Are you ready to welcome your second baby? Now that you are pregnant for the second time, it is normal to wonder if it’s anything different than your first one. You might have questions like these: “Will it come sooner? Easier? End faster? Will it be less painful?” Don’t worry, mummies! Check out below for what to expect on your second child labor.
Q1: Will my second birth be faster?
The second childbirth will come in much faster and more straightforward.
If your first labor lasted around 18 hours or even up to 24 hours, you can expect that your second labor will most likely end in a much shorter time, sometimes half the time or even shorter. Your baby will pass through the birth canal more smoothly this time around since all of your muscles, tissues, and bones have already stretched out once and learned their lesson hard the first time.
Pushing will be faster too. Since you’ve already learned about the best way to push your baby out during your first delivery, pushing the second time will feel more under control and more effective. While first-time mums push around 20 minutes to 3 hours during childbirth, the pushing is usually done within an hour or even faster for second-time moms.
But if there’s a bigger age gap between my children, will my second delivery resemble the first one again?
UNLIKELY. Like we have mentioned above, your muscles have already developed memories from your first childbirth and it is very unlikely that you’ll revert the memory and go back feeling like your first delivery again. However, there are other factors that may influence the experience of your second childbirth more while they contribute to having a bigger age gap in the first place. For example, you may have adopted a new lifestyle, moved to a new place, changed your partner, etc.
Q2: Can I plan a home birth this time?
Your practitioners will usually recommend having your first birth in a hospital for safety concerns and to deal with complications that may arise from prolonged labor. But it’s not always relaxing. Hospitals can be cold, nerve-racking, or stressful, and far from being a comfortable environment. Therefore a lot of mums choose to have a second birth in a home environment. You can do so too if you don’t have any specific medical conditions that arose during your first labor. Find out more about Home Birth here.
Q3: Is a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Caesarean) safe for me?
75% of mums who have have a C-Section can have a safe vaginal birth for their following births, but it really depends. Common reasons for needing a C-section can be having prolonged labor, abnormal positioning of your baby, lack of oxygen for your baby during labor, birth defects, cord prolapse, or other health conditions. Whether or not you can deliver vaginally safely will greatly depend on the reasons for your previous cesarean. The best way is to consult your practitioner early to plan accordingly. Read more about C-sections and VBAC here.
Q5: Do I get an early arrival again?
You may have delivered your first baby prematurely, but this does not mean that your second baby will also come out early. The cause of premature births is often hard to pinpoint, some common reasons can include having poor nutrition, infections, abnormal physiology, smoking or drinking during pregnancy.
Even though there is still around a 20% chance for your second child to come out prematurely, that percentage lowers if you have overcome your previous health complications and are no longer experiencing them during your pregnancy.
*Remember: Even if your conditions are still the same as your first pregnancy, it is really hard to predict how the second time will turn out for every birth experience is different.
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