motherandbaby.co.uk| April 2020 | 27Bump&BirthTHE LONGHands up who wants to know how long their labour will last?Whatever happens, we’ve got your backWORDS MILLI HILL PHOTOGRAPHY ISTOCK, GETTY IMAGES
and short of itIt’s said that ‘worry is the work of
pregnancy’, and if you’re expecting
a baby, you’ll probably find a new
thing to feel anxious about each day.
And right up there at the top of your
worry list may be thoughts of how long
your labour will last – you may have heard
stories from friends about it lasting for days.
On the other hand, you might have also heard
of lightning-fast births, where baby arrived
before mum had time to take her jeans off!
But is there an ‘ideal’ length for labour, and
what, if anything, can you do to influence it?