Dionna’s Waterbirth Story

Content from: http://www.waterbirthinfo.com/

My name is Dionna W. My daughter was born on January 23, 2002 in the water. Sofie is our first baby. I spent the whole nine months of pregnancy reading about waterbirth. I would like to tell you my story.

I am 23. I was very interested from the beginning about waterbirth, but my boyfriend was scared. After we learned we were pregnant we found out that I had a low-lying placenta. That meant light work and no sex for 6 weeks. At our 37 week appointment we were told that everything was fine and we were 1-1/2 centimeters and 90% effaced. The contractions started that night. But then they went away for almost a week. Finally on the morning of the 23rd I went into full labor.

I called my midwife at 8 AM to let her know that I could not stand the pain and she said to take a shower and walk for an hour. About two hours later we were ready to go to the hospital. My dad and my boyfriend’s mom were there and ready. Off to the hospital we went with contraction coming every 2 to 4 minutes. I was in a lot of pain. We got checked in, and then I got the bad news that I was only 2 centimeters dilated. My midwife checked me an hour later and I was then at 3. Then my daughter made up her mind that she was not coming anytime soon! We stopped making progress. So in went the petocin, and into the water I went. It was so calming, it made me feel like I could do this without the meds. But I was wrong. About an hour after I got into the water the petocin was really kicking in.

I got out to lie down for a little while, since I was starting to have back labor. I ended up with two shots of stadioal. I slept for about 4 hours then I went back in the water and was there for about a half hour when I told them I had to push. They said no, it’s not time. I was like, YES it is! They had me get out of the water and wait a little while. About ten minutes later my water broke, and we were ready to go. I went back into the water. It was time to push and being in the water was the best thing. It helped so much. I was so comfortable there. After an hour and 10 minutes Sofie was born in the water. Her Apgar scores were 8 and 9. It was wonderful.

— Dionna