My first labor was 30 hours long. Nobody made a big deal about it, and nobody rushed me — at the time, I had no idea how lucky I was. When it got really mild, I remember sitting around talking about Steve Martin movies.
My next labor was 5 hours. That meant I had to do six times as much work per hour. I haven’t decided which I prefer — shorter and harder, or longer and more gradual — but it doesn’t really matter, since I didn’t have a choice anyway. My body, in its own mysterious wisdom, got to make that call.
In case of a “slow” labor…
1. BE PATIENT. Slow labor is in the eye of the beholder. Any description of “normal progress” is going to be irrelevant for many mothers.
2. MOVE AROUND! Often, with a long labor, the baby is positioned awkwardly for birth, and nobody diagnoses it for a long time. Babies fit through the pelvis and birth canal best if the crown of the head is toward the mother’s front. In other words, the crown of the head is “anterior.” (This terminology can be confusing, since the baby’s position is the opposite of the way the baby’s face is facing!) So if labor is slow, or if there’s a lot of back pain, it’s useful to assume that the baby’s head is facing backward (“posterior” or “sunny side up”) from the ideal position, or a little crooked (the medical term is “asynclitic”). Babies can be encouraged to find a more effective position by the mom moving her pelvis around: walking, crawling, squatting, stair-climbing, lunging, dancing, swirling the pelvis in circles. Even if the baby is in an ideal position (“anterior”) there’s no harm in those movements, and they might feel good and give the mom something to focus on besides pain.
3. RELEASE TENSION, AND KEEP YOUR ENERGY UP. There’s no downside to eating, drinking, massage, warm (not too hot) baths or showers, talking through feelings, encouragement, reassurance, deep breathing, melting and surrendering, and plain old LOVE.
4. MAKE CAREFUL CHOICES ABOUT USING ARTIFICIAL HORMONES. Like any other mammal, a human mother needs to find her own groove, her own rhythm, and her own way of coping with the intensity of labor. A brilliant natural hormonal symphony is taking place during labor, and it usually works best if it’s not interfered with. Pitocin (an artificial form of your body’s own oxytocin) might be helpful if there’s a good reason to speed up labor, but give your own hormones plenty of time and make that choice with full awareness of the potential side effects, including increased labor pain. If you do use pitocin, give it at least four hours before you decide if it’s working or not.
5. MAKE CAREFUL CHOICES ABOUT OTHER MEDICAL TECHNIQUES THAT SPEED UP LABOR. While the medical techniques commonly used to speed up labor are helpful in some cases, they should be chosen with great care to make sure they’re not causing more harm than good: breaking the waters, balloon catheters, using forceps or vacuum extractors. Epidural anesthesia can certainly slow labor (and, less often, it can also speed it up by helping the mother to relax). The ultimate result of a rushed labor is often a cesarean.
There’s a terrific article by Henci Goer with more details here