what may help shorten your labor

i was recently speaking with my lovely friend danielle, who was my incredible doula (i'll post more on her amazing-ness later), and she shared with me the 2 things that the shortest first-time mom natural labors she witnessed had in common.  they were:

pre-natal yoga at least 2-3 times a week and acupuncture right around the due date to help induce labor.

danielle told me i was one of these short labor examples---my labor was 7 hours plus pushing.  i did pre-natal yoga 3 times a week.   i had acupuncture on my due date and a couple days later on the eve of my labor.  i delivered naturally 4 days late.

i just spoke with a first-time mom friend yesterday who walked around for weeks at 3cm, days at 6cm, and had about 20 minutes of labor/contractions until she quickly pushed the baby out!!  guess what she did?.....pre-nata....ok ok, you get the point....

my usual disclaimer....you never know how your labor will go, but there are things you can do that may likely help you stay ahead of the curve....