So you’ve decided to have a water birth…have you asked crucial questions about this choice? Are you willing to let go of the possibly of birthing your baby in water? Are you willing to let go of the fact you may or not even want to be in water during the labor or birth? Would you be open to actually listening to your body and your baby moment to moment and if the insight moves you to ‘get out of the tub’ at the moment of the birth, would you be willing to listen to that? What if you’ve been in the water for over four hours and it’s time to get out, and you don’t want to?
Becoming attached to outcomes is the greatest saboteur. Whether it’s deciding to have an epidural or birth your baby in a tub of water, let it go and see what happens. It’s a great lesson to relinquish the ego and trust whatever unfolds to the highest good of you and your baby. Now, this doesn’t mean you don’t rent the tub, do a trial set up and follow through with your plans. It’s about keeping things in perspective and releasing the attachments.
After teaching childbirth education for the last 22 years, I advise people to keep options and possibilities open; from having a baby in the kitchen 1/2 hour after the membranes rupture to ending up with a cesarean section. Labor is a mystery. Being aware of thoughts and emotions each moment keeps one tuned in and tapped into the intuitive reservoir of information and hormones. Choices become effortless, clarity prevails and mothers and babies move through the ancient rite of passage called birth with less resistance and releasing control.
Because this planet, our bodies and babies are predominantly water, most people have an affinity to be in water. Whether it’s a shower or bath, the experience of water, absence of gravity, brings a sense of softness, openness, pliability to the skin, bones, ligaments and tendons, not only in the mother, also in the baby.
So, enjoy the stories, the research, the photographs in this website and dream of welcoming your baby into the world with a sense of connection, ease and love.
If you would like to see some videos on waterbirth from the Birth Balance Website, go to: