What is Precipitous Labor and How Do I Know If It's Happening To Me?
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Kaely Harrod 0:01
Hello, today's question is what is precipitous labor? And how do you know if that's happening to you? This is Kaely Daily, the bi weekly podcast about all things doula Tips and Tits, where we answer one question about pregnancy, labor or postpartum or lactation, in order to have your journey in this parenting world be just a little bit more informed and filled with consent. Hello, welcome back to daily daily. I'm Kaely Harrod, your host of this beautiful Podcast. I'm also the author of the birth prep blueprint course, which is a comprehensive childbirth education for you to have the calm, confident birth that you're wanting to have, and not enter that birth space with overwhelm or stress. The link to that classes in the show notes and because you are a wonderful faithful listener, you get 10% off of that. So there's a coupon code in the show notes as well. That class is also on demand. So if you're like, oh, I need a class, and I should do it today. That's fine. You can jump right on that class today and start taking it immediately. So today's question comes from one of my students. So the question is, what is precipitous labor? And how do you know if it's happening to you? So first precipitous labor is fast labor. So technically, it is when a labor when a baby is born within three hours of regular contractions starting? So that's like the technical definition, right? So that's a scenario where a baby comes very, very, very fast as you can, as you hear right. Now, there are also fast Labor's that are less than or slightly more than three hours that are technically not precipitous, but still really fast. So I'm going to sort of address both, even though precipitous, is like a super specific definition. So how do you know that it will happen to you? First of all, there's no way to know for certain who it's going to happen to before Labor happens, right? There are a few ways to know that you're potentially slightly higher of a possibility. One is your family has precipitous births, we don't know that there's a genetic connection, but anecdotally, there seems to be, and so if your mother or your siblings have had fast Labor's then that is a possibility, it's a possibility that you would as well. So in that situation, it's good to have kind of a game plan of what that would look like. Also, if you have something like cervical insufficiency, which is like, you know, your cervix is dilating sooner than it should, or you need to have a ser collage to keep your cervix closed, then you're essentially starting with a little bit of a head start. And so you're at higher risk of a fast labor in that scenario, as well. And so those are some things to keep in mind kind of as you go along, you potentially are at a higher risk of of precipitous or fast labor. If you fall into those camps. So then how do you know that it is happening? If it happens, right, so let's say you're actually in labor, how do you know your labor is fast? And I would say this comes up at most, like most of my students have this question because they're like, Okay, it's one thing to plan to, like, labor at home for the most of the time, and, you know, like, all of that lovely stuff. And also, how am I going to know that it's fascinating to just go to wherever I'm planning to give birth, or I just need to call my my home birth team to come ASAP, right. The lovely thing is that typically, the same signs that it's time to go to your birthing place, or time to have your team come to you happen in both of these labors, but they happen faster in a precipitous or fast birth. Now, this is, of course, not always the case. So as you know, from my other episodes, not everyone's birth experience is the same. So in my experience as a doula from research that I've done around this topic, most precipitous and fast Labor's start out where you would expect to start if you were in active labor, almost to transition, right, so you're skipping the 12 Minute contractions, you're going straight to the two to three minute contractions, with a lot of pelvic pressure and significant intensity. You never have a 32nd contraction, you only have 60 to 92nd contractions, right? So, one thing I like to give in my childbirth class is a list of symptoms or signs that you might be ready to go to the hospital things like you're needing to make like noise with contractions you're needing to moan or you're needing to keep your eyes closed in between are, you don't really want to talk about things. Like you don't really want to chat with people, right. And so so those that list, that's not the full list, that's few of the things, right. So that list along with like, looking at the pattern of your contractions is a big way that you know, it's time to go. Now, in a birth, that's just like going along at a very normal pace. And you have like, you know, slow early labor phase, and you're just hanging out at home, then we're watching for those signs to start. But we're watching for them for like hours, or maybe like a day, you know, and that's normal and fine and great. In a precipitous or a fast labor, you jump right to those things almost immediately or very quickly. And then we have the same kind of guidance that like it's time to go, because those same signs are usually