Hi,

I had a normal delivery of my baby last year and it only took me 2 hours of labor. It was rather painful but then again it was very rewarding.

How about you?

I suppose it depends on what you mean by normal.

My first was delivered vaginally after 28 hours of labour and more than 4.5 hours of pushing. She was born with a nuchal elbow (elbow along side the face). Due to her compound presentation it was pretty painful and exhausting to push for so long.

My second was delivered vaginally after about 4.5 hours of labour and 25 minutes of pushing (12 minutes after the water broke). He was born sunny side up, so I had a lot of back labor and tailbone bruising.

So neither of my births were "normal". I think if my next child is born in the optimal position, she'll just fall out. :D

I never understood the addage of back labour=sunny side up. All three of mine were positioned right, but I still had back labour for all of them.

Since I had back labour with all 3, I consider it to be normal for me. My labours were 12, 8, and 3.5 hours. If I ever had a fourth (which won't happen) I would be camping out at the hospital. Deliveries were normal for the last two, but they used the vaccuum for my first as I was young and couldn't push her out on my own.

Ya know, my first, while with an elbow presenting, was born in the optimal position. I had what I thought was back labor with her - it felt like my spine was going to rip in two. But that was NOTHING compared to my sunny-side up babe. The pain did not stop between contractions, it was incredibly intense. I was on my hands and knees for most of it, until my midwives threatened me with walking the stairs to get him to turn before the waters broke (that is when I started pushing and had him 30 minutes later. Tell me to walkt the stairs, will you? :D). I'm sure at points I was pushing without contractions, but my back hurt so bad I wanted him out of there.

Not to say you didn't have back labor or it wasn't painful or anything. Just saying I had thought the same thing with my first, that I'd had bad back labor. Then my boy showed me what bad back labor was. Thank goodness his was a speedy delivery!

But I always hated people like you who could have such short labors!! Just kidding but I wish I could have had it that easy. I was in labor for 72 hours the first time (only about 7 1/2 hours was hard labor) and ended up with emergency c-sections for my other two. You were very, very lucky and I'm jealous...lol!

Is there really such a thing as normal? All births I have heard of seem completly different from one to the other. I hope we get a quick birth but thats left up to the baby right?