Bath during early labour

[Stargazer87]

This might be a stupid question but I'm a FTM...🤷🏻‍♀️I'm 39 weeks so hoping labour might be soon. I'm hoping for a water birth so thought having a bath at home would be good in the early stages to help relax me...can you put anything in the bath when in early labour? Essential oils etc? Or should it be just plain water??

Watching because I'm planning this too.
Just be aware that if you get in too early it can slow things down. Also it's good to stay upright so don't lie back in it if poss.

Hi @Stargazer87 I got in the bath when my period painss started but I think it relaxed me too much and I then had five hours of nothing!!

With my 2nd I woke up at around 7am at home with contractions and we had to wait for my mum to come pick up my daughter before we could leave for the hospital. I jumped in the bath during that time and it really, really helped me! I hadn't actually thought about it before hand it was just a spur of the moment decision to try and manage the pain. It certainly didn't slow things down in my case, 30 minutes later i was in the car on the way to the hospital which is only a 20 minute drive away and I gave birth within 5 minutes of arriving on the labour ward! I very nearly had him in the car!

I had a couple of baths during my 40 latent stage of labour! I used essential oils in the water - I used them throughout pregnancy, and used a blend of clary sage, geranium and lavender once in labour. The baths were really relaxing and I enjoyed taking them, but I was later told by a midwife they could have slowed down contractions.

I did take a bath- but my contractions stayed really regular and strong from the moment i went into labour. I didn’t lie back though- sort of knelt with my knees apart. No reason other than instinctively spent the whole labour on my hands and knees or squatting- found out later it was probably more comfortable because baby had turned back to back. He righted himself by the time I was ready to push though.