Question for homebirth mums - were your waters broken by the midwife?

[mears]

I have been surprised to see women on TV have their waters broken by the midwife at home when they are in labour. I also read about it in an article the other day. The policy in my unit is that this should not be done at home as it is not physiological. If the waters need to be broken for any reason the woman would need to be transferred to hospital.

For those of you who have given birth at home, did the midwife break your waters, and if so, why?

No - there's seldom any good reason to break waters in a normal labour - if Mary Cronk doesn't do it then that's good enough for me! The midwife who missed my homebirth with DS3 apparently offered to break my friend's waters 'to speed things up' but my friend declined. Glad she didn't make it to my birth! It's just something impatient midwives do to make themselves feel useful.

but it doesn't work to speed up labour, mears i'm sure you can correct me here if i'm worng, hasn't research suggested that if it does speed labour up at all it is only by about twenty minutes.
and yes i am being taught the same as you mears, you do not break waters at a home birth as this goes beyond the realms of 'normal' and there is no need waters can often 'go' at the point of delivery or liek the first baby i delivered be born with them intact!

No. Luckily my waters breaking were the first sign of my labour beginning!

I think my midwives were the fairly cautious variety, I had a lot of warnings about having to go into hospital if things didn't move along perfectly so I doubt they would have broken my waters at home.

My labour was pretty simple tho so it wasn't an issue.

I would be surprised at that happening, my labour was ultra fast anyway but all the midwives on UKMidwifery group seem to advise against it at a homebirth.

Thanks for your replies so far. I know there are other homebirthers out there so I hope I will get more. Some women believe they cannot give birth without their waters being broken for them because it has been done before. I had a lady very insistent I do it today (in hospital) because she had it done twice before. I wasn't very popular when I said it wasn't needed.

You are right vickiyumyum that it has been shown not to shorten labour significantly on it's own. Still done too often IMO.

I just think that women who are having home deliveries should not be interfered with but it seems that membranes are artificially ruptured at home.

I've had four homebirths and no-one ever suggested breaking my waters. I wouldn't have wanted them too. They broke at different times in each labour and I remember all four so well.

I was surprised at how casually and frequently Ina May Gaskin seems to have felt it necessary to break the waters of her birthing women. It was the ONE thing in her books which put me off her slightly. (Otherwise I love her)

Hi mears,
I was a community midwife for a long time and never did artificial rupture of membranes if at all possible. I never gave birth at home ( not for want of wishing to ) but would have been very against having my waters broken.

I had my waters broken during my homebirth.
I had them broken during my first labour in hospital and my mw team knew this was one of my biggest gripes about the previous labour as I felt it led to further intervention.
The two mws were lovely, knew me well and I trusted them. One felt happy to let it continue and the other felt it would help speed me up a bit as I had been in labour since early morning and it was getting late evening.
I eventually allowed them to do so as I hoped it would speed it up and was prepared for the pain increase second time round - just as well - ouch! There was no mention of transferral or any change in care if they did. Got to say that it did seem to increase the frequency and strength of contractions (did end up with transferral as baby got into tricky position, shoulder stuck and I was suffering with a trapped sciatic nerve)

I still regret the waters being broken but felt I trusted them implicitly and they were speeding it up for me not for them. I am sure they did it with the best intentions but perhaps in hindsight, not really appropriate. I am sure it didn?t cause my transfer though. Saying that, if I am fotunate to have another child, will go for homebirth and same mw team as they are very special, caring people

anyone else? Perhaps homebirths have been too recent and no time to be on mumsnet

I don't know mears - my homebirth was very fast and furious - I didn't think they had, but in the notes, ARM is written above the line of notes so maybe they did. I honestly didn't have time to really think about that - they were in my house for less than an hour, arrived 9.40, baby born 10.10, left 10.25!

I had a homebirth (nearly!) 3 months ago and I did have my waters broken which was my decision. I'd had 2 days of contractions('false' labour - pah!) And in the morning on the third day a midwife came to examine me and I was 4-5cms so she stayed. My contractions didn't get regular at any point, and were quite far apart except for the very end.

I spent most of the day with DH and two lovely midwives at my house drinking raspberry leaf tea with honey (they made me in the hope it would help the contractions - think it just made me pee more) and occasionally leaning over my excercise ball as I had a contraction. Because my contractions were so hit and miss, by the time it got to late afternoon and I hadn't progressed much I asked whether breaking my waters might speed things up a bit. The midwives were fairly reluctant because they warned me it could make the contractions more painful and I was just using a TENS at the time, but agreed after about an hour. The hope was that it might make the baby's head press down a bit more since it seemed to be moving a lot. I was also really tired after no sleep for nearly three nights.

