By about 8.16 I couldn’t listen to my CD unless I was on all fours swaying about and I was finding it hard to consider the cramps just as “opening sensations” – as they are described on the CD. I went to wake Adam (who complained that I was cold to touch and it was “too early on a Saturday”! Until he realised the reason I was waking him). He soon jumped to attention and rang Emma the Doula and Michelle the Midwife. Emma was round by 10am and Michelle would come later.
From 8.30 til 12noon things progressed really well (although I kept saying that Emma was “only saying that to keep me going!” – feminist that I am!)
I used my Tens Machine while kneeling on all fours (four point kneeling from Pilates) and swayed and breathed through each contraction/. Emma was great. She knew exactly where to rub my back and encouraged Adam to do the same. She helped Adam be able to leave the room to fill the pool and she gave me confidence and encouragement that I would be dilating well. I trusted her completely when she reassured me that it was now time for the pool .
Getting into the pool was absolutely fantastic!! I had had a very hot shower about 8.30 which had helped then but feeling the hot hot water envelop me and cocoon me was a w9onderful relief. And helped invaluably in keeping me calm and relaxed. Emma put the “music only” version of my hypnotherapy CD on in the background and drew the curtains, as well as lighting the scented candles which I had always burned while doing the hypnotherapy CD. My mind remembered all of the hypnotherapy words even just from hearing the music and I “went inside my head” for a large part of the next two hours, taking each contraction at a time. I would breathe in as each contraction came but then focus massively on breathing out and through the remainder of each contraction, adopting whatever position under the water felt best at the time. In between contractions I would rest in the lovely warm water, conserving my energy and focussing on the music.
I went to the bathroom a couple of times and it was so nice to be in my own private bathroom as home. I had contractions in there but it was easy to stay focussed in my familiar environment and each time I got out of the pool it felt amazing again when I got back in.
Michelle then did a quick internal examination, which was quick, painless and dignified as it was done under the water and she delightedly told me that the baby’s’ head was at the top of the birth canal. It was at that point that I remember thinking “God this is really hard now. If I have another 20 or so of this I may have made a mistake about no epidural”! In reality there was only 1.5hours to go!
Pushing in the pool was brilliant. I was either kneeling or on all fours under the water and it was very dignified. I began feeling stronger and stronger expelling contractions and I found standing up and kneeling on the side of the pool and doing very fast squats helped to relax me through the contraction and made gravity useful in pushing.
After about 40 minutes of hard work but satisfying pushing I knew the baby’s head was about to be born. Michelle ran to get Adam who was already halfway back to the dining room as he felt he’d been out for too long. As Adam reached me at the side of the pool I delivered the baby's head and Adam was able to look at me and his baby as it entered the world.
I delivered the baby in a wide squatting position ½ out of the water which was very comfortable for me. As a result of being able to go at my own pace and push only when my body wanted to, the baby‘s head descended and birthed very gently and I had no tearing at all. Only labial grazing. (This is even more amazing as Ioan turned out to weight 10 pounds 2 ounces!!!) It took a few more contractions for the rest of the baby’s body to be born. (Michelle said later that that indicated to her that the baby was very big!)
I held my baby so tight in my arms and was so unbelievably delighted to have the baby here. A quick glance also confirmed what I had known in my heart all the way through my pregnancy – that it was a little boy; it was our “Ioan” here to be with us at last.
Michelle and Emma got Adam and I into Pyjamas, changed our bed (covering the mattress with protective cloths and towels) and tucked us in with Ioan on my chest where he crept up and latched on immediately for his first feed. Then they cleaned up the pool and towels, checked the placenta (all fine) and swaddled Ioan before popping him in between us. An hour after giving birth we were tucked up as a family enjoying tea and biscuits (plenty for me as I’d eaten nothing during labour). Michelle and Emma left soon after with reassuring promises to return the next morning.
Adam and I ordered takeaway Pizza and stayed up dozing on and off until midnight, gazing on our beautiful son. We felt so so lucky to have had such a brilliant natural birth experience and we are so grateful to Michelle, Emma, Aquabirths and Liz the Pilates instructor who made it the best birth experience we could have hoped for. Adam told the midwife later that the whole experience had been “surprisingly routine”, with no drama, chaos, screaming or difficult awkward scenes. It was simply relaxed, steady, natural and positive which is all we ever wanted and has served as a fantastic foundation for the exhausting, rewarding job of being parents.
Polly Wong
(picture: The Wong Family enjoy the pool after the birth of Bertie)
I feel truly lucky. If I could have planned the perfect birth experience this labour would have been it. I was almost 2 weeks overdue and getting very frustrated. For about 10 days I had been having strong Braxton Hicks contractions and although fairly painful, they never developed into anything more than this.
At 9.15pm on Saturday 12th July whilst lying over my birth ball listening to a natal hypnotherapy CD for birth preparation, I felt my first contraction. By 9.25pm, 3 or 4 contractions later, I knew we needed to call our midwife as the contractions seemed to be coming thick and fast. Finally there was no mistaking that I was in labour.