there. Now, I will tell you, there are a few moments of not believing that that's really what's happening in most cases, right? Especially if this is your first kid, and you're having a fast labor, and you had no clue that that was going to happen to you. In most of those scenarios, you get to the end of labor like Well, that was quicker than we anticipated. Right? I had a dear friend and lovely client have a second baby who was a very, very fast, a fast, fast labor. And at the end of it, the partner, the dad said, What part do you think was transition? And I was like, maybe from the lobby, to the labor and delivery unit like, like maybe the elevator ride? You know? Because it's, it is something that later you're kind of like, oh my gosh, I'm trying to unpack how that all played out. And it just, it just did, it just played out very fast, right. And it can be a little bit of a shock, both emotionally and physically. And so, so yeah, so So know that it's normal, if it happens to be like, Oh, my gosh, it's really happening, like we really are having a fast birth. And also, you probably will have to process it some later. Because really in the midst of it, when it's going fast, you just need to get to a safe place or get your team there or whatever it is just handle the fact that it's happening fast. And sort of compartmentalize in order to do that. And then at the end of it, be able to kind of unpack and hopefully have helped doing that, like having a doula or your provider or, or counselor or whoever it is unpack with you like, wow, that just happened? Why did it happen so fast? And what? Like, what could we have done differently? Or what could we have done the same? Or what did we like? How would we have known right? If you have those questions, it's okay to ask them, it's important to ask them, you want to fully process through that situation? And also there aren't answers to all of those questions, right. And so you're not necessarily going to have a comprehensive understanding of why and how it happened. But know that it's normal, and that it's normal to need to ask those questions at the end. Okay, so precipitous labor, fast labor is not super common. Not super common with your first labor, especially. Okay. So I don't want you to go in thinking, Oh, my gosh, lots of people have precipitous labor, no, most people do not, in fact, have precipitous labor. And so it would not be something that I would expect, if you are having the first baby that you've ever had. It is a higher likelihood if you've given birth before. But again, three hours like that kind of precipitous, like really, really, really fast, not common in general. Okay. So I hope that helps. I know that if you've listened to the last couple episodes, I've told you that I'm gonna get into some postpartum stuff, I promise we are getting there. I'm working on having some guests and things like that. And so we're gonna have a few kind of filler episodes in between. And then we're going to start into a postpartum series, and then kind of go from there. I would still love to hear your question. So I'm planning out episodes for 2023. And I can't believe that that's even a thing that we're so close to 2023 that we're planning things for it. But I would love to hear from you what your questions are that you want me to dive into during 2023 so that I have them kind of lined out in the in the plan so that I can answer those or have guests on to answer them. So until then, I wish you consent filled well informed birthing experiences.
Kaely Harrod 10:00
But these episodes are edited and produced by Kaely Herat as I'm sure you can probably tell, and our amazing music is credited in the shownotes as well. So we look forward to seeing you on the next episode, and in the meantime have wonderful in consent filled
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Fast labor is something that comes up frequently when pregnant families are preparing for birth. If you’ve seen videos of babies being born in cars that’s a natural line of questioning! The reality is that some labors are super fast. Some labors are slow. Both are within the range of normal, but understandably fast labors are more intimidating to families who are looking at the journey for the first time.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Precipitous Labor is technically a labor that’s under 3 hrs from start to finish
A labor can be fast without being under 3 hours. A 5 or 6 hr labor can be just as tricky to navigate
Learning the signs of fast labor is one way to have some reassurance that you’ll know what to do if this happens
RESOURCES
BLACK FRIDAY DEAL!!! Now until November 29th, 2022 get both the Birth Prep Blueprint Course and the Postpartum Prep Blueprint course as a two-class deal for $50 off!!! Learn more here:
https://www.harroddoulaservices.com/black-friday-2022-check-out
FREE OXYTOCIN GUIDE:
6 Ways to Increase Oxytocin for Labor Progression
https://www.harroddoulaservices.com/free-guide-6-oxytocin-tips
CONNECT with Kaely on Instagram
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https://www.harroddoulaservices.com/birth-prep-blueprint
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Kaely Daily is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services
It is sponsored by The Birth Prep Blueprint Childbirth Class
Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay
