Not sure if its random or not but my first was an induction (I kept it all slow so she was a very long time coming, not a typical induction at all in terms of speed) and my second was a spontaneous, VERY quick birth. 3rd was slower than 2nd but significantly quicker than 1st
There are too many variables that can affect the duration of labour to say with any certainty, you know?
My second labour was a lot longer and harder than the induced one. But that was because of malpresentation. Who knows how quick it might have been if she'd had her head straight?
I though it was 'usually' quicker second time (especially second stage) because everything has been stretched once. But who knows what will happen in any individual case.
This is just my experience, and I seem to be a bit of a freak when it comes to quick labours
DS was induced as my waters broke and I was GBS positive and contractions were slow to start. I was induced at 8pm, full labour was established at 9pm, and DS was born at 1112pm- so a 2hr12 minute labour to birth
With DD, my waters broke at 350pm, I had 10 min contractions until about 450pm, we arrived at the hospital just after 5pm at which time my contractions were right on top of each other and she was crowning, she was born at 515pm, so from waters breaking to birth there was 1hr25mins
Like I said, this is at the extreme end of quick labours (My Mum was similar), but in my own experience, yes, the 2nd labour was quicker, and my obstetrician expected it to be and told me to head to the hospital either when my waters broke or when I was contracting at 10 min intervals
I was induced with DS1, had gels only and then waters broke spontaneously and contractions started pretty much on top of each other. Labour all up was 2 hours 5 mins.
With DS2, I had a spontaneous labour, however he wasn't positioned well and after 10 hours of pretty hard labour I ended up having to have an emergency c/s as he just wasn't descending down the birth canal. DS2 was a whole kilo heavier than DS1 though.
There are just so many variables when it comes to labour and birth. I honestly thought DS2 was going to be out within an hour of going in to labour, how wrong was I!!!
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