Why choose a Waterbirth?

I had the pleasure of giving birth to a little baby girl, Macy, almost 12 weeks ago now. Throughout my life I have always found being in water really comforting. Whether it is a cold winter’s day and I need to get warm, or I had just had my 12 year old heart broken by the boy next door, a warm bath would always help. It was the remedy for everything in our house growing up. Even now at 30, if I feel a bit down a warm bath always helps. So when I found out I was pregnant a waterbirth seemed like a natural option to think about.

Like every excited mum I went about my research on waterbirth options and theories. I trawled lots of internet pages looking for recommended reading, spoke to my midwife and asked all my friends if they had any thoughts on the subject.

I have written here an article about what I discovered. I have not gone into the medical side of giving birth in water, each hospital is different. If you do decide to consider it as an option then you should discuss it in depth with your midwife/ obstetrician ( I am not a medical professional, just a mum who had a baby).This article will look only at the philosophy of waterbirths, as well as my own experience. Hopefully it will motivate someone into finding out more about the joy of a waterbirth.

It is a funny feeling finding out you are pregnant for the first time. For us it was an eagerly anticipated event, each month we would hope this was it! When we finally fell pregnant we were ecstatic. So much to do, and so much to look forward too. It wasn’t until probably months 3 that I started to really think about the birth. I guess my belly started to get bigger and I could see that what ever was in there had to come out at some point! It was then that I decided to look into a waterbirth.

The first thing that struck me was that when ever I mentioned it to any other mum I got “a look”. Now, I might have imagined it, but I got the distinct impression that they all thought it was a pie in the sky dream. That while they listened to me saying that I was going to try for a waterbirth, they all thought I would be screaming for the drugs at some point through the labor. (If you decide on a Waterbirth you cannot have any drugs, it sounds far worse than it was, I promise!) Initially I was a bit put off by this response, perhaps they were right? Perhaps childbirth was impossible without some sort of pain relief? Perhaps they all knew about the time I fainted after an injection, and were secretly thinking that I couldn’t handle the pain?

It wasn’t until I read a book by Lakshimi Bertram called “Choosing Waterbirth: reclaiming the sacred Power of Birth” did it all make sense. These friends were not doubting my ability to handle the birth, they just no longer perceived the birth of a child as something that you did on your own. Something you controlled. In today’s society we do not want to feel any pain. If we have a headache we take a Panadol, if it’s a cold there is Nurofen. So when it comes to child birth we have the same approach, if I am in pain, I want it to stop. Especially when all we hear is horror stories from other mums. Who wouldn’t want to feel the pain if all those stories are true!

What happens when we have this approach is that the whole birth process is no longer solely controlled by the mother. We are inevitably in a hospital, surrounded my doctors and/ or midwifes, being continuously monitored, with different people always coming in and out of our room. Because of this, we as women, no longer feel that we alone can birth of our child, it a midwife or obstetrician who “delivers our baby” for us. Isn’t it us who does all the hard work? Not some midwife/ obstetrician? So why do we feel the need, in our society, to give them this title, when it is the mum who delivers her own baby?

This is what inspired me to take control and view my labor as something I could manage. Not on my own, but with a midwife’s guidance. The birth was going to be something I took control of, I was going to birth my own child, not have someone deliver it for me.

There are lots of advantages that both the woman and baby gain from a waterbirth. For the woman there is a strong feeling of empowerment stemming from the reasons mentioned previously. There are also a lot of physical benefits for a woman who labors and delivers in water. During childbirth we naturally release endorphins into our body which can help ease the pain. However if we get anxious our body releases adrenaline which can lessen the effect of the endorphins. Adrenaline can also inhibit the release of oxytocin, which causes your uterus to contract. The stress and anxiety therefore can make you feel more pain and inhibit the uterus from expanding.(making for a longer and more painful lanor). The key to preventing this is to remain relaxed. This is where the big warm bath comes in. Getting into a big welcoming tub of water can calm you instantly, letting the endorphins go to work. There have also been studies that suggest you are less likely to have a severe tear if you deliver underwater.

I think the real benefit however is given to your child. Imagine this…..for the last nine months you have been snuggled up all warm. You never have to worry about where the next meal is coming from, it’s the perfect temperature and you are rocked to sleep all the time. Then suddenly what was your home now feels different, then you start to get squeezed down this tight passage. You don’t really want to go but it seems like you have no choice. Then you arrive into this cold room, there are bright lights in your eyes and some strange person you have never heard is holding you. You take your first breathe and it all feels so strange!

This must be so stressful for the poor baby, no wonder they cry!!! Then what do we do? They are promptly taken away by the stranger, weighed, measured, poked a bit, limbs stretched and the cleaned up and given back to their mothers.

Think about how different it would be to arrive into a warm bath, very similar to where they have been for the last 9 months. The lights are dimmed, you are greeted by the soft touch and a voice you recognize, then you are put on a warm chest to listen to the steady rhythm of our mother’s heart beat. From this safe heaven you can slowly take it this new world. You gently waken to the world in the arms and familiarity which is your mother. You obviously have a bit of a cry, but generally the whole experience is much easier.

This is how I see waterbirth’s compared to a land or bed delivery. It is a much more gentle and kind introduction into this world.

Having read all the theory I was determined to do what I could do give this gift to my unborn child. You can only have a waterbirth in most hospitals if you are considered low risk, so I did my (as all mother’s do) to ensure that I kept healthy and on track with my pregnancy. I took the time to write a birth plan (with the help of my friend Vanessa) which included all the details of the waterbirth. I also made sure that I covered other options in case I had complications.

I had tried to keep active throughout my pregnancy, nothing strenuous, but I walked & swam regularly. Three weeks before I was due, I gave up work so had time to concentrate on me and the baby. Each day I would walk for about 2 hours. One of my friend’s mum promised me that if I walked everyday I would have a short labor. My labor was only 6 hours which I think was because of my walking. This also made the labor more manageable, I think things may have been different if it had taken 20 hours!

My waters broke early Sunday morning, about 130am. We rushed to the hospital but were sent home after we had been checked, the midwife said that it could take a few days to go into labor. We went home and got a few hours sleep. The pains started around 10am, I had twinges before that but this is when they were about 5 mins apart. I was coping well with them so after I had spoken to my midwife I decided to try and stay home for a bit longer. I occupied my self by walking round the house doing odd jobs, it seems silly now, but I wanted to make sure that the washing was done and the house was tidy. It seemed to work though and I definitely felt better when I was on the move. My midwife seemed to think it helped to stay standing and active as gravity would give the baby a helping hand to move downward towards the exit! Meaning less work for me!

At midday we decided to go to the hospital to meet Karen our midwife. My partner was getting nervous about me having the baby in the house as the contractions were about 3-4 mins apart now. We arrived at the hospital and we were allocated a birthing room with a bath. The room was perfect, everything in the one place, no need to leave until the baby arrived. I gave my birthing plan to the midwife and quickly went over the pain points. Emphasizing that this highlighted my “idea” birth, but my main goal was to ensure that my baby was delivered safely.

I continued to walk around the room when the contractions came. I planned to get into the water quite late into the labor as I had read that if you stayed in the bath too long you could become dehydrated. It was about 2pm when Karen suggested filling up the bath and getting in. At this stage the pain was getting stronger and this seemed like a very good idea.

Karen was amazing, not once did she need to check how much I had dilated, she just knew. Her experience was telling her exactly where I was in terms of the labor.

It was 230pm when I got into the bath and words will never be able to describe how I felt. It was heavenly! The warmth of the bath instantaneously made me feel better, and the floating sensation had a calming effect on me. The contractions still came but they seemed to ease in the water. I also got time to relax between them, instead of just dreading the next one, I could lay there and float.

I was in the water for about 1 hour before I got the urge to push. Again Karen’s experience guided me through it. I will never forget her word’s “just listen to your body, push when you need to”. I pushed 30 mins, it took 4 pushes to get Macy out. Karen checked her heart throughout the process. I birthed her head in 2 pushes and felt her crown. Macy head was completely underwater at this stage waiting for her body to be pushed out. (Babies don’t take their first breath until they feel air) Her body came out easily with 2 pushes, she slipped out like a wet fish. My partner was there to catch her and pull her out the water. It was in her dad’s arms that she took her first breath. He then placed her on my chest where we had our first cuddle.

It was a truly amazing experience. They say that most women who have a waterbirth would do it again, and that is exactly how I feel. Straight after the birth I could say “that hurt, but I could do it again. Not anytime soon, but again”. For me a waterbirth was something to treasure and if anyone is thinking about it I would recommend the experience without question!

Chantel
YouAreBorn