Anyone else had a silent birth?

Wow I've never even heard of this. I didn't know it was a possibility?

Obviously I can't offer advice but I have to say I'm increadibly intrigued by the topic. And truth be told increadibly jealous wink

Could you research others who have experienced this online? Or chat to your dr/mw about their experiences?

hi there i also had a silent birth, wenh up to hospital and to my shock i was already 9cm dilated, DS arrived 55mins later,

i have only had one child so i cant answer your qusetion sorry, just thought i would share that i also had a slient birth smile

Hi I was kind of the same with #1. I was 3cm from 36 weeks, then the Dr decided to induce me at 40weeks. I went in, had the gel to be prepared the next morning and 4 hours later my waters broke and the mw said it would take a while but then checked me and was surprised to find I was already 6-7cm eventhough I'd been sound asleep prior to my waters breaking and I had only had one mild contraction. All up from waters breaking to his birth ds only took 4hr 40 min.
With DD I was again 3cm from 36 weeks, waters broke on my due date but no contractions for about an hour. By time I got to hospital I was 7cm after a few slightly painful contractions. She took 3 1/2 hours from start to finish.
With our new little man, I was worried about not making it to hospital so my Ob agreed to induce me at 39weeks so I wasn't stressed out. Again I was 3cm for a few weeks, I decided to just have my waters broken to see how I progressed and without any contractions I got to 6cm. After that the contractions hit hard and right on top of eachother. All up this one only took 1hr 28min. If we decide to have one more u will be definitely be asking to be induced again.

I wouldn't be doing regular cervix checks, you just increase your risk of infection. Your cervix also changes a lot so it might start to dilate, but then it can close up again so its unreliable. I don't understand why you would need your waters broken.... If you are already dilating nicely and you are coping and you are in hospital, why not just wait?
I had 2 homebirths and my waters didn't break until the last 20 mins or so for dd1 (2 hours active labour) and dd1 was born in less then half an hour of active labour and her waters didn't break until the last couple of minutes.
I really don't understand why your waters were broken at 6cm... lots of women dilate a few cm without realising it.
I am also an hour from hospital, I don't have silent births (but I have also never had my dilation checked either....) and I had super quick births.

If I were in your position, I would be preparing for birth at home (just in case) and seeing how you go closer to the date. it is possible your next birth may be different and its also possible that you may have felt cx previously if you didn't have your waters broken as you dilated more. Its a bit hard to predict the next birth as you had your waters broken so early and all the action happens in the later part of the dilating. I assume you will be having regular check ups closer to the date so you can at least keep an eye on it. There are other things you can look out for that might make you aware labour is close, such as mood changes, gastro like symptoms etc, so if this happens you could ask for monitoring around then.

Now that I think about it my MIL didn't know she was in labour and her bub was born within 30 mins (she was already in hospital for something else and my SIL was hooked up to a machine monitoring her cx, but she couldn't feel them.

Sometimes people just have quick births though. Its the slow births that tend to have issues.

I think you need to prepare yourself for a birth at home or in the car so you aren't freaked out by it. You might not want one, but given your history and where you live - its a possibility.

As the other poster said, you can have your cervix checked, but it just isn't reliable at all. Even if its your ob or midwife, the more often you stick something up your vagina, the more you increase your risk of infection which is obviously the last thing you want to do when pregnant. Even if it is the gloved hand of a professional....
Its the sort of thing that makes you feel more in control, but doesn't actually make sense given how unreliable it is. Obviously if they check it and happen to be 8 cm, well you can do something about it. But it is really common for women to be dilating in the weeks before especially with subsequent pregnancies.

I totally understand why you would have just done what they said the first time in regards to breaking your waters. I wasn't having a go. I just thought they might have given you a reason. However this time I am confused as to why would you have your waters broken at all? usually it is to get things moving if they aren't. If you are 9cm why would you need them to be broken? Your body obviously works beautifully, maybe you could just let it do its thing?

If you definitely don't want to prepare for an accidental homebirth and you don't want to be induced and you know checking the cervix isn't much to go by, then it sounds like you either need to find a midwife/dr/ambulance near your place who can get to you asap in an emergency, or you stay somewhere closer to the hospital.

If you rely on checking the cervix, what happens when they check it in the morning and you are 2cm. Will you go home, book yourself into hospital? I will just say that a lot of women are 2cm dilated and can be for weeks. Or they can dilate pretty fast and have a baby that night. Thats what I mean by it being unreliable.

My sister in law has had four children and she hasn't had one labour yet!! Her waters break out of the blue and she needs to push. Her deliveries have gotten faster and faster with the last baby born at home in 4 minutes. Her OB had given her umbilical cord clips when she was 36 weeks and told her to call 000 instead of trying to get to the hospital in time (they only live 10 mins away). Maybe you should ask your dr. what he thinks you should do if the baby is coming without much warning.

craigmeg wrote:
My sister in law has had four children and she hasn't had one labour yet!! Her waters break out of the blue and she needs to push. Her deliveries have gotten faster and faster with the last baby born at home in 4 minutes. Her OB had given her umbilical cord clips when she was 36 weeks and told her to call 000 instead of trying to get to the hospital in time (they only live 10 mins away). Maybe you should ask your dr. what he thinks you should do if the baby is coming without much warning.

Wow!!! That stuff always amazes me although it would be quite scary!!

craigmeg wrote:
My sister in law has had four children and she hasn't had one labour yet!! Her waters break out of the blue and she needs to push. Her deliveries have gotten faster and faster with the last baby born at home in 4 minutes. Her OB had given her umbilical cord clips when she was 36 weeks and told her to call 000 instead of trying to get to the hospital in time (they only live 10 mins away). Maybe you should ask your dr. what he thinks you should do if the baby is coming without much warning.

wow. that is an ob worth paying for.... maybe a few tips on what to do if she gets caught out wouldn't go astray. Clamps will be handy.....but only if she has sterile scissors to cut the cord. Unless the ambos are expected to do that... but then you would think they might have a clamp or they could just wait the 10 mins until they get to hospital to do it. Cutting the cord seems to be one of those things people think needs to be done asap, but it isn't urgent. Either way, I think arming someone with clamps and telling them to call 000 is a) not worth the thousands of dollars it costs to hire an ob and b) making the woman think their ob is telling them something worthwhile when its pointless and won't help.

Congratulations!!! I am so glad it worked out for you!
I hope you and bubs are feeling good and being pampered!

I had this with ds2.no pain until about an hour before he was born).Luckily I only lived 15 minutes from the hospital.It was completely different with my dd though.Was very short and sharp.

My MIL had silent births with all 8 of her pregnancies. She says she would feel a little sick n half an hour later baby was in her arms.

Congratulations I hope you and your baby boy are well smile