Isabella: A Garden Tub Birth 

2:15 am

I had my last daughter Isabella in the water, and it was by far my favorite of all births. I delivered in a large garden tub with Jets. while the jets were lovely hitting my lower back, my favorite part was just the constant hum. It was a very relaxing noise.

The depth of this tub was an issue, but it was my best available option. We filled it as high as possible, but I still found myself flopping around and changing positions trying to emerse different parts of my body. I would have liked to do some other positions but they would have left me out of the water and that was not an option in my mind. The pain immediately rose as soon as I got out of the water. Perineum pressure or massage? My MW told me I could press there myself, which helped before pushing the head out. It was very beneficial to me to know what my body was going by feeling it with my hands. I think it goes along with a natural reaction, when someting hurts, you put pressure on it. I did, however, ask her to do it for me at the very end, right before Ipushed her head out; for some reason, I think I was using my arms to support my body, but I don’t remember for sure. Catching the baby? What needs to be caught? From what I know, there is more danger in birthing in shallow water because the baby needs to be immersed so it doesn’t start to breath. Right?

I delivered Isabella at 2:15 in the morning after being in strong labor for 5 hours. By this point I was tired and was taking naps between contractions. It took 2 or 3 contractions to push her head out. I didn’t really realize that I had pushed her head out until I heard the MW murmer to my husband how much hair there was. It was just what I felt I needed to do. The contractions were to painful to relax through, so I started to push. After her head was out I took a 5 min nap, woke up for the next contraction, took another 5 minute nap, and then woke up to finish pushing her out. My MW took that time to unwrap the cord that was around her neck and also was using the doplar to moniter her. There was no problems with her at that point. After pushing her shoulders out, the rest was easy. My MW helped scoop her out of the water once there was enough cord for her to reach to my chest. After 20 minutes there was still no placenta coming so I opted to cut the cord and let my husband hold her. She scored a nine on the apgar at 5 minutes, losing a point for coloring, which I’ve read to be normal for water births. Once I changed positions, the placenta came quickly.

In my opinion this is the safest birth for mothers and babies, as you are still in control and able to feel what is going on and in the proper mind set to make decisions. I wish all the people coming up on there waterbirths the best, and I hope that all of this information I’ve shared helps in some way.

– Mom, Kerry