Water birth - what if the cord is too short to bring baby above water?

[LolaBumble]

Never considered this could happen until someone mentioned it in my NCT class. Does anyone have any experience of giving birth in the water and the cord being too short to lift the baby out?

The waters not that deep - you'd just kneel up you'd be fine. Or failing that just stand up.

You’d just stand up.

You stand up or raise your bum up to the surface of the water. End of drama.

Haha, this is such a weird niche worry. It's not like if it happened everyone would just sit around going 'welp, cords too short, nothing we can do here...'

😕

I had 2 water births ( best decision ever). It was explained to me that the baby won’t have the impulse to breath when they are underwater. I would assume the midwife could also ask your partner to help float you up.

The water's not that deep. You could stand or kneel up. It's not something to worry about.

Yup, they don't take the first breath til they are out of the water so it's not a big panic... and as a pp said..... you can lift your bum up a bit. End of drama.

You'd stand up. Had a great water birth.

Thank you all!! Not sure why I worry about such things 😂

This surely you just stand up

I didn’t have a water birth but with my second delivered her on hands and knees. The cord was surprisingly short compared to my first but I was still able to hold her comfortably in my arms while kneeling. I’ve never heard of a woman unable to do that due to shortness of the cord, is that a thing?

It is a thing, one of mine had a cord that was too short for me to comfortably hold my baby in my arms without it being cut first (I managed it, because I didn't want the cord cut immediately, but it was a very short cord!!)

In the event of this happening, you would kneel or stand and the midwife would let some water out, until it was shallow enough to be comfortable sitting with the baby in your arms.

Don't be pressured to rush and cut the cord, there are so many benefits to waiting a while to cut it. And it's not an irrational thing, our minds go over all sorts of worries before birth, but I am sure your experience will be ok 💕

Thank you for this, that was my thought that the cord would have to be cut quickly! But yes no rush :)

Hope everything goes well for you OP 🙂

My second baby was a water birth. As other posters have mentioned, the baby doesn't take a breath until they are out of the water.

My baby's cord was very short, so much so that the midwife commented in it. It wasn't a problem for the birth, but it meant that I couldn't comfortably hold him in my arms or try to start his first feed with the cord still attached. I had planned to delay cutting the cord but changed my mind for that reason.