I then progressed quite rapidly and was pushing after maybe another hour which was a blessed relief. I just had a bit of gas and air at that stage. It was halfway through the pushing stage that they suddenly noticed meconium and I had to go to hospital for the very last bit. They did give me another 20 minutes once the ambulance had arrived though, although with an audience of 2 ambulance men sat at my kitchen table it wasn't really conducive to giving birth! In fact it just about stopped the contractions altogether.

The midwives stayed with me and were the only ones present at the birth in the hospital along with DH, and they did everything they could to make it as close to my plan as possible. They were absolutely brilliant.

I had on my plan that I didn't want my waters broken but it seemed the right thing to do at the time and it was my choice. I think I was so fed up of contractions that I wanted a change of scenery! It certianly wasn't something they would do normally. My daughter was born with her hand on her face so perhaps that was why she wasn't pushing down very effectively - I did feel a weird sort of rummaging after every contractions which might have been her wriggling! She was also posterior (mostly) so that might have made it more drawn out.

2 homebirths, no artificial breaking.

No, water broke while sitting on the toilet. Mdiwife told me that was a good place to sit and have them break - less mess I guess! Sitting that way was abit like squatting and I feel helped encourage them to break?

I am going to ask my midwife next Friday Mears about this and (pregnant brain allowing) will get back to you. Whilst I live in Switzerland my midwife practised in England for 10 years before moving here.

I had a homebirth 15 months ago. And no the midwife did not break my waters. I was fully dilated and pushing when they broke naturally and DD was born precisely 2 minutes later.

To be fair to her I left it a bit late calling her so she'd only just had time to set up and examine me by the time I started pushing. But she seemed very low intervention and follow my lead (and brilliant).

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No - but then they broke before the midwife arrived!

I had a home birth 6 months ago and had my waters broken, after it was done ds was born 20 minutes later, it also kept all the mess under control, you don't know when they are going to go when you are walking up and down the stairs trying to get things moving. I was fully dilated and had no pushing urges until they were broken so it did speed things up which I was so glad about as I had been ahving contractions on and off for two days.

Thanks for replies. Pruni - the whole point about home delivery is that labour is natural and intervention free. Having waters artificially broken is an unecessary intervention in a normally progresing labour. The waters cushion the baby during contractions - nature intends that they break just before the baby is born. Sometimes they do break earlier than the start to second stage. Sometimes they do not break at all and the baby is born in the sac. When waters are artificially broken it can cause the baby's heart beat to drop due to the lack of cushioning. If broken when the head is not well positioned it can lead to cord prolapse - the cord coming down past the baby's head.
So all in all, they are best left alone.

Mears, are you sure you don't want to come and stay in London just after Christmas and be my midwife?!

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Just had my midwife here and asked her about breaking waters at home.

She said that has broken waters at home - if the labour is becoming prolonged and contractions good and fully dialated. She said she has often found that women who transfer to hospital and then deliver immediately after waters are broken there could have had the same result at home - which is the mothers preference, a homebirth.

She said she has also broken waters when the mother has had enough and wants to get the third stage finished and delivery is imminent.

It is not something she does routinely, but was quite matter-of-fact about breaking waters at home, she did not seem to consider it purely a hospital only policy.

Mears - i'm a bit new to mumsnet, so maybe this message is too late to join inyour discussion. i had a homebirth 10 months ago (the best experience of my life and one i would love to repeat!). My midwife was fantastic - knew exactly when to offer support and when to let me get on with it. She was very reluctant to examine me (she did only once, so as to know whether to contact the second midwife), but she did break my waters. I'm not sure why - i don't remeber it happening, i only know from reading my notes. I already had a hindwater leak, and she could see DD head behind bag of membranes DD born 15 mins later - membranes were tightly adhered to her head.

Yes, I dialated to 8cm very quickly in my second home birth - but then all further contractions for the next 3 hours produced nothing, got very painful. So, after discussion with my Midwife, I decided that she should break my membranes, which she did with a gloved finger during a contraction. Baby was delived 10mins after that! She said that my membranes were extremly tough so it was probably indicated anyway.

It seems from my midwife that breaking them is such a straight forward procedure, it would not warrent a transfer for that alone - not by any stretch of the imagination!