Waterbirth - should midwife encourage it?

I laboured in water but didn't deliver. Would have liked to deliver in the pool but labour was very very slow and I was exhausted so in the end I requested an epidural and I had to get out of the pool. I loved it and would try it again. I requested it, but I don't see why midwives shouldn't suggest it if the woman doesn't ask, after all shouldn't the widwife be able to discuss all the pain releif options available?

Haven't had a waterbirth mears, but in general I think it is good for the midwife to promote all the options - I think too much is expected of the woman if she is supposed to think rationally and consider all the options when in labour - it could be she hasn't remembered it, and the suggestion will be just what she needs!

I had always liked the idea of a waterbirth from the beginning and so I made a point of putting it on my birth plan. I was an avid reader of pregnancy mags and so no form of pain-relief had escaped my notice. In the event I got in the water but becasue my labour was so intense (3 hours start to finish for a 1st baby) I found I didn't feel the benefit, I think the pain was bit too advanced for water to really make a difference. When it came to the crunch I wanted to walk around as I felt that moving really helped me through the pain. My DD was delivered without pain relief (wanted to go as far as poss without an epidural or narcotics and had gone too far when I felt I needed them!).

I agree with you that the midwife should make clear all the options for childbirth. It seems a bit prehistoric to suggest that you can only have it if you are in a position to request it (eg, you have the knowledge in the first place).

I would have loved a water-birth - but my labour took days, and it turned out dd was posterior and I just wasn't dilating, so ended up with an epidural and drip to help contractions. Maybe next time ...

I definitely think that the pool should be actively offered just like other forms of pain relief. Ideally this should happen before the birth as part of the birth plan. My midwives were amazing and really did read my plan, when I'd been having contractions for over 48 hours and was hollering for an epidural the lovely midwife actually said, "I see from your plan that you'd like to avoid it if possible, so here are some other options ... " And we gave some other things a go for a few hours before the epidural was in the end necessary. That's why I feel so positive about my labour. It's all about giving women all the options and helping them make choices they are happy with.

Well when I got to the hospital this last time I, even though intending to have the pool before, had gotten into a frame of mind where I just didn't want to have the water. It wasn't a rational feeling, just a 'no the idea feels funny thanks'. I think I wasn't feeling confident enough.

By the time pupuce got to the hospital though I was finding it impossible to get into a better position because of the SPD...she suggested/encouraged it again and pointed out that if I didn't like it I could just get out...so I tried it (had to walk down the corridor with 3 people holding me up.

Once I was in though there was no way I was getting out. The freedom it gave me to move was great...and my baby was so clean

So I think that if the mother is open to idea, maybe if it is mentioned in her birth plan for instance then a m/w could encourage it. I guess I think that its a different sort of pain relief from epidural/pethidine etc which are much more often used and long lasting, I mean you can get out of the pool if it isn't working out for you and have't done something that is going to take hours to reverse iykwim.

I wanted to but dh wasnt keen - I think perhaps the Husband should be talked around and then the couple left to decide

I was offered use of the hospital pool in my first labour (nice innovative midwives, whom I'd had to fight to deliver at hospital), but didn't want to because I was so panicky and in so much pain by then (also because I'd tried the bath and it hadn't done anything and I wrongly assumed the pool would be exactly the same).

As I had a home birth second time round, obviously I thought of it and hired one - but only after many recommendations on mumsnet, I have to add. (I never actually intended particularly to deliver in water but it just happened!)

I definitely think it's something which should be on offer, just as other forms of pain relief are offered. I also think that women should have the option of delivering in the water if that's what they find they want, or find themselves doing (my sister is about to have a baby in a hospital where you can labour but not deliver in the water).

HTH.

PS pools IMO are totally fab.

Mears, I haven't laboured in water but only because I lived in a flat when I had ds and the ceiling wouldn't have held the weight so I couldn't have a pool. I did do a good few hours in our bath though and was told by my midwives to get out as it was slowing me down. They were completely right, it was and as soon as I got out things sped up big time. I find it very hard to believe that midwives will bully women to get into a pool - it seems much more likely that the pool will be busy or that the midwife will be uncertain about using it due to inexperience. Everyone I know who's done it raves about it and as you say, had strong instinctive feelings about when to get out/in. Coercion is never going to be a good idea in any aspect of labour but there's nothing wrong with midwives suggesting it as another pain relief option to try IMO.