Predicting length of labor based on female family members...

[Anonymous]

My mom's labors were 8, 5, and 3 hours long. My aunt (her sister)'s labors were 8, 4, and 2 hours long. My sister just delivered her first baby, and her labor was 8 hours long. Do you think I will also have an 8-hour labor or shorter? I was expecting 24+ hours since I'm a first-time mom, but I started asking my mom and aunt about their deliveries, so now I'm hoping that there's some sort of genetic component... what do you guys think?

[Anonymous]

I believe there has to be some sort of gentic component...my mom's first labor was with me...and it was about 12 hours long. I just gave birth to my first and start to finish, labor was just under 12 hours...

[Anonymous]

Nothing genetic with me - my sisters and mom were a few hours, I was under a 1 hour with both of my pregnancies (and active labor for 20 min. for preg.#1 and 15 min for preg.#2 - although it seemed like forever).

I'm the most athletic of the females though - continued running up to my due date (obviously went easy with the running during 3T).

So maybe it's your physical condition that predisposes you to predicting the length of labor.

[Anonymous]

OP here. The physical fitness idea makes sense. My sister is a marathon runner and triathlete and I am also a runner and very athletic. I have not been able to exercise a lot during the third tri, though, because I start having contractions whenever I exert myself. So I've been limited to uphill walks on the treadmill, stationary bike, and yoga - and even those are hard. My sister stopped exercising at 20 wks due to sciatica. So I would guess it's the underlying level of fitness?

[Anonymous]

I certainly had been hoping for a connection, because my mom (who never has been an exerciser) had a first and relatively easy labor of 6 hours, and a second of 2. I had a 20 hour labor--all of it induced--and had exercised plenty before and during pregnancy. who knows the reason? Perhaps I would have had a shorter labor had I gone into it naturally rather than having had pitocin given to me when I was not even 1 cm dilated and only 20 percent effaced--but maybe not.

[Anonymous]

I'm very athletic and walked, swam and did prenatal yoga during my first pregnancy and had a 21 hour labor. I did only push for 40 minutes, so perhaps the athleticism came into play there, but I'm not sure it made a difference in how long labor lasted overall.

My mom's first labor stalled and she ended up with three c-sections for all of us kids. My labor also stalled, but things picked up once I finally agreed to a small dose of pitocin. I'm not sure there's ever any very accurate way of predicting any of this!

[Anonymous]

At genetic component would make sense, but I don't think it has to be from your maternal side. My Mom's 1st labor stalled (due to a breech baby) and wound up in a C-section, but all of her Mom's labors were fairly long (admittedly my Mom was a breech vaginal delivery, so the long labor makes sense) as I believe were her sisters. My 1st labor on the other hand was pretty quick - 7 hours start to finish if you're being generous (I didn't actually know I was in labor for the first hour or so.) However my *Dad's* sister and my cousin both had tons of BH (as did I) and had quick labors. Since I generally seem to take after that side of the family, it sort of makes sense that my labor would be more similar to my Dad's sisters than my Mom's.

[Anonymous]

Interesting... I would assume that heredity plays a part in labour time, but how much is unknown. My maternal grandmother had fast home labours with all 7 of her children, my mother's first labour (with me) took 3 hours maximum, so I am hoping for a short one too - with the understanding that it will probably be more intense! My first labour came prematurely at 32 weeks, and I was given drugs to try to stop it: it lasted 28 hours and DC1 was born. If everything is normal this time, I am thinking DC2 will come much much quicker...

[Anonymous]

No correlation in my case--mom had early and fast labors, i had to be induced.

[Anonymous]

Ooh, I hope so--my Mom was in labor for 3 hours with me and less with my brother. Let's hope!!

[Anonymous]

My mom's labors were 18, 10, and 8 hours long.

My sister was induced with her first due to preeclampsia, so that 27-hour labor doesn't really count, but had a 3-hour labor with her second.

My first was not quite 5.5 hours long.

[Anonymous]

I hope not! My mom's third labor was so fast that my sister was born in an ambulance!