"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
...

Sorry, I really don't think there's any way to know
for sure. My second labor was just over two hours, but my
third (six years later) was five hours (and my first was
45 hours).

I'd settle for 5 over 2 any day, just a little bit more time to make sure
everything is ready to go, like the midwife is actually there, rather than
still on her way!

to the original poster, there isn't much way to tell, and you don't say
how
early and how small your baby was, which could make a difference, plus
with
early labours first time mums often don't notice the early signs which you
probably would this time, it would be very unlikely for you to suddenly
have
a very long labour, unless the baby was malpostioned, or something else. I
would have thought that whilst active labour could be less than two hours
you are likely to have some warning (my mum for example had a show 8 hrs
or
so before my sister was born, though active labour was around an hour).

You are correct, perhaps I missed some signs. I may have missed the loss of
the mucus plug, and I did have back ache. In any case Naomi was 7lbs and
apparently 5 weeks early, but I didn't know my dates and she was dated by
the first scan which was not until about 26weeks.



cheers

Anne