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Childbirth

Share experiences and get support around labour, birth and recovery.

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Original poster

Is it a good idea to have waters broken during labour?

37 replies

Jane101 · 07/08/2004 14:09

When I gave birth to ds my waters didn't break themselves. When I was 7cm dilated, the midwife asked me if I wanted her to break my waters, but I wasn't sure, so she didn't. She ended up breaking them next time she did an internal examination though. I wondered afterwards whether or not I should have said "yes" when she first asked me. I gather this can speed up labour. Does anyone know the pros and cons? I'm due to have another child in 4 weeks time, and I'd like to know what to do if it happens again.

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Angeliz · 07/08/2004 14:34

I don't know the pros and cons but here's what happened to me.

I was 7 cm's dilated when i got there and i think it was a few hours later they broke my waters. As soon as they did it was like a scene from casualty as there was meconium and they wanted the baby out!

I haven't really thought about wether or not they 'should' have done it but i guess if they hadn't my baby would've been in danger!

I'll be interested to see responses as am having another myself.

BEST OF LUCK for the birth+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

xoz · 07/08/2004 14:47

I had mine broken both times, as they don't seem to want to do it themselves (the waters that is, not the midwife). I don't really remember at what point it happened though, because once I get my hands on the gas & air everything becomes a blur . I must've been at the point of thinking if it helps get the baby out , I don't really care. I even asked for an episiotomy the second time as I was so tired and just wanted it over!!!!

mit · 07/08/2004 14:54

When I did my childbith classes with my Doula the one thing she felt passionate about was NOT breaking the waters unless there was a real medical emergency. She said that the water provides 'padding' during the contractions and helps make them less painful. Also breaking the water can lead to infection. I understand that in some hospitals it is standard practise as it speeds labour up (but I feel that most speeding is for the benefit of the hospital and not the mother/baby!).....so it can't be all bad.
My waters broke as I was pushing DD out, and I look back on labour as a wonderful experience. During my childbirth classes I saw a video of a woman birthing with her amniotic sac still intact, the baby came out in what looked like a big white balloon - very interesting! I also drank red-raspberry leaf tea 3 times a day in the last 3 months in the hope that it would strengthen my uterus and amniotic sac - it seemed to do the trick.
This is a bit of a babble and I'm not sure if it's at all helpfull......hope so!
If you look into gentle birth they all seem to advocate NOT breaking them, so I'll end on that note!
mit x

Angeliz · 07/08/2004 14:55

I was 'out of it' at the time aswell.
I remeber them taking half the bed away and the me trying to put my legs down and everybody shouting that there was nothing to put them on!!

tinytoes · 07/08/2004 15:56

i was very wary about having my waters broken with my second birth,(they broke naturally thank goodness twenty mins before dd arrived) because during my first labour with my ds the midw tried to break them when they had already broken(twice stupid cow)
this was because when they asked me if they had broke and i said maybe just a trickle they said thats not your waters(???????????) just your show (of course being so inexperienced i didnt know better)(i do now)
i think if you can hold out do its best for them to go naturally -and am i right in thinking that baby is ok if its in its waters still .i think they only offer to break them to speed things up dont they?
its prob ok if you want this and that your certain they havent already gone(i think you will know this
most mid wives are inexperienced in directing you to give birth with the waters intact(for some reason)
mit my dd probably could have been born in her waters too(its meant to be very lucky) but the mw told me not to push (cause they hadnt gone)
and she ruined a perfectly good waterbirth by making me get out of pool for an exam(it was still ok though)(home birth next time!)
waters ended up breaking through fear when the doc apperared to do it.hope this isnt too negative but you did ask for pros and cons.(you are in a much better position than i was first time round-experience)
jane id try for an active birth(get moving to break them if you need to) and most importantly go with how you feel and what feels right
good luck hope everything goes well
when are you due?

tinytoes · 07/08/2004 16:25

4 weeks sorry

cuppy · 07/08/2004 19:59

I was 4 cms when they broke m waters. the baby didnt speed up - she didnt come out for another 8 hours. But my contractions sped up thats for sure. before they were broke I was breathing through them , being able to think 'it'll start to fade in a minute' and was handling it, being able to rest between each one.But as soon as my waters broke they just kept coming - there was no breaks in between at all and I just could not cope. I was totally unprepared for that.

Linnet · 07/08/2004 21:35

With my first baby I went into hospital and I was about 3/4 cms and they kept me in. They broke my waters about 4 hours later. dd1 arrived 17 hours later, she was back to front so it wasn't anything to do with the waters being broken but I think they broke them to try and speed things up and it didn't work.

2nd baby, born 11 weeks ago, the midwife offered to break my waters for me but I said no not sure why probably because I was remembering that it didn't do any good the first time. anyway my waters broke naturally about an hour before dd2 was born. It was a natural birth and I'm glad that I didn't let them break my waters for me as I handled it all really well, if it had speeded things up I'm not sure I could have coped.

sorry probably not an answer to your question in there but those were my experiences.

Best of Luck for the birth.

Yorkiegirl · 07/08/2004 21:43

Message withdrawn

cas1968 · 07/08/2004 22:03

With ds, I went into hospital and was measured as 6cm. I reached full 10cm dilation about 5 hours later. My waters still had not broken, but mw said that I would push baby out "any minute". She decided to break my waters and when she did everything changed. Placenta came away with the gush and I got rushed to theatre and ended up having an emergency c/s. Not a good ending, following a happy labour where I had felt completely in control and only used TENS and Gas and Air.

With dd (five years later, partly because of first experience), successful vbac, waters broke naturally in 2nd stage labour (fully dilated). Much happier experience and much more positive first year of motherhood.

mears · 08/08/2004 16:52

When nature soes the job properly (!), the waters should not beak until the baby delivers. The bag of waters provides a cushioning effect for the baby so that is more protected in labour, both from the pressure exerted by contractions and from infection. Contractions are less painful for the mother. There is plenty of research out there that labour is only sped up at best by 1 hour. Women are more likely to ask for epidurals becaue the pain can be so intensified. As for meconium, that can be present where a baby is not distressed. It used to be that the waters were broken so that you could see if they were clear. That is now recognised as being unnecessary. You can see meconium through the waters as the head comes down when pushing. If the heartbeat has been fine there is unlikely to be a problem.

Unless labour has not progressed on it's own for a number of hours i.e. the cervix has not changed in at least 4 hours despite good, regular contractions, I would advise leaving the waters intact.

mears · 08/08/2004 16:53

does not soes

mit · 08/08/2004 20:28

Good advice Mears - that was exactly what my Doula had told me in my childbirth lessons. You are a blessing for all us MNetters!
mit x

tallulah · 08/08/2004 20:35

I had my waters broken by the midwife for the first 3 babies & remember the labour feeling "out of control" from that point on, like everything had shifted. Does that make sense? For the last one I refused to let the mw break them. She kept twittering on about "baby's first breath" but I was adamant & they didn't break until his head delivered. His was the quickest 2nd stage (6 minutes, compared to 1hr 40, 20 mins & 48 mins). Don't know the medical implications but if I ever had another baby (unlikely ) I would refuse to have them broken again.

tallulah · 08/08/2004 20:36

Forgot to mention, my father was born with a caul. Does this suggest a genetic disposition to non-breaking waters?

Linnet · 08/08/2004 22:19

Mears could I just ask a question about Meconium in the waters. When I was having dd2 my waters broke naturally about an hour before she was delivered. The midwife said that there was meconium but that it was old meconium. dd2 was fine and they were prepared to do some suction but didn't need to.
I just wondered why that happened? Is there any reason for it or is it just one of these things that can happen? And can they tell how old the meconium is just by looking at it? I know I should have asked them at the time but I was just so bowled over by actually managing to deliver dd2 by myself that I didn't ask.

Piffleoffagus · 08/08/2004 22:33

with both of my babies I consider myself lucky to have had two midwives who left it alone,
ds was born in his nag, it spontaneously ruptured as he was "caught " on his way out ( I gave birth on all fours over a bed both times)
With dd mw suspected my hindwaters had gone, but when dds head crowned she was still in the bag and only when her shoulder poked through did they rupture.
One perfectly wonderful thing about late or spontaneous rupture and call me gross... but the lovely warm sensation that runs down your legs, it almost rejuvenates!
But park your bags on t'other side of the room!

Piffleoffagus · 08/08/2004 22:34

Ps had two fast, "perfect" IMHO intervention pain relief free quick labours - 3 hrs and 1.5 hrs... and 2 perfect babies!

midden · 08/08/2004 23:00

I didn't want to have mine broken as I had heard from friends that it made contractions more painful for them, I also felt that there could be a risk to the baby (stress/infections) With my first they broke on the point of delivery, and my second was born "in the caul" (still in her waters) and her birth was fast and pain free.

It was lovely to see her still inside her little bubble, she looked so peaceful and perfect. The midwife did have to burst the bag eventually though!

Kif · 09/08/2004 01:09

Could I ask mears a question?

Had waters broken to speed up labour. There was fresh meconium there. She also had a scratch on the top of her head.

I found that very odd... I wondered if the hook had scratched her, and if that had scared her into passing the meconium.

Felt it was rude to mention it at the time - may be adding 2+2 and getting 5... if someone can say that it is completely implausible it will save me believing it for ever more!

for the record - didn't make my contractions all that much stronger. Made an almighty mess, though.

kiwicath · 09/08/2004 11:20

My contractions were like painful period pains right up until his head was crowning. The Doc waited till he popped back in then broke the waters. One HUGE contraction later he was born. I would probably have lost my sense of humour had all my contractions been as bad as that one. Good luck.

mears · 09/08/2004 12:01

Linnet - meconium can be old or fresh. It is very common to see meconium in the waters when past 40 weeks. No-one knows really why it happens. Babies who are 'stressed' may pass meconium and it may be with old meconium that there has been an incident that the baby has reacted to, but the baby is perfectly fine now. Fresh meconium may be that a baby is stressed currently. However, there are babies who are stressed who do not pass meconium at all. The real problem is if a baby has passed fresh meconium and there are irregularities of the baby' heart rate. If the baby has a normal heart rate then the presence of meconium is not that significant. Also what is taken into consideration is the thickness of the meconium. It can be just a little staining or it can be thick with hardly any water. Thick meconium with a heartbeat that is irregular can be a sign of distress and the baby needs delivered. Where there is moderate/heavy meconium staining, a paediatrician is called to the delivery so that any meconium that the baby may have in it's airway can be suctioned out. In severe cases babies can develop meconium aspiration which is life threatening.

Kif - the scratch on the head could have been from the amnihook used to break the waters. That is not uncommon. I don't think that would have caused the meconium. It is more likely that it was already there. I often see babies have blood samples taken from their scalp during labour which involved a scratch to make the scalp bleed. I can't say that I have then noticed meconium. However, who knows how babies react. It may well have been a response - we don't truly know how it all works.

wishingchair · 09/08/2004 16:25

Just want to add my experience - my waters broke naturally about 45 mins before dd was born. I was in the pool and felt them go with a big pop. After that point the contractions were immediately a lot more painful. All I remember thinking was thank god that hadn't happened sooner. In retrospect I'm not sure it did speed anything up - I was well on my way anyway (I actually felt them bulging out beforehand - no idea how long before - gas & air blur!) but am sure that if I'd had to deal with that intensity of contractions earlier on in my labour I'd have gone for an epidural. Whereas I did end up with lovely water birth.

Whatever happens - hope all goes well!

Angeliz · 09/08/2004 18:19

Mears i find all this fascinating!!

I had a good check of my berth records.
They broke my waters at 7.40 and i was 10 cm's dilated and pushing, it was after that that they were worried about babies heartrate and tryed forceps (OOOOWWWW and no) then i managed to push her out on my own at 8.58.

SORRY in advance for yet another question but why do you think they would have broken my waters?? I had only been in for 2 hours. Having read up now i'd love this one to be born as natural as possible now, (if it means it's easier for mum and baby).

I'm not moaning btw, i had a great birth and FANTASTIC midwives, it's just i can't understand now why they broke my waters!!

Angeliz · 09/08/2004 18:20

TBH another birth like dd's wouyld be great!

I'm just really curious now!

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