3 Reasons I Loved My Waterbirth & How You Can Have One Too

Hi Mamas!

I guess you could say that I've experienced two waterbirths. The first being my own birthday (are we counting that?) and the second I can remember a hell of a lot better... the birth of my son. For his birth I had a pool set up at home, by the Christmas tree in the living room. And I absolutely loved it.

Here's my top three reasons why:

1. I find water so relaxing!

If you're anything like me, having a bit of a stressful day has you dreaming of the tranquil bubble bath you're going to melt into that evening. If you really are like me it'll be scolding hot like the pits of hell unless you're pregnant, in which case a tepid 37 degrees will have to do (but that's besides the point). If I can't sleep at night then I'm opening up the 'Calm' app on my phone and letting gentle crashing wave sounds lull me into rest. What I'm trying to get at here is that naturally for me, a waterbirth was the best option when it came to wanting a calm and relaxed birth experience, because I find water relaxing. I guess that's one reason you were expecting to hear!

2. The pool made me feel safe.

For our bodies to be able to work at their best when it comes to birth we need to feel safe and the pool (quite unexpectedly for me) felt like a bit of a safety barrier between me and the other people in the room. A birthing nest if you will!

Prior to actually going into labour I had planned to have my partner, Alex, in the pool with me. There he was, trunks at the ready, but I didn't want anyone invading my safe space for anything more than holding my hand over the edge of the pool or checking how baby was getting on.

If you want to know more about the science of needing to feel safe for a smooth labour, I have just the blog post for you - you're welcome!

Clickedy Click

3. Being in water lessens your chances of tearing!

Soaking in warm water makes your skin more supple so it makes sense that it will give you a helping hand as the skin of your vagina unfolds and stretches to make room for baby to make their entrance into the world!

My son's waterbirth resulted in one very small tear which didn't need any stitches at all. This was a huge relief for me because I'm a massive wimp when it comes to needles. I kid you not, I was more worried about any possible injections or stitches rather than the birth itself!

So are you considering a waterbirth?

If you're hoping to have a waterbirth at a hospital or birth centre you'll want to ask how many of the delivery rooms have a birth pool and how often they're all in use. If there are no birth pools available when you do go into labour, hopefully you'll have access to a bath or shower instead. It's definitely worth asking your local maternity units about their facilities when you're making your decision on where you'd like to give birth.

Guaranteed access to a birth pool was a pretty big factor in my choice to have a home birth, so that might be something you'd like to consider too. University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) Home Birth Team were amazing support to us when we were organising our waterbirth at home. They will be able to offer advise about renting a pool as well as any extra bits and bobs you'll need*! They will insure the temperature of the water is perfect throughout the birth and the lovely midwives will often help with clearing up after the birth!

*These are some of the extras you might not have thought about:

- Waterproof ground sheets or shower curtains to protect the floors/sofas

- Lots of old towels

- A sieve (yep, it might be needed to fish some poop out of the water!)

- A handheld mirror so it's easier for the midwives to see what's going on

- Tap adapters so you can hook the hose up to fill the pool

- A water thermometer

I hope this has been lots of help if you're thinking you might like a waterbirth! And if you've got any questions for me please feel free to get in touch!

How Does Hypnobirthing Work?

I wouldn't judge you for one moment if your first assumption when you heard about hypnobirthing was something along the lines of 'probably a bit of woo woo hippie nonsense'. I get it, it can totally give of those vibes.

But * s u r p r i s e * it's all based in cold, hard scientific fact!

SO HOW?!

First we need to understand how your body reacts to fear. When you're scared, your body goes into the 'fight or flight' response. It's your body's natural reaction to danger. Your body is flooded with adrenaline and your blood is pumped to your arms and legs to give you the best chance of fighting off the 'danger' or running away.

If we were still cave people this would be fab!

Imagine the scenario... you're a cavewoman in labour when you realise a sabre tooth tiger is on the prowl, so your body kicks in your fight or flight response. Your body is focused on making sure you've found safety before you give birth, so your labour is stalled while you get the hell out of there or put up a fight.

But that's no help when you're giving birth these days! All that adrenaline can slow your labour down or put a stop to it altogether, even if logically you know you're in a safe space like a hospital or birth centre.

Fear makes birth painful and so much harder than it needs to be because all that blood that's pumping to your arms and legs should be pumping to the muscle that is doing all the work - your uterus!

< Just to be clear, this isn't a scientifically accurate diagram of a uterus.

So... I can just tell myself that I'm safe and birth should be easy, right?! Oh girl, if only it were that simple.

Your brain is like an iceberg. Stick with me on this! We've all seen Titanic, we know that the part of the iceberg you can see above the water is just the tip and the rest of that chunky ice block is MASSIVE beneath the surface.

So think of it like this, the tip of the iceberg is your conscious brain. The logical bit. But the majority is your unconscious or subconscious brain. This is the bit that decides how you feel.

Like, you know logically (in the conscious part of your brain), that a little spider can't do you any real harm. But stored away in your subconscious brain are all these negative stories about scary creepy crawlies and just like that the fight or flight response has kicked in, your heart is beating at a million times a minute and you're getting yourself out of there ASAP. Goodbye spidey!

It's the subconscious part of your brain that decides how your body will physically react. In this case, spiders are stored away under the 'dangerous' file in your subconscious brain's filling cabinet. So even though you can rationalise that there is no real danger, your physical response is reacting to the beliefs stored in your subconscious.

And I'm willing to bet you've grown up hearing a bunch of horror stories about birth and watching a lot of dramatic, emergency births on TV too. It's all tucked away in the subconscious brain.

OKAY LET'S GET TO THE POINT! How does hypnobirthing help?

To make a difference to your experience of birth, we need to let your subconscious brain know that actually, birth is safe! (It genuinely is btw! Your body was designed to be able to give birth!)

Hypnobirthing is lots of simple tricks and hacks targeted at replacing those negative stories and beliefs that you have about birth with lots of positive loveliness!

We can basically train your brain to view labour as wonderful and safe and positive, which in turn will stop your body from triggering its fight or flight response when you go into labour. And without having to fight against adrenaline your birth will be easier, less painful, quicker and you're far more likely to avoid interventions like assisted birth or episiotomy*!

*Episiotomy is a cut between your vagina and anus to make more space to get baby out.

So what are you waiting for? If you're pregnant, now is the time to start practising some hypnobirthing. And if you have any questions, please pop me a message!