please tell me about your experiences of labouring in a birthing pool.

[champs]

please

lunachic -- rofl!!! yes i kno i'm weird arent i? legs a kimbo for all and sundry to see but worried about boobies!! lol
why did you have to get out?(if you dont mind me asking) i am getting more and more excited at prospect of water!!

moondog -- i was very precious about that bra too!! when our mums, dh's bro and my ds1 came to see baby I said to dh, "get me my nightie!! i'm only in my bra!!" he rightly said "dont worry about it. they're here to see the baby not your bra!"
I am looking into diff pain relief options as epidural didn't work for ds1 and ds2 camee to quickly for me to have one. I think i still wont be able to have an injection for pain tho as ds2 came very quickly.

lunachic -- lol talking about childbirth is such a touchy subject isn't it!

moondog -- did the baby get affected by it?

Champs...don't think so.
Poor babies were probably more affected by my groaning and moaning,vomiting,lurching and less than ladylike language.
Both started to suck like demons (ouch!!!!) within minutes!

they said i had to get out to be monitered as id been in a good few hours 2/3 but i thing it was more to do with my yoga wail(arrgggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!) during the final contractions (as the yoga teacher had directed to let the pain out!) i think they thought i was losing it (which i wasnt) as they had said i could stay in poll as long as i held it together
anyway they tried to moniter me in pool but didnt get heart beat i knew it was ok but midwife said she might have turned sideways (like ds who got fairly stuck and was hard to push) i panacked and gave in and pleaded for pethadine and the obliged she arrive niot long after
better direction from the midwifes and i would have probably been able to stay iin the pool- they kept telling me not to push as my waters hwadnt broke but apparently i could have pushes and given birth to her in the sac of water scuse typing !!

heeee!! am hoping all the squeezing made my ds's hearing muffled and they didnt hear my girafe like groans!!

hmmmm as much as i love midwives i think mine could have listened to me more too. I was convinced babies were comming both times and they didn't believe me. First time i can understand as it was my first time. But second time round surely i'd kno wat a watermelon coming out of a needle felt like
They wouldn't believe me as I had been not ready when they put an internal moniter a few mins before but when they decided to listen and I was examined low and behold there was ds2's head LOL!!. I noticed there were loads of people in the room, maybe they were worried about something but an Angel of a midwife came straight to me and looked into my eyes and told me to listen to my body and to push when ready. She didn't leave me till baby was born and then she was gone. I do wonder if she really exsisted.

yep midwives my first experience with ds was awful she told me i had 8 hours to go and then discovered 1 hour later i was fully dilated she then apologised refused to give me any pethedine left me with gas and air for 20 mins then took it off me and told me to start pushing ds was sideways and hurt like hell when i asked for more gas and air she said no i was too high and when i tried to active labour on all fours she told me to get back on the bed
i though right im not playing ball either and screamed the place down for a caesarian i got an epidural and ds arrived after 2/3 hours of pushing with the cord round his neck
the midwifes who delivered dd were angels in comparison !!

so glad your 2nd experience was better.

is there any secial stuff that I should bring with me? I know a sieve is one and maybe an inflatable cushion.
What else?

b-u-m-p

hmm, what extra to bring, maybe a huge towel or old dressing gown, I had to get out twice to be examined on dry land to see how far along I was. They had some towels but they were very small and rough, I dont know whether the other ladies had the same but I had uncontrollable shivers as soon as I left the warm water, it would have been good to have been wrapped up in something.

thanks!

I laboured in the pool for a bit but didn't enjoy it, despite looking forward to it for so long. I had a warm bath in early labour, which was great and I thought the pool would be the same. I was quite far into labout when I got in (wearing dh's t shirt) and totally freaked out, felt out of control and coulcn't move too far in the pool because I was stil clinging onto the gas and air. After a while dd's heart rate slowed down and the mw made me get out but I was more than ready to get out anyway by that point. I think that the reason I disliked it was because I was so tired after a long day and anxious with a first baby and it didn't have an instant effect on the pain- think my expectations were too high actually. Dd was born 4 1/2 hours after getting out with epidural and ventouse so I suspect that a water birth was never going to be for me- your deliveries sound much faster and you seem relaxed so chances are it's the best option for you! I would definitely try it if I had another despite what happened so I suppose it couldn't really have been that bad...

