When I was pregnant a friend recommended the Aniball. She hadn’t used it, but friends of hers had, and she said it was one of her big regrets. When I first heard what it was and how it worked I thought no way, not for me, and not for that price. But as the birth approached I felt like I wanted to throw everything I possibly could at the situation to try and make it as positive as possible.
I started looking online and on forums to see what people’s experiences of it were and I found it really hard to found anything useful. So I thought I’d share my experience of it in the hope that it might help inform some other people.
From 36 weeks, I would set aside an hour every evening, have a relaxing bath, put the candles on, spray some nice scent, play my relaxing birth playlist and use the Aniball. For the first couple of days, maybe even slightly before 36w I would just put it in and out, deflated, or with just one pump, to start getting used to it. Then I got used to giving it two full pumps and inserting it (with lots of lubricant), doing the breathing and pelvic floor exercises to draw it in and release it a little, then expelling it. Then slowly each day I’d try and do a pump more, and a pump more, and a pump more. I’d measure the circumference and record it on an iPhone note so I could see my progress.
I think my key advice would be… - start very very slowly. It is as much, if not more about getting used to the sensation of a pressure and an object to move inside you as it is to build up the size of the balloon. If it’s too painful then don’t push yourself. I would sometimes stay at the same number of pumps for a few days in a row before increasing again if it had been painful.
As the weeks progressed and I increased the pumps, I made the mistake of starting where I had left off the day before. Whereas actually it was far more effective to keep starting low and just have more gos at increasing and expelling it. So always start at a level that is comfortable.
If ever I was expelling it and it started to feel too painful, I would stop and deflate it a little bit. I would also sometimes record on my notes whether it was manageable or painful, so that I could see my progress, as it was encouraging to see that the same circumference might have been painful 3 days ago but it now manageable.
Also, I found it far more comfortable to really hold it in place from the outside as I pushed it out. Like I’d almost be using my hand to stop it coming out and kind of pushing against it to release it, if that makes sense. It was when it came out too fast that it would be a little painful.
I became quite focussed on the numbers which was also a mistake. I had read that a lot of people got up to 30 cms and I became determined to hit that, but in the end got up to about 26cm before the birth (which was at 40 weeks plus 5) and that was more than ample.
During the pushing stage of the birth I felt the Aniball had given me really good prep as I knew the sensation of having something head sized inside me (!!!) and how to help control that bobbing movement as she moved further down.
My baby, it turns out, had shoulder dystocia so got a bit stuck towards the end. The nurses said they may need to look at an episiotomy if she didn’t start moving and I just thought to myself - I have not spent an hour every evening using that sodding Aniball only to end up with an episiotomy!! So I thought of it like the boss level of Aniball and gave some good pushes and she was out.
She was 9lb and despite the dystocia, I had no tears, just a labia graze. I also had a great recovery and now honestly feel pretty much the same post birth as I did before.
I do think other things came into play on the day in addition to the Aniball. I used the pool for a lot of the labour but as things slowed down I moved on to the bed for some help from gravity which meant the midwives could use compresses as I pushed and I imagine that helped. Who knows whether I would have had a different outcome if I hadn’t used the Aniball, but I think even for just the sensation of it and the confidence of knowing I had tried every way possible to prepare my body, it was worth it.
Definitely take it very slowly and don’t focus on the numbers, as I think it’s easy to find it difficult or painful and then panic that because of that you won’t manage the birth. Even if you keep the numbers really low, the gentle stretching will help.
Good luck!