Is water birth's easier?

[Tyson86]

I had a horrific birth on the bed in the labour ward with ds1, 12 weeks tomorrow with dc2 and was going to request elective c-section but want to weigh up my options. How good is a water birth? I was very ill after the birth of my first and unconscious for 36 hours and would like to avoid that happening again. TIA.

Bump

My DS's birth was in water and was perfect in every way - much easier than DD's birth 2 years earlier.

I did a course in hypnobirthing to try and move away from the images of DD's birth (wasn't horrific but still wanted to move on), and used the relaxation techniques in labour. Labour was very slow until my waters went, and although it was pretty intense after that, was very manageable.

Got into water once it was properly established and pushed him out without any pain relief - I was so high afterwards!
2 hours from waters going until birth.

No tearing, and we got out of hospital 8 hours later - 12 hours later was pushing DD on a swing in the park!

i loved my water birth.
i think though, that it isn't so much the water as the position you are in.

lying on your back is not a good position to give birth in full stop.
gravity helps, and kneeling up is a great position.
I had 2 homebirths, and both times I felt a real urge to be kneeling over something (the sofa, then the side of the birth pool). The MW afterwards said that's the best position and a lot of women assume it naturally.

The water helped me with the pain, it's very relaxing, and warmer than you might expect it to be. I'd definitely recommend it.

for me, what helped most was the atmosphere, being more prepared, and using breathing techniques, visualisation and positive thinking to get me through the pain.
I had no pain relief with me second 2 births and I am a HUGE wuss who had everything going with the first one lol.

My first birth was a water birth - I was shocked at how 'easy' it was.

I never understood the 'ring of fire' phrase until I had my home-birth - needless to say not in water and so much more painful!

I was in the same position for both births but the water one was so much easier!! I would totally recommend it.

Thank you so much, hopefully it wont be busy in 28 weeks lol. sounds much better, if my house situation works out i may opt for a home water birth if im allowed to aswell.

May I be, as usual, the only voice against water births, as I found mine horrific

I was sure I was going to drown, I was in so much pain I couldn't tell if my head had slipped underwater or not when a contraction folded me in half, and I wasn't allowed to get out, so ended up in a huge amount of distress and suffered PTSD.

I haven't ever met anyone else who holds this point of view, but I just always like to say they are not the shining beacon of birth perfection everyone else seems to think they are.

Having said that, on paper it all looks quite good, no physical complications, minimal tearing, 16min 2nd stage etc. It's only my head that was screwed up afterwards.

"I wasn't allowed to get out"
Sounds horrific, FatSeal, how come you couldn't get out?

Had a pool for my dc2, loved it. I actually found the contractions felt the same on the toilet as they did in the pool, and crowning hurt alot (but I've never experienced the full glory of crowning on dry land, so it may still have been an improvement), but having the private space was lovely and the buoyancy of the water made it way easier to move about and change positions.

I'm another one who would really, really, recommend hypnobirthing to you. And homebirth can be great if you fancied it (only way of virtually guaranteeing access to a birth pool is to get one for your home).

FatSeal thst sounds awful!

IME, water was lovely to labour in. Never delivered in the pool though.

4 labours 5 babies and the home water birth was by far the best.
I have such fond memories of the water birth really would recommend it over anything else.

smilehomebirth I'm not exactly sure, but I think it was too late as I got to 2nd stage much faster than they (or I) thought.

When I went back to discuss it with the hospital (3 years later) I was told that the increase in pain due to coming out onto dry land would have been difficult to cope with, so they wouldn't have brought me out then. Hard to imagine that it could have felt any worse though, and at least I would have known I wasn't going to drown. I couldn't talk or really communicate with anyone by then either, so was completely terrified

mjinhiding I did point out that I too have never met anyone with a bad word to say about them. It's partly this that makes me feel like such a freak for getting so upset over it.

My first comment on getting into the pool was "ow, that hurt more than I had hoped" and it kind of went downhill from there.

I wouldn't expect it to miraculously transform a hard labour into an easy one, although if the labour was fairly ok anyway I imagine it would be lovely.

Thank you all for your honesty, i am in two minds, my midwife app is monday and i need to tell her whether i want a c-section or try this way, its such a shame my first labour/birth was so bad that it might resort to the c-section.

Tyson - it is a shame, I know what you mean. I had c/s first time, then a vbac, mostly at home in the pool but transferred to hospital. Looking back, given the post birth complications, I would have had a c/s second time as well (and certainly would next time in the unlikely event there is a next time!)

problem is, you don't know what complications you might have for either option until after the event. A friend had a lovely simple vbac and would do it again in a heartbeat, I wouldn't. But you don't know what you would do until afterwards. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is no 'right' answer and it's down to luck really. You need to look at the potential downsides of each option and decide what you could and couldn't live with. Eg how many kids are you planning? Have you got enough support around to lift dc1 for a few weeks if recovering from a c/s? How old is dc1, if v young might make not being able to cuddle properly hard on both of you etc etc

ramble over....!

By the way I loved being at home so would def recommend that, water birth or no. I imagine that that would make all the difference if it's a medicalised monitored strapped to the bed thing you are trying to avoid (and who wouldn't?!)

even though I transferred in for the last bit, I discharged myself (ourselves by then!) and was back home within 3 hours. Getting into my own bed with my new baby was pure bliss.

Surely you don't need to decide just yet though?

No but i like being organised
I understand what you mean about no right answer, ill have a think, thanks.

I'm another one who thinks water births are overrated. I got in the pool and just thought; well it hurts just as much and now I am wet too. I found the whole thing a faff and got out pretty quickly. Second time round, the m/w had run the pool already when I arrived and I didn't even bother to get in, just laboured beside it instead.

FWIW, second labour was much better.