OMG at the woman who had the waterbirth on One Born Every Minute!!!

[ellesabe]

I had no idea that some people had it that easy! I'm more likely to be like the shrieking one next time around

kiki22 why is it too late in the day for you to have a waterbirth?

belgo if its unnatural to birth in water because nature doesn't provide clear, clean, warm water then surely it follows that it is also unnatural to birth on a bed, birthing stool or in a MLU or CLU as nature provides none of those things either

I felt really sad for Kerry, she should have had trauma counselling after her first birth, and not had to bring all that fear into the delivery room to relive it.
I wish it were made clearer to mothers who have had traumatic deliveries that they are able to get counselling through their GPs.

Kerry's first born was dx'd with Cystic Fibrosis after birth and at the time of the labour we saw, she wouldn't have known if her new baby would have CF or not as both her and her husband are carriers (this is on OBEM website). So that may really have added to the whole panic, I guess? We never know people's real stories on these shows, many may have had experiences in their lives that they aren't willing to share with the world that affect their ability to cope in these situations. Appearances and snapshots don't really give a lot of info when it comes to something as huge as birth. No need to judge anyone.

I agree that once you panic it's so much harder. I was prepared for a calm home birth, had done some hypnobirthing etc, but was going to have entonox available. Was transferred, ignored and denied any pain relief until I was 8cm and absolutely desperate. If I could have had g&a when I wanted it, about 4cm, OR had a supportive mw with me I would have coped fine I think. The hypnobirthing was definitely good though, I held it together much longer than I could've without it.

Heather's birth did look wonderful but wasn't in real time so we don't know how long her labour lasted or if she had been given pethidine/diamorphine.

All my births were quiet and calm (G&A with all three as well as pethidine with 2) because I was completely focused - and very, very lucky. Anyone witnessing my births would have thought they were extremely 'easy' but to me the pain was unbelievably horrendous.

Zuzu, this is true, but a gentle birth like that isn't freakishly unusual, except on OBEM

You can't have a water birth if you have pethidine (it's not safe) so she definitely didn't have that. I think she was just extremely calm and focused - and was helped along by a relatively easy labour.

beemybaby actually i had ds4 in the pool and was calm and he was 10lb 13oz! so it can be done, i did moo a lot mind you

i had baby no 1 in the pool and i'm refusing to open my legs for no2 unless the pools available, that is my only worry about labour no 2 .

alot of people on FB were bitchy about heather but i thought they were lovely, she done so well. There was one point when i thought her partner looked at her like he just wanted her right then over the bathtub lol that unerved me abit, did anyone else see it? He kind of bit his lip and grimced at her and looked lusty. He really thought she was wonderful. I hope they continue to live their perfect life.

I didn't know that about pethidine Bue (birthing pools weren't available in the olden days when I had my babies). She didn't seem to have G&A either. Wow.

Rhi, some hospitals will allow you to set up your own birth pool in a normal delivery room. It might be worth finding out if yours is ok with this and perhaps you can borrow one from somewhere just in case. Don't forget a hose to run from the bathroom

rhi at our hospital there is only one room with a birthing pool BUT the hospital have recently purchased some of the inflatable birthing pools and will set one of those up for you if the actual room with the pool isnt available, it might be worth asking your hospital if they have any of these? or as future said take your own with you as some hospitals will let you do that or have a home birth!

beemybaby

The weight difference between my smallest and biggest was 4lb, babys size doesn't affect how painful the contractions are although babys position does. Also I found pushing my bigger ones out alot easier than my tiny ds, little ones slip back a bit after every push so you push for longer. My smallest was 4lb 15oz, my biggest was 8lb 15.5oz. My second baby although not my heaviest was by far the biggest in actual size, she was huge and straight into 0-3 clothes, she was a should dystocia but this was caused by her position not her size and her birth was one of my easiest pain wise.

Rikalaily As you have mentioned position twice in your post, can we therefore assume that it would have been virtually impossible for Kerry to have a birth as Heather did due to the baby's position, causing increased pain throughout the labour?

Don't really know where I'm going with this argument, maybe just trying to say its not completely a case of mind over matter when labouring.

it was def the positioning and the size that contributed to kerry having a hard time, plus i think the would have benefited enormously from a debrief of her previous labour before birthing again, that would hopefully have helped her overcome her fear andf emopower her a bit so she could maybe have stayed calmer 2nd time around, still dont think there is anything wrong in being noisy either, some people internalise the pain, others vocalise it, neither is right or wrong :)

but like i said earlier i had a 10lb 13oz baby calmly in a birthing pool, but with 'mooing' noises, i 'mooed' in all 5 of my labours tho, so that wasnt his size, and i agree that bigger babies are easier to push out, he basically birthed himself with no active pushing from me, i found no 5, dd who was only 8lb much harder to deliver, she was also back to back so came out wrong way round which didnt help!

The position could have caused increased pain but the fact that she was scared before she even got into active labour probably made the biggest difference. I've had 3 back to back babies, one of which was my shoulder dystocia and that birth was great (despite the SD), I stayed calm and that lowers the pain level ALOT, my two very painful births were the two where I was scared, tense and I 100% believe that is what made the pain unbearable, the two births I stayed calm with were fine, the pain never got unbearable and I didn't make a sound.

Postition can cause increased pain but out of my three back to back births and the one which wasn't back to back, the increase in pain was back pain and it wasn't the back pain that made my two awful births unbearable it was the contraction pain at the front. During my good births, yes the pain was bad but it was never out of my control to deal with it, thats the difference. When you get out of control with pain it is all you can think about so you focus only on the pain which makes it feel worse. If you distance yourself from the pain it is much more bearable, the same way g&a works I suppose, it doesn't dull the pain, just dulls your awareness of it.

The only things thats ever affected my pain levels in labour (apart from an epi) was my state of mind, it makes the difference between a good birth experience and a bad one. Midwives are shocked that I class my SD birth as one of my easiest, but until I had my last baby it was my best birth because I stayed calm which made the whole process easier.

just watched the waterbirth on 4OD - the waterbirth lady is amazing - how calm was she??? I've just cried buckets - I had lovely waterbirths with DS3 and 4. DS3 was almost 8lb and pushing easier than DS4 who was 6 & a half - he came out in one big push whilst DS4 was the head and then I had to do another big one for the shoulders. Just as painful 4th time round but position really is the key. Also feeling a bit sad as DS1 was EMCS (back to back - hideous long labour) and I never got that special moment with him just as he was born .

thanks ladies never thought of that, doh!!

If you want lovely calm births, watch the ones on www.mybirth.tv/video-diary-display.cfm rather than the stranded beetle coached pushing ones on OBEM.