04/26/2025
I wanted to share a note about fast labor. So many times, people determine an easy or hard labor based upon the time it took or how many interventions were needed. Easy equals quick and no interventions and hard equals long and full of interventions. But this is just not the case.
Labor is labor and requires calm, control, and commitment from the mom no matter what.
I assisted in a precipitous birth that resulted in the midwife not arriving in time and Daddy catching baby. Very fast and no interventions. Mama roared her baby out, progressing from first contraction to holding her child in less than 2 hours. In a fast labor, these things can occur:
-Mom feeling like she can’t catch up. Imagine going from eating dinner like normal to having back to back contractions in an hour.
-Birthing alone with the expected birth team unable to make it in time.
-Mom possibly trying to fight Fetal Ejection Reflex to wait for birth team to arrive.
-Hormones hitting late, causing a metal haze and/or inability to bond with baby right away. This can also result in a mom feeling like she has an out of body experience where she is watching life occur but not experiencing it.
-Potential of tearing due to the limited time for perineum to stretch.
-Mom holding her new child/ren in just mere hours after having an otherwise completely normal day.
-Letting go of birth expectations such as laboring in a tub, having a photographer capture the moment, twinkling lights, or a slow, calm environment.
This is not easy! It can be so hard for its own reasons and it is intense. More on this birth later but I wanted to share that quick does not equal easy. AND first time moms do not always equal long and arduous, even though it is most common. Physiological birth is a wild ride and so much is unpredictable. What matters is that baby and mama’s body get to do their dance and decide together when is the right time and right way to enter the world.
