen worked wonders! Then I went home :( lol

About the afterpains - I found that naproxen (sold as Aleve here - not sure what it's name is in AUS) worked the best. The directions say one every 12 hr, but my midwife said take 2 to start, and then one every 8 hours. I took that for two days post partum and never felt a thing after number 5 and 6. :) Otherwise, I took acetaminophen and ibuprofen together and that managed it reasonably, but not as well as the naproxen.

We are about to ttc #3 so this thread interests me, my labours were 1hr 48mins and 2 hrs 26mins and our hospital is over an hour away so number 3 better not be half of either of those labours, they were scary enough

My third was soooo much easier and more calm than my first two. I think that also had a lot to do with my mind set, I worked hard at keeping myself calm. As for length, my first was mammoth about 50 hours, Second was induced and just over 5 hours and third was 3h45min with a few hours of early labour before that. I coped better and my body coped better third time.
I think you're going to be amazing xx

My third was also my easiest, quickest, empowering. After pains where real toe curlers though!

Yeah I'm not looking forward to the after pains - they sucked enough after the 4th birth. Thanks for all the votes of confidence, I met the second midwife yesterday and she seems really nice, they're pretty big on hypnobirthing there so hopefully I can keep it together and not scream like I did with the other two LOL

Yeah I found after pains worse with every birth.

My after pains seemed worse last time than this time. They only lasted a couple of days this time... but I was on codeine and ibuprofen this time and wasnt taking anything last time so I imagine that made a difference.
Last time they just stuck around for ages though!

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About the afterpains - I found that naproxen (sold as Aleve here - not sure what it's name is in AUS) worked the best. The directions say one every 12 hr, but my midwife said take 2 to start, and then one every 8 hours. I took that for two days post partum and never felt a thing after number 5 and 6. :) Otherwise, I took acetaminophen and ibuprofen together and that managed it reasonably, but not as well as the naproxen.

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Naprogesic is the Aus equivalent. It works by reducing the contracting of the uterus. Be careful if you have a sensitive tummy though, it can give you an ulcer - always take it with food or milk.

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Yeah I'm not looking forward to the after pains - they sucked enough after the 4th birth. Thanks for all the votes of confidence, I met the second midwife yesterday and she seems really nice, they're pretty big on hypnobirthing there so hopefully I can keep it together and not scream like I did with the other two LOL

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Meh, you're allowed to scream. If that's how your body works then that's how it works. Me, I swear. LOL

Oh don't worry - I swear too lol

Lol Im a screamer. Held it together till I started pushing then OMG! Dr told me to be quiet as it wasn't helping lmao.
I reakon if their into hypno birthing it'll be an awesome experience :)

My midwife says that 3rd babies (or labours I suppose) often 'muck around' more - so you're more likely to get pre-labour. But when they're ready to come, they come reasonably quickly. For me, that sums up my 2nd labour, so it'll be interesting to see how this one goes! With DS my waters broke at about 2.30 am, contractions started reasonably quickly and built up, and he was born almost exactly 12 hours after waters breaking. No pre-labour, only some Braxton hicks which started a few days before he was born. With DD, I was getting pre-labour the day before (enough for me to think things might happen soon), then again the next morning. It wasn't until mid-afternoon that I called my midwife to say I thought I would see her that night or the next morning, but by 4.30 pm or so I knew things were definitely on. DD was born at 8.30 that night. So I count her labour as being about 6 hours, but there was a lot of not-very-painful at all pre-labour that went before that. I coped a lot better second time around (didn't fall apart and have an epidural;)), but I'm a bit scared that it's all going to be a lot harder this time!