This Mom’s Insanely Fast Births Will Give You Labor Envy
They say labor times get shorter with each subsequent birth, but how many of you can say you delivered a baby in two minutes? According to The Daily Mail, that’s exactly what happened to Sydney native Mary Gorgens when she went into labor with her fifth child.
Gorgens said she still had two days to go before she reached her due date and had no idea she was in labor until she got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and immediately felt like she was ready to push.
She woke her husband Simon who stumbled to the bathroom thinking he had some time. When he came back, the 40-year-old found his wife on all fours and two minutes later he was holding his son Brody in his arms.
Their son is now five weeks old and doing well, but he isn’t the first of Gorgens’ children to arrive surprisingly fast. Their fourth child was also born at home on the bedroom floor in the short span of ten minutes, their second and third children were each born in the car on the way to the hospital, and their first child was born at the hospital with a speedy 12-minute delivery.
Gorgens acknowledges how rare her labor process is and how lucky she feels that it’s gone so smoothly each time:
‘I don’t have pains for hours on end beforehand. It’s intense for a short amount of time. It’s pretty crazy. I’ve had five go that way and they have all been quicker than the last. My friends joke that I could sneeze and a baby would pop out…’
‘I’m lucky because even though we weren’t in hospital, at the end of the day they went smoothly and they were all healthy. It’s amazing what your body can do.’
According to the American Pregnancy Association a first-time labor can take between six and twelve hours, with the average being around eight. Subsequent labors may be shorter, but laboring for less than an hour is fairly rare. Gorgens says her longest labor was with her third child, who was born in just under 50 minutes. The rest clocked in at well below half an hour.
Gorgens’ birth stories are nothing short of miraculous and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a tiny bit jealous. My first child took almost 14 hours and my second child took 22 hours. Two minutes might be a little too quick for me, but I definitely would’ve loved for things to move along a bit faster. I’m sure I’m not the only woman wishing Gorgens could bottle and sell a little bit of her incredible birthing magic.
(Photo: Instagram)