Sorry to give an experience so different to everybody else's but I still think it's a wonderful idea.

Good luck- when are you due?

hayls - was it your first? I had hoped for a waterbirth with no.1 but it was a long drawn out and stressful labour and it just wasn't meant to be.

second time around however was a COMPLETELY different matter. getting into the water was the most amazing thing, I immediately felt grounded and in control, went off into my own world really, it was blissful. DD2 was delivered there about 20 minutes later. Like MI I didn't feel that "ring of fire" as she crowned. Didn't tear either, and she was a whopping 10lbs. I could almost say I enjoyed it

good luck champs!

Well...you probably don't want to hear this, but I used onw with dd (3 wks ago) + it stopped the labour for me, for around 24 hours. was at 5cm when I got in.

However, it did also stop the pain (obviously). At this point such a thing was most welcome.

I actually would do it again but I had no problem with labour stopping and starting, especially since they let me go home to see ds when it stopped (birthing centre-much more relaxed). I might have felt differently had I a. had childcare problems or b. been at all impatient. But ds was a 1 hr labour and I felt this one to be far more civilised.

Hayls -- no need to be sorry at all, glad to have all diff experiences to give me a rounded view. I am due in 3-4weeks depending on who's dates are right (mine or scan)

couldn't go in pool last time cos I had pre-eclampsia and meconium(sp)

motherpeculiar -- thanks!! hopefully my blood pressure will go down in the next 3wks and I'll be able to have the pool.
10lbs!! wow. Did you have any gas and air at all?

Tipex -- mirror?! dh would find that hilarious! taking a wee is soooo painful when in labour isn't it? I was scared baby was going to come out in toilet.

merglemergle -- of course I want hear it do you think your labour wasn't fully established why it stopped?

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champs - here's hoping your bp does go down. I hope you can use the water, it was really great.

No, I had no g&a, it make me really nauseaus (sp?) and vomit a lot last time around so I steered clear. I got through it all with tens in the early stages, one homeopathic pill administered by DH in a fit of panic at transition stage and a truly luscious half an ice-cube of frozen mango juice. MMMMmmmmmmmm. I can still taste it!

So I recommend the pool and some mango juice ice-cubes.

Hope it goes well for you. Will be looking out for your announcement.

thats what the m/w said at the waterbirth class I went to when I was pg with ds2. I dont know whats stopping me from wanting to deliver in the pool.
veering slightly of track, how did you feel having a male m/w? was you naked in the pool? I know at begining of labours I was all coy but by the end I dont care who's in the room!

wooops! crossed post my last one was to snailspace.

motherpeculiar -- mango ice cubes sound lovely, may just go with them. what was the pill? was it to relax you? I was thinking about looking into some homeopathic remedies

champs - can't remember what the homeopathic pill was just now - I'd ask DH but he'll definitely have forgotten - something you are suppose to have the minute you utter the immortal words "I can't do this anymore". He was on the ball and popped it straight in. Took my mind off things anyway

if you want I am happy to lend you my homeopathy for childbirth kit, I won't be needing it in the next few weeks it has a range of 18 (I think ) remedies and a really good little booklet which is what I got DH to study beforehand

you are welcome to borrow it - just cat me if you'd like to

awww thanks that's so nice of you... you do realise that such an act of kindness to a heavily pg woman is just asking for tears?! not kidding even that silly andrex advert could set me off at the moment

I will CAT you if I decide to go for it, need to look into it a bit more and check if it's ok with asthma.

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nah, no embarrasment needed, he's seen plenty as they say (i always answer back "but not me" to that) and you being embarrased would prob have made you un-relaxed which wouldn't have helped at all.