Pregnancy the second time around

• You may detect fetal movement sooner than you did the first time around. Because you're already an old pro when it comes to detecting fetal movement, you can expect to start feeling your baby's flutters a few weeks earlier this time. First time moms often have difficulty distinguishing between bonafide fetal movement and run-of-the-mill gastrointestinal sensations. Of course, as with anything else pregnancy-related, your mileage may vary on this front: if your baby decides to camp out towards the back rather than the front of your uterus during this pregnancy, you may have difficulty detecting much fetal movement until you're well into the second half of your pregnancy.

• Your second labor may be shorter -- but there are no guarantees. Just as there's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all pregnancy, there's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all labor. While most women find that their second labor progresses more quickly than their first labor (the average rate of cervical dilation is 1.2 cm per hour for a first baby and 1.5 cm an hour for subsequent deliveries, and the average length of the pushing stage drops from one to two hours for a first baby to less than an hour for subsequent babies), you won't know for certain if that's going to be the case for you until you're actually in the heat of labor.

• The "afterpains" that you experience after giving birth are likely to be much more painful this time around. While you may barely even remember experiencing afterpains after you gave birth to your first baby, you're unlikely to overlook these uterine contractions this time around. Some second-time mothers find, in fact, that they require pain medication to deal with the painful uterine contractions they experience during the first few days after giving birth. While these afterpains are a sign that your uterus is doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing -- morphing back to its prepregnancy state -- some women find them to be every bit as painful as the contractions they experienced during labor. Of course, it's not all gloom and doom on the second pregnancy front. Far from it! Many women who are pregnant for the second time find that they're able to relax and enjoy their second pregnancies much more than they did the first time along. After all, they're old pros at this pregnancy thing now.

Read more:
• Not an only child anymore: Helping your child adjust to a new sibling
• Pregnant women and their personalities
• 5 pregnancy stressbusters

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