I went downstairs to our sitting room where our pool was set up and lit some candles and some aromatherapy oil burners (one with Clary Sage and the other with Lavender oil) and I continued to play my hypnotherapy CD while rocking on my birth ball to ease the pain of the contractions and help keep me focused on the labour. I also held a flannel with lavender oil on to my nose, which was really comforting during particularly intense contractions. Meanwhile my husband, Josh began to fill the pool.
At 10.30pm our midwives arrived and sat on the sofa behind me, observing me and leaving me to continue to rock on the ball and deal with the contractions. After the CD had finished playing they checked my pulse and the baby’s heart rate. By now I could tell things were progressing quickly, there was very little let up between the contractions. At 11.00pm I got up to go to the toilet and after this, as the pool was now ready, Josh and I both got in. It was a wonderful feeling getting in to the deep water and although the intensity of the contractions continued the water was soothing and comforting. Josh sat on the step stool we had put in the pool and I faced him with my arms around his neck and my body stretched out in the water. It was invaluable support for me and enabled us to feel we were birthing our baby together.
After 20 minutes or so in the pool the nature of the contractions changed and I felt I could feel the baby’s head descending. I became very hot and uncomfortable and was comforted by my midwives holding cold flannels on my forehead and pouring cold water down my back. At 11.45pm my waters finally broke and I felt immense relief and believed that we were now soon going to meet our baby. Shortly after this at 11.48pm our baby’s head was born into the water, followed by his body a couple of minutes later. This was the most intense 2 minutes of the whole labour and I remained silent throughout the seemingly endless contraction.
It felt such a wonderful way to give birth. Josh had been very much part of the birth experience and it seemed such a gentle way for our baby to enter the world. The three of us sat in the pool together while the cord stopped pulsating, but after 15 minutes or so I felt cold and shivery and decided to get out of the water to birth the placenta. As soon as I stood up and got out of the pool the placenta came away. I was then able to relax on the sofa cuddling my beautiful baby. We couldn’t have wished for more, we had welcomed our beautiful baby boy into the world while his older sister and brother slept peacefully upstairs. Josh and I will treasure the memories of Bertie’s happy birth experience for a long time.
Sophie Llewelyn Smith
(Pictured with Nicholas waiting for the arrival of his new baby sister, Alice)
I love swimming and water and was strongly attached to the idea of al waterbirth, especially if I could stay in the water for the birth itself, not just the labour.
We setup the pool in our sitting room and I had 2 rubber ducks in it for company.
My labour started around 10pm and I decided to try and go to bed, but couldn’t sleep through the contractions, so I sat up and used some relaxation and HypnoBirthing techniques to manage the tension. I played cards with my husband for a bit (but I was rather spaced out and had my eyes shut a lot of the time!) and did quite a lot of vocalising (ie moaning!) and squeezing a little ball while I did my visualisations. I thought I got into the pool around 4 am but Alan says it was more like 2am – weird sense of time! Once I was in there I only got out to go to the loo a few times, and was very keen to get back to my warm, safe space. I found the water very supportive and it allowed me to roll gently between positions.
Initially I half sat, half reclined in the pool and Alan talked to me and stroked my hair. Sadly he was encouraging me to use different visualisations from the ones I was using (!). Only joking. I was aware of his presence and support all the time.
I asked him to call the midwife as I was aware that without her I wouldn’t have gas and air option, but I squeezed my rubber ducki half to death and reached a point where I knew I could manage the contractions.
The midwife came around 7am and was a brilliant calm, unobtrusive presence.
The last part of my labour was amazing – very loud (sorry neighbours) during contractions, but they were more spaced out, so I had a lucid period where I was able to come out of myself and talk to Alan, knowing I was about to give birth to our child. He couldn’t believe I was smiling. I just felt very calm and very happy, and Nicholas was born in the water just as I hoped.
He didn’t cry for a very long while after the birth and we sat in the water together for a while. .I stayed in the water for over an hour after the birth but got out to go to the loo and get the placenta moving as I hadn’t had any contractions.
I had the easiest, most wonderful pregnancy, and my labour went better than I could ever have hoped for. I would recommend a waterbirth and self-hypnosis to anyone – I will always remember Nicholas’s birth with joy and some astonishment that it went so smoothly, and I hope his gentle birth, with water, rose oil burning and music, was a good gift for him. And there was no need for pain relief other than the techniques I’ve mentioned – breathing is the key!
If you have had a pool from us and would like to have your own birth story featured here please email heidi@aquabirths.co.uk
I always thought I would have an elective caesarean. I was put off birth naturally by the idea of completely ruining my genitals (and consequently my sex life!) and the loss of all control/ dignity. In the end none of the above problems occurred and through sound preparation, positive determination and fantastic support I had a great natural birth in the water pool.
