Olympic women’s ice hockey gold medalist Cheryl Pounder, 31, and her husband Mike O’Toole welcomed daughter Jaime after 36 hours of labor on Friday, January 25th at 2:45 a.m. She weighed 6 lbs, 14 oz.
Source: The Mississiauga News
How long were you in labor with your child? Did you think it would be longer or shorter?
I has in labor for a total of 8 hours with Erin. I expected it to be longer, because she was my first child and I had heard average is 12-14. What I did not expect, though, was the “pushing” phase to take up almost 4 of those 8 hours! So, I guess it only took me a little over four hours to become fully dilated & all of that fun stuff. Pushing took 3 hours and forty minutes. I was NOT prepared for that – despite reading all the books, I sincerely thought it’d be like a TV sitcom birth – two or three intense, screaming pushes and the baby is out. She was pretty big, for me anyway, I’m about 5’2 and very petite and she was 8 1/2 pounds. Not large on a wide scale, but huge in my family – my mother, my aunts and my sisters have all had babies strictly within the 6 – 6.5 pound range.
- Anne on
each full term labour around 24 hours,all natural..maybe next time will be shorter,who knows?? 
- M on
Congratulations to Cheryl and Mike on the birth of their daughter! I can’t imagine 36 hours of labour, though… wow. I was in labour for 6 hours with my first child (but I ended up having an emergency c-section because she was premature and breech), and with my second child I was in labour for 5 1/2 hours start to finish (a successful VBAC) – it was much shorter than I expected!
- Karin on
That seems so long (says someone who has never been pregnant)! I know there are different stages to labor and that sometimes stage 1 can take forever and isn’t really considered labor (as in, the hospital says to hold off on coming in till the contractions are a certain length apart). When someone says they were in labor for 36 hrs, do they mean at the hospital, or just including the time from when contractions began (b/c in some women, don’t contractions sometimes begin a few days before they give birth?) Sorry if these are stupid questions! Just trying to learn beforehand
- M on
With my first, I went natural. I arrived at the hospital at 10 pm, started pushing at noon the next day, and she was born almost 4 hours later. I had expected a much shorter pushing period. I was a little naïve on how long the labor would take. The lady next to me came in 20 minutes after me, and we progressed at the same exact pace: epidural at the same time, dilated at the same rate, ready to push at the same time. My doctor would tell me how she was progressing. He came in and said that she had delivered after 2 pushes (this was her 5th child). I thought, “Oh, well, this is my first, so maybe 15 minutes of pushing.” Haha! Yeah, 4 hours later she finally arrived.
Then, with my second, I was induced. I received my first dose of medicine at 8 pm. Nothing happened. Next dose at midnight. Nothing happened. Third dose at 4 am. Started feeling some contractions. Asked for an epidural around 6 am, but was told that I was only dilated to 4 (and had been for 3 weeks), so I wouldn’t be getting my epidural for a few more hours. At 7:30 I woke my husband up screaming in pain, and told him to them in there now because I wanted my drugs. The nurse came in and said that the anestheseologist wouldn’t be able to come in until after 8 am because he was in with a C-section. At 8 I screamed that I was going to start pushing, and the nurse freaked out on me. She checked me, looked like she had seen a ghost, and paged a doctor stat. My daughter was born less than 5 minutes later, after about 10 pushes.
- Dana on
I was induced on a Saturday morning, and my son wasn’t born until Monday morning- by c-section. I was effectively in labor for about 24 hours, because for some reason the pitocin took a really long time to kick in with me. Then I tried pushing him out for about 4 hours. Oh yes, I had the best of both worlds…but the outcome was great. I plan on having one more- by scheduled c-section. No VBAC for me, thanks!
- kendrajoi on
“weighed 6 pounds, 14 hours”
I think you meant 14 ounces…
- Emily on
I’m one of the lucky ones. I was in active labor for 4 hours and the baby was out after three easy pushes.
I’m pregnant again and hoping things will go as smoothly one more time.
- Evi on
I have 11 kids(aged 18 years to 10 months) and I have *NEVER* had a short, or easy, labor! I was told with my first the average labor is 12 hours….well, mine was 24 hours!TWICE as long!! Even now, with all the kids(they say labor is really short; 4 hours or less) my shortest was 7 hours and only as I was induced(and I was already 2cm).My average even now is still 12-14 hours, with some still 17 hours. Other people I know with alot of kids have short labors; often just 30-60 min. long…..I’m so envious!!
- Pogue Mahone on
When are you counting when labor starts??
- Lynn on
I was in labor for 29.5 hours with my first. Turned out she was face-up and had the cord around her neck, but everything worked out. I had a 7 lb, 8 oz beautiful baby girl, Emma.
I love the name Cheryl picked for her daughter, though I can assure her (from experience) that NO ONE will ever spell it correctly.
- Jaime on
I had precipitous labor – 2 hours and 45 minutes. We took Bradley classes and I was expecting 12-14 hours, too. We almost didn’t make it to the hospital, and I was in 2nd stage before we left the house. In hindsight I wished we’d just stayed home, but I was in complete denial that it was happening that fast, though my husband recognized all the signposts. We’re planning a homebirth for #2.
