In Water

I cannot stress the importance that water has during your labor enough! What I mean with water is not a shower, but you immersed in water.

During my second labor, I entered our swimming pool and started floating around when the contractions were only 10 to 8 minutes apart, but steady. That simple act alone relaxed my muscles, reduced the tension in my back, made me feel lighter (if you can swim/float around during your pregnancy you’ll already see the difference that does to your body – from feeling like a whale to feeling like a feather! And your baby in the belly likes it too!) and also made me proud of myself: I was in deep labor, yet floating around like a duckie, breathing through my contractions and enjoying the beautiful blessing God was giving me…

After that, I took a shower, and I felt my contractions getting closer in time and stronger: Kevin timed me and they were now 3 minutes apart! So, he called Mary, our Midwife, and started filling up the inflatable birthing pool she had provided for us (just in case I wanted to labor in water and/or let my baby be born in water).

I entered the little pool while Kevin was still pouring water in it, straight from our bathroom faucet (the pool was in our master bedroom) and that warm water on my back was an incredible blessing during each contraction. I kept on breathing and letting go, relaxing my mind and body, on my all fours, while moving in the water. Mary had checked me a couple of days before and Myla was posterior (see ‘L.O.A.‘), so being on my all fours and moving gently from left to right and backward and forward, asking Myla gently to turn into a better position, was the best thing to do. (By the way, your baby hears everything you tell her/him, since the very few moments of conception!)

As soon as Mary came, less than 20 minutes after we called her, I said:”Mary! I feel the baby right there!” and she said, “Great! Breathe through….open up….let go….your baby knows what to do….let her do it….breathe….relax….” – Not even once did she say: “Push!”   I stayed on my all fours, putting my arms on the side of the pool. Being in warm water incredibly helped this process. Heather, Mary’s assistant and my doula, arrived just in time to hold my hand and caress my head, telling me everything was all right and I was doing great, and Kevin was behind me, pressing on my kidneys (see ‘Acupressure‘) or massaging my back.

I remember looking at the alarm clock on the desk and telling Myla through my thoughts, “Myla, it’s 11:15 pm now…in 45 minutes it will be midnight….do you want to be born today, August 12^th, your own day, or tomorrow, like your cousin Azzurra in Italy who’s 2?” And, sure enough, she immediately answered my question: she pushed herself through and I breathed again, voicing one of those deep ancestral sounds typical of labor that you never knew you were able to make, and her head was out! Mary was behind me and told Kevin to put his hands down and grab his daughter! At 11:23 pm, Myla literally slipped out, in Mary and Daddy’s arms!!!! She had birthed herself!! What a miracle!! I am crying even now that I’m writing this! God is perfect! He makes all things perfect!

I turned around, held Myla tight to my breast while still in water, and looked at Mary with a big smile, telling her: “THIS IS A DREAM!!” How different, from my previous labor! How different!!

Now, listen carefully, my Friend:
1. Myla had chosen her day and her time: she had birthed herself!
2. I did not push, I just breathed through!

And you do not need to push either!
(read Jane Sutton’s book, ‘How will I be born?’, and she’ll explain you why you don’t need to push. Relaxing, Breathing through, Imagining your pelvis opening like a flower, Letting your baby and your body do what they’re supposed to, by nature. These are the only things you can do. No need to push! Isn’t that amazing? Believe me: it works!!)

If you listen to your guts, you’ll also KNOW that giving birth while laying down on your back is very hard. Your body naturally wants to use Gravity! Your baby needs Space to come out! If a doctor is in control, of course he’ll want the woman on her back! But if the woman is in control, and trusts her instinct, she’ll be looking for warm water to relax her muscles, she’ll be walking around during contractions, and then, when the baby’s coming out, she’ll be either standing upright or kneeling up, or on her all fours: she’ll NATURALLY give her baby all the help and space possible to turn properly and do what he/she knows how to do!

Myla had not been stuck in my pelvis for hours, because now I knew how to help her turn from posterior to anterior position, and how to open my pelvis wide; nor did she have any black stuff coming out of her nose or mouth like her poor sister had: she was a happy, healthy, loud-screaming baby! A few minutes later, big sister Keira woke up, Daddy went to grab her and we hung out in the big bed for…hours! Looking at baby Myla, eating, drinking, smiling, laughing and calling our families on the phone with the big news, all in the comfort of our home! What a dream!!

‘Mrs Hemorrhoids’ was just a bad nightmare of the past! Stitches? