Water birth?

[bumblebee39]

Anyone had a water birth as a single parent?
And who did you take with you was it a friend/doula etc.?

Also what pain relief options did you have and can you be on a drip at the same time?

I'm thinking it might be an option for pain relief etc. As I know hot baths have been helpful in the past, but I've also had to have the induction stop before as my contractions stopped mid labour.

Tia X

Anyone ? Xx

I have had two water births and used gas and air. I am not single but I was birth partner to my single friend during her water birth. She also used gas and air.

Thanks, I have heard mixed reviews but because I can't have a spinal or epidural I would like to find a more natural pain relief method. I know I could still have gas and air and possibly pethadine in a birthing pool? I may be wrong...

I had diamorphine during my labour and afterward I went in the pool - I didn't give birth in the water though as it wasn't working for me.

You can't have pethidine in the pool as you need to be alert and awake. Gas and air is fine though. If you're having induction drugs sometimes they won't let you as they want you on a monitor 100% of the time and most UK hospitals won't have a telemetry monitor which can be used in water. I don't know of any which do because here it's usual to have monitoring be intermittent with a doppler or constant on a normal wired monitor - there's not really enough demand for the in between.

A drip for something like antibiotics is normally OK though.

My friend who was single when her DD was born had a friend and her sister with her as well as the midwife of course (she had a home birth).

With DC1 I found the combination of gas and air and the pool to be excellent.

Look at TENS for early labour too :) And the book Birth Skills.

Sounds like it differs a lot depending on the hospitals facilities etc, so will do some deeper investigation. Xx

Not a single parent but I had a water birth with my son. Gas and air was fine and the pool room was nice and dimly lit so I just generally felt much more at ease. My MW pretty much left me to it so I was able to get in the zone without intervention or internal checks etc. Only thing that was a bit weird which I wasn't aware of before is i wasn't allowed to birth the placenta in the pool so a few mins after having DS I was clambering out the pool on wobbly legs to do the final stage of labour. Would defo recommend water birth. X

Also.. at my hospital only G&A was allowed