Info on water births

Oh wow! I have to say thank you for that link Beth, I have been sitting here for nearly an hour now reading it... lots of inspiration and food for thought

I've been planing a waterbirth and hearing your stories has really made me feel good about that decision thanks for sharing your experiances

Im gonna be completly different and say that I HATED labouring in the water, hurt more in the water than out and I found the contractions more intense , and sped up ,plus I couldn't get comfortable .
I still tore and needed 4 stiches.
This time , i will banish anyone who even comes towards me with a cup of water, i prefer to be out and walking around , tho in saying that, I may try a shower, if I get back and leg contractions and like C's birth noone is willing to punch me .

But, in saying that , most people I know who had a planned water birth , (and in some cases not ) and the majority loved it and found it a relaxing special occasion .
I think making sure the bath is at the right temp is also important , you don't want it too cold, or too hot

I had a look at some of the videos on that site Beth put up, did anyone watch that tv series on the living channel "maternity ward " the american one ? seemed like every birth was a c-section "sorry ,you've been in labour for 5 minutes, we need to do an emergency cesarean"

monster wrote: Are you planning a home waterbirth or a birthing centre/hospital one? If it's a birthing centre it'd be easy enough to get out and try other methods if the water doesn't work for you. If it was at home that could potentially be a lot of preparation for something you might not end up using (birth pool etc). Did you use water at all (shower/bath) when you laboured with Jack?

I am definately birthing at the hospital, a homebirth sounds too scary for me. I want to be at the hospital in case something goes wrong.
With Jack I do remember spending some time in the bath but it was just before I went to the hospital and I was about 6cm dilated at that stage. I don't really remember it helping but I don't think DH filled the bath very much

Beth , DD's step mum had a water home birth with her first baby , I can find out from her about cost and pool hireage if noone else on here gets back to you

see? I knew that if said i would look into it , someone would post the info quicker (all part of the plan haha )

monster wrote: I'd say the only thing would be to make sure your m/w is confident about handling a waterbirth if the time comes and you're in the pool.

I only spoke briefly to my mw about it at the last appt because I hadn't thought much about it at that stage but she was ok with it. I believe that she has done quite a few. A friend had her as a mw with #1 and also now with #2, she was suppose to have a waterbirth with #1 but ended up with an emergency cs. Anyway, I feel confident in the mw so it should be good

Thanks guys.

My midwife is on that list so thats good. I will talk to her about it but haven't really had the chance yet as we've only had 2 appointments so far and haven't even mentioned birth plans, other that I wanted to birth at home.

Those pools look nice and big, I wonder if you're able to test them out to make sure you fit properly lol. I laboured in the bath at the hospital with Mia and the water was fine. I really struggled with not being able to move easily though. They were those large triangular ones (Hutt Hospital).