Jan 10

“Contractions Can’t Possibly Last More Than 45 Seconds.”

“Contractions can’t possibly last more than 45 seconds.” – OB to mother who has having double peaked contractions lasting 90-120 seconds as observed on the monitor.

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There are 18 comments to this post.

AB had this to say, Jan 10, 2010 @ 4:10 am (Quote)

Why is that? Because the textbook said so??

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Sheva had this to say, Jan 10, 2010 @ 5:58 am (Quote)

It’s truly amazing how monitors are ALWAYS right, except when they don’t serve the doc’s purposes (clearly in this case) and then they’re wrong.
How dismissive of the mom!
I watched a four-peak contraction on the monitor once. Pitocin induced, obviously. First birth, total labor start to finish, six hours!

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Crunchy Nurse had this to say, Jan 10, 2010 @ 6:33 am (Quote)

Was this an induction?

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Lauren had this to say, Jan 10, 2010 @ 8:17 am (Quote)

Has this OB never heard of a hyper-stimulated uterus??! I had a client in September whose contractions literally would not stop. They’d lessen in intensity, but her uterus remained hard. She was so miserable and I felt so sorry for her. Luckily we had an awesome midwife on our side who knew what it was and didn’t make my client feel bad about the pain she was feeling.

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atyourcervix had this to say, Jan 10, 2010 @ 8:55 am (Quote)

Double peaked (coupling), triple peaked (tripling), or more – usually because of pitocin induction or augmentation. Also, seen with posterior positioned babies. Yep, I see it quite a bit.

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Amelia had this to say, Jan 10, 2010 @ 12:07 pm (Quote)

Um, I am almost 100% certain my contractions were not a neat little 45 secs in length when I was in labor (natural, no pitocin, but suspected malpositioning). For about 10 hrs, I was getting almost no breaks btwn contractions. 45 secs, my…

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Andrea Reply:
November 16th, 2010 at 12:48 pm Andrea(Quote)

I was induced and ended up having back labor and was tripling. I was in labor for 15 hours before i was dilated enough for an epidural! There was no breaks between these horrible contractions either! Nothing helped! It was intense! After 24 hours of labor I delivered vaginally and she was perfect! My nurse told me that only about 10 % of women actually triple! LUCKY ME! )

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Jess had this to say, Jan 10, 2010 @ 12:15 pm (Quote)

Um…when I was preggo with my first, I was taught that I would know that I was getting closer if my contractions were at least a minute long.

My SIL just had a baby and I was there as a labor assistant. I hadn’t seen posterior position contractions in action before, but that is exactly what was going on for her…double, sometimes triple peaks. We got her to change positions twice and on the second time changing positions, her son must have turned right then, because he was born minutes later (much to the shock of the sleeping midwife!)

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Dawn had this to say, Jan 10, 2010 @ 12:38 pm (Quote)

I had a posterior up until the last moments…and I know the contractions felt like they were one on top of the other. I know I had 8 in about 10 mintues (or more contractions than that) becaue the doc realized I had an OP baby and had me move with every contraction I felt. Back of bed twice, hands and knees once or twice, left side twice, right side twice, on my back with knees up at least once. From the time I was told to move and baby was born, my husband said was 10 minutes. Each move was a contraction I felt…I would think there had to be some double peaking in there or something. They were long too, I recall pushing in them more than one time….

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GranolaRN had this to say, Jan 10, 2010 @ 3:19 pm (Quote)

Now that’s just plain stupid.

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Ronen Mendi DC had this to say, Jan 10, 2010 @ 10:34 pm (Quote)

It keeps amazing me how doctors sometime pretend to know more/different than the person who experiences, and even in the face of evidence.

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Heather P had this to say, Jan 11, 2010 @ 7:48 am (Quote)

Even my non-induced births had contractions that were longer than 45 seconds. I’m sure a doctor who induces on a regular basis is used to seeing double/triple/quad peaked contractions and lasting longer than 45 seconds.

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KDB had this to say, Jan 11, 2010 @ 8:58 am (Quote)

Waitaminute!
I thought the All-Knowing, All-Seeing monitor was always right?!?

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Kat Reply:
January 11th, 2010 at 9:54 am Kat(Quote)

It is! Except when the all-knowing all-seeing doctor decides their preconceptions trump the monitor (and the laboring woman, and her nearest and dearest support team, and the nurses who have been caring for her…).

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Knitted in the Womb had this to say, Jan 12, 2010 @ 5:06 am (Quote)

HUH??? Anyone who has taken even the hospital based childbirth classes should be able to tell you that one of the signs of active labor is contractions that last LONGER than 45 seconds, and that 90 second contractions are not uncommon in transition.

This Dr. must do a lot of planned c-sections or c-sections in early labor. Because he has NO clue what active labor looks like!

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