Dear Karil,
My son, Jared, was born two months ago - my third child, first waterbirth. I
thought I'd like to share my short birth story with you and your readers.
Previous to his birth I did little research on waterbirth, and I wasn't 100% sold
on the idea. Now I am!
I was admitted into the labour ward at about 2 PM after having very mild
contractions for a few hours. I was 38 weeks along, and had been in and out of
labour for many weeks. Anyway, both of the resident midwives said that I was not
in labour, but because I was at the hospital they had to have my gynecologist
come and check on me. Good thing, too - I was already at 6cms!
I was shocked, and a little scared - my husband had taken our two other children
to a friendıs house (in case this was IT) and he hadn't yet returned. My
gynecologist said she would just rupture membranes to get things moving, which
was fine with me. After she had done that, even the mild contractions went away!
I sat DEAD STILL waiting for my husband to arrive. I have a history of very
quick births, and I didn't want him to miss this one! Well, he eventually
arrived (45 minutes later!). My favourite midwife, Sandra, asked if I would like
to use water as a method of paid relief, which I had only vaguely considered
(water, not pain relief that is!). I said that sounded good, as my bath at home
had been one of my favourite places the past few weeks. I was very big this time
around, and I am actually quite a small person, so the strain on my body was very
bad.
One of the midwives said we could do some walking to get things going. Did it
ever! After about 5 minutes of walking I said "Let's get that water thing
going!" Well, they had the spa bath waiting for me. I must say I was a little
nervous as I walked up the stairs and climbed into the tub, not knowing quite
what to expect. I was having quite a lot of back pain, and the spray jets in the
tub really helped that.
I got into the tub and after about 10 minutes I told the midwife that I needed to
push, so she checked me and I was at 10cm with just a tiny rim. She looked
terrified and ran to call the doctor, who arrived fairly fast. She checked me
and said that I could push with the next contraction. At that point I didn't
really think about the fact that I was about to deliver in the water - I just
wanted to deliver!
After a few minutes of pushing hard, the pain was incredible - much worse than
with my other two deliveries. It turned out that my son was sunny side up, and
was turning in the birth canal! Ow! Well, that explained the back pain at any
rate. Then I remember Sandra, the great midwife, saying "Tammy, he has black
hair!" and my gynecologist saying "Keep your bum down!" I remember wondering why
on earth she would be telling me to keep my bum down, until I remembered at one
of our first consultations she had told me that it was important in a water birth
that the baby stays under the water until the whole body is born. Only then did I
realise that I was having a waterbirth!
My son was born at 5: PM on the first day of Spring, September 1, 2003, after
only 30 minutes of labour! I am sure that being in the water definitely lessened
the pain that I would have felt otherwise, as he turned inside me. All in all it
was a wonderful experience, and I highly recommend it.
Regards,
Tammy