It is such a fantastic feeling being able to share my thoughts and reviews across a platform as open and immense as the Internet. I've been sharing my adventures on my own blog for almost five years, and I have widened my topics and knowledge along the way as you can imagine.
After having my daughter Alice in 2017, my blog has had to take a back seat on many occasions, and lord knows how many events I have had to decline. But somehow I am still managing to create content, albeit at about 50% capacity. I love everything about this industry, and so I am thrilled to be writing for Your Baby Club in the form of honest, relatable articles for their brand new blog.
I'm going to dive straight in and talk about water births and why I would always recommend them. Of course, a water birth may not be on the table for every pregnancy due to varying reasons. I just would like to share my thoughts openly and potentially help anyone who is thinking about having a water birth and may still be looking for some first-hand experience.
From day one, I always had a water birth in my birth plan, even though I hadn't ever seen one or experienced one other than on TV documentaries. It just seemed right for me when thinking about it. I was fortunate enough to have a straight forward pregnancy and birth, so when I arrived at the hospital, the bath was drawn straight away for me. My sister was able to get into the pool with me which was absolutely amazing. She could coach me through contractions and massage my back at the same time.
I won't go into too much detail about my labour, but it took about three to four hours in the pool to reach full dilation and then one hour of pushing until Alice was born. The water helped take so much pressure off and I was easily able to move about roll over and find positions that suited me, something you can’t do so quickly by yourself. The only thing I remember being a slight negative was that the water had to keep being topped up to reach 37 degrees for baby, and all I wanted was ice cold water on me! Nothing that ice chips in my drink and a cold compress on my head couldn't fix- so remember these things if you decide on a water birth.
For me, a water birth was always my first choice for one main reason - privacy. The thought of sitting on a bed and pushing with my legs spread wide open quite frankly makes me a little embarrassed. Having my baby in the water helped alleviate this mental pressure knowing that the birthing pool would distort whatever was happening beneath the surface. My legs were super wobbly when it was time to get out. I had to put all my weight onto my midwife as I stepped out onto the floor. I don’t think I had ever been in the water that long in my life, and I was amazed to find that my skin hadn’t wrinkled much at all. I thought I would look like a prune, but no!
I also have it on very good authority (basically because I asked her) that my sister is most definitely going to factor in a water birth into her plans when the time comes. She told me that she saw how wonderful it was being right there in the pool with me and that she is very much wanting the same experience I had. I find this lovely, and I only hope that I can have a similar impact on anyone reading this who is yet undecided.
