WOAH! Is This The Fastest Childbirth in History?

A typical labour lasts 8-12 hours. Not for this mum though! Her baby wasn’t happy to wait even one minute.

A UK mum managed to give birth in just 27 seconds. Which may be the fastest childbirth ever in history!

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Mum-of-three Sophie Bugg was 38 weeks pregnant when she got up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night. Sophie tells The Daily Mail, that she didn’t feel a single contraction in the lead-up.

‘She was ridiculously fast! One moment I’m texting my friend on the toilet and seconds later, I’ve got a baby in my arms.

“I had no pains and my waters hadn’t broken. There was no realisation I was having her at all. It sounds really crude but it just felt like I needed to go for a poo.

“I had messaged my friend saying I don’t feel great, then put the phone down from where I was sat on the loo and went to get up from the toilet.

“As I went to lift myself up, my body just got that feeling like I needed to push for a poo. I put my hand between my legs and her head was completely out. It was four in the morning, it was just so unexpected.

“I shouted to my partner for help, went from the toilet to outside my toilet door on the top of the stairs, did one push and she was out!”

Sophie’s partner, Chris managed to get to Sophie just in time to catch his baby daughter during childbirth. Chris called the paramedics who arrived just 12 minutes later.

When the paramedics arrived, they cut baby Millie’s cord and helped Sophie deliver the afterbirth. She was then rushed to hospital and released just two hours later.

WOW! That childbirth was pretty darn fast. I don’t think I would like that to be honest. Plus there are some risks involved which you can read below. 

Precipitous Labour

Sophie’s experience is known as precipitous labour. Anything shorter than three hours is considered precipitous labour, and it’s so unusual—only two to three per cent of babies arrive this fast.

Some women who are having precipitous labour have very frequent, powerful contractions right from the start rather than the slow buildup of contractions that normally happens over the course of several hours.

Others who have precipitous childbirth aren’t aware that they’re in labour until they near the end. They may pass through the first stage without feeling contractions and realise their baby is arriving when they feel the urge to push or feel the baby’s head descending.

Risks of a Fast Labour

“Precipitous labour is almost impossible to predict,” says Mark Yudin, an OB/GYN at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. “There are usually no risk factors, and we usually don’t know what causes it.”

During a precipitous labour there may be a higher degree of fetal stress (the baby doesn’t get much of a break from contractions), increased risk of postpartum hemorrhage and more significant physical and emotional challenges during childbirth.
Including:

• Bruising or tearing to your cervix, vagina, or perineum because of the speed of your delivery.
• Heavy bleeding (postpartum hemorrhage), because your womb hasn’t contracted down properly after the birth.
• Retained placenta, is when all or part of the placenta stays inside your womb after the birth of your baby.
• Emotional trauma – you may feel traumatised or depressed by the speed of your birth experience and have difficulty coping.

Other Fast Childbirth Stories

Sophie may be the fastest birth story we can find, but she certainly isn’t the only one to deliver in a few minutes.
UK mum Jessica Stubbins, was stunned when she gave birth in less than a minute in the hospital doorway while her husband parked the car. Jessica appeared on Good Morning Britain at the time to thank the nurses who came to her rescue.

Mary Gorgens has only spent five hours total in labour, yet she has birthed six children.

Her first child was born in just 12 minutes, their second baby was born in the car en route to the hospital, and so was the third. The fourth and fifth children were born in 10 and 2 minutes, respectively. Their sixth child was born in just two-minutes but that didn’t surprise the veteran parents at all.

Meanwhile Daisy Stewart’s hospital labour and delivery went so fast, Guinness Records reached out to her and her partner in an attempt to create a category for the fastest labour on record. The delivery took 5 minutes, the couple reported, and only three pushes.

Did you have a fast labour, or did yours last days like one poor mum who reportedly laboured for six days!