Our Plans for Water Birth Here at Home

So here is our birthing pool! The La Bassine from Made in Water (available through the US retailer Your Water Birth...they do same day shipping! Wow!) It took about a half an hour for us to fill it up using the old fashioned bucket method. We covered it with plastic (after I slipped in to 'test it out' of course) and it was still very warm the NEXT MORNING! And our room was nice and toasty all night, too. Being able to float around, or simply be surrounded by warmth, while in labor has always been the ideal birthing method for me. I am one of those people that takes a hot bath in almost every circumstance: when I have a cold, flu, allergies, sore muscles, a headache...when I've had too much stress, too much sadness, too much noise, too much work...so it just seems very intuitive for me to want that same ability to relax and let go while birthing.

What dreams do you have about your ideal birth?

Like most families in this economy, we live on a budget and have been trying to save for our birthing pool, since it will play a fairly significant role in our plans for a water birth. And like most things that we save up, or plan for, we are almost always hit with sudden, unexpected financial obligations which totally negate all of that penny pinching we've been doing (brakes went on one vehicle in the same week that the other car needed pricey repairs to pass inspection, then the propane tank had to be filled, then two days later the heating oil ran out!) So, here it is at week 35 and we finally got around to ordering our birthing pool! I feel a great sense of relief knowing that it is on the way to us and that we will have time to do a test run before we really need it. Plus, I am totally getting in it and relaxing! I am most definitely at that point in my pregnancy where comfort is desperately desired, but oh-so-hard to obtain!

Being able to float around, or simply be surrounded by warmth, while in labor has always been the ideal birthing method for me. I am one of those people that takes a hot bath in almost every circumstance: when I have a cold, flu, allergies, sore muscles, a headache...when I've had too much stress, too much sadness, too much noise, too much work...so it just seems very intuitive for me to want that same ability to relax and let go while birthing. With my first baby, I was unable to do any of those things in labor which felt intuitive--I was confined to bed and monitored for the whole 12 hours. My second birth, although in a wonderful birthing center, only had one birthing suite with a tub, and it was in use already when I arrived, which was very disappointing since it was one of the features that cemented my choice of that center in the first place. With my third, I was allowed in the shower, but since it was a hospital VBAC, they were very reluctant to let me off of the EFM for more than 10 minutes at a time, so by the time I was feeling really relaxed in the shower with the warm water cascading over my belly, they were dragging me out hook up that infernal monitor again! I wish i knew then about my rights as a patient--they could have simply used a hand-held device to listen, but they made it seem like EFM was some sort of LAW I had to follow. Well, I have learned my lesson, and this time I choose to labor and birth in a warm tub of water!

I've had people ask, "well, why not just birth in your existing bath tub? Why spend money on something you will use only once?" Well, first of all, my tub is super-uncomfortable and that is becoming more and more obvious the more pregnant I become. But more than that, I know that if I asked them the same about their engagement ring, or their wedding dress, they would be pretty upset and respond with a "Well, it was the most special day in my life!" and I would retort with the same answer about the birth of my baby!

Women in our society are socialized to spend money, time, resources, and all kinds of emotional energy on their perfect engagements and dream weddings...but birthing is something that we want to skimp money on, get our insurance to pay for, and hand over to other people to manage while we stock up on cute baby items and paint our nurseries. Momma's...the birth of your child IS the most important day of your life, because it affects the type of parent you will be! Whatever birthing choices you make, whether they take place at your home, the hospital or a birthing center, whether they are attended by people who treat you respectfully and invite you to be a part of every choice that is made, whether you choose a CNM, DEM, CPM, OB, or FP, whether you choose medical pain relief or choose to work with your body...the choices need to be yours after you have fully researched each option!

Would you pick the first wedding dress you found? Or the one all of your friends wore? I'll bet that most brides-to-be have been dreaming of their perfect wedding for most of their lives! What dreams do you have about your ideal birth? Or do your birthing daydreams skip around from looking really cute in the latest bump-baring fashion, to the perfect nursery, to the way your husband will look when he rocks the baby to sleep? That is the problem, we have so little REAL imagery to apply to our birthing daydreams! I know for my first birth, I just wanted to survive, I had not really thought about it beyond that despite taking prepared childbirth classes. My second one I had a better idea, but I was willing to let "those who knew best" handle the details. By baby number three I was under the delusion that the pregnancy magazines and books I read reflected real birthing practicess, even at hospitals. It has taken me four pregnancies to be able to finally daydream my way to my ideal birth, with NO compromises. How many times do you want to do it before you get to do it your way?