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Precipitate Labour |
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by missjoy  (March 2007) (rank 500+) |
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was researching this topic and found that they're wasn't that much information on it, So here is a quick outline of what i know and have found and been told about it.
Generally a precipitate labour lasts less than an hour, though with my first child it was under
2 hours. It is so quick and can be very traumatic for both mum and baby as your body is doing the work of what would normally be on average 8 hours or so into a much shorter time frame. Many women are often envious when you tell them your labour was only 2 hours or less but when it happens to you it can be quite a shock physically and emotionally as you had no lead up to it, you skip the first 2 stages of labour and go straight into hard active labour with little time to breath in between contractions. Your pelvic floor muscles that you have been building up for the last 9 months offer little to no resistance as there is no need to actively push. I was told by my widwife ( i am 39 weeks pregnant) that many women tend to have precipitate labour with their second or susbsequent pregnancies and any following pregnancies have a higher chance of also being precipitate. No one really knows why some women can have these quick labours and others don't, one of the theories is that the cervix and other tissues/muscles are just more stretchy that others and that their uterus just contracts more efficeintly than others.
When told that my second pregnancy would also be precipitate i asked what the risks would be if any so i could prepare myself mentally, the midwife told me that there is a risk of me going to the toilet and the baby just sliding right on out (i almost laughed i thought she was joking) not necessarily in the toilet but just falling in general like if i was taking a shower etc. There is also the risk that baby might suffer brain damage due to temporary delay of oxygen though full term babies are alot more resiiliant to this as long as the shortage isn't too long the other main risk is that baby may suffer some brain injury due to the fact of how quickly he/she descends through the servix and out, being first rapidly squeezed then all of a sudden released.
When Belle (my first baby) was born she was very edgy and jumpy due to coming into the world so quick but with the doctors help this soon passed quickly by being in quite surroundings and gentle care and not having to many people around helps with lots of skin to skin contact with mummy (me!)
So though this can all sound scary many babies who arrive into our world quickly seem to suffer no ill-effects, just remember that if there is a chance you are in the small percentage of women who this can happen to don't drive to the hospital always ring an ambulance as you might give birth on the way, i was lucky in that my dad drove us an though my waters broke on the way i arrived at the hospital with 20 mins to spare (no time for pain killers) but not everyone will be lucky so make sure you have lots of back-up plans and hospital bag already to go!
Good luck everyone:)