- Brooke on
I had contractions thru the night on a Tues & they continued thru Wed morning. I had an appt with my OB at 1 pm that day so I was waiting to see if I had progessed any (the day before Tues, I was only 1.5 cm but 90% effaced). I get to my appt at 1 pm & was told I was 4 cm and 100% effaced & in active labor & to go to the hospital right now. Got there, got an epidural around 4 pm when I was 6 cm. Started pushing at 7 pm when I was 10 cm. For some stupid reason the nurse also gave me Pitocin when I was contracting just fine. Had to push for 3 hours & baby was born at 10:25 pm – 6 lb 10 oz and 19 in -Tristan Jonathan. I think I had a fairly quick labor but I had no idea what to expect. Oh yeah, and the epidural didn’t take & felt EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Lynn on
Well with my first one I guess I was technically in labor all day but to be honest just thought I had really bad gas. I went to the hospital they said it would be the next day to go home. Went to the grocery store and then back to hospital. When I got there I was a 3 (dilated) I went around the corner to give a sample and when I got back literally two minutes later I was an 8. They ran me down the hallway. My son was born 45 minutes later.
With my second son, born in August, I actually got up and went to work. I am a school teacher. I decided that I needed to go home at 10:30 a.m., my husband said hospital because we thought the water had broken. We got to the hospital at about 10:45, the doc checked me prob 15 minutes later. I remember the nurse was like you just have to relax. And my doctor told her “Yeah, she really can’t, she is complete! Lets go. So I left work at 10:30, got into my room about 11:00 and my son was born at 11:30 a.m. I literally pushed like 4 times. But I went Drug Free both times.
To top it all off I was ready to go home that day. But they wouldnt let me.
To all mothers who had a time in the delivery room I admire you. I can’t even imagine. You go Ladies!!
- Dallas on
I was induced with all 3 of my children because of big babies. My first was 5-1/2 hours (Lamaze). I thought I would have time to get an epidural, but my son pleasantly surprised me! My second labor was 3 hours (Lamaze). With my third I was told I would only be in labor for an hour (we live an hour and a half from the nearest hospital) so I opted for a Bradley natural delivery because my second child was born “blue” as he was not getting enough oxygen during the pushing phase due to the breathing. Ten hours later I was in tears, telling my husband, “I should be in a postpartum room, eating a steak and nursing my baby – I WANT AN EPIDURAL!” He and the nurse did not believe me, stalled the epidural for 2 hours, and 12 hours after being induced I delivered my third son. I really give women who are in labor for over 10 hours and deliver their babies naturally a lot of credit – they are heroes. (PS: If I was do do it again I’d definitely have an epidural!)
- Sheri on
From the time my water broke at home to the actual delivery, it was 24 hours. I had trouble dilating towards the final stages. In the end, after pushing for an hour and a half, I was moved to the operating room. The doctors were preparing to do an emergency c-section. I was determined to have a vaginal delivery. And out came a beautiful baby girl, 8 lbs. 10oz! By far my proudest moment in life.
And to answer the question, no I didn’t think it would take that long.
- Heidi on
FOLLOW-UP:
In my earlier post I forgot to mention the length of the pushing stage: luckily for me that goes well: only 30 min. for the first(they say the average is 1-2 hours) and just 2-3 pushes for each of the others.As for the births, they were all vaginal, 8 with epidurals, one natural, one with gas mask, another PCA.I had an episiotomy(and stitches) with one, and tore with 2. I had Pitocin for 8 of them(for both sluggish labors and excessive bleeding), excessive bleeding with 9 of them, one preemie(35 weeks), one I had Cholestasis(and induced at 37 weeks to prevent stillbirth) and half of them were born facing up(“Sunny-side up”.)
- Pogue Mahone on
I was in labor for about 16 hours. I expected it to be longer because my mother was in labor with me for a couple days!
16 hours sounds bad compared to the 12-14 average for first-time moms, but only the last 3 or 4 hours were really tough. For the first 12 hours or so I was in early labor and totally OK between contractions. So my active labor and pushing was only about 3-4 hours… pretty short for a first-time mom. The pushing only took 40 minutes.
I checked into the birth center around 1pm and my baby arrived at 2:40pm.
By the way, even though I had a small baby (6lb, 13oz) and I am a big girl (5’11″ and 175lbs at the end of my pregnancy!) it still hurt like hell! If I ever have another baby I will not be doing it naturally again!!
- Sami on
I’ve been all over the map!
My first was 2hrs – start to finish!
My second was a complicated delivery and I spent 22hrs in labor.
My third was a 4 hrs start to finish.
The third was my favorite L&D because I actually enjoyed the entire process (unmedicated too!)…weird – I know…
- Christine on
I’ve been all over the map!
My first was 2hrs – start to finish!
My second was a complicated delivery and I spent 22hrs in labor.
My third was a 4 hrs start to finish.
The third was my favorite L&D because I actually enjoyed the entire process (unmedicated too!)…weird – I know…
- Christine on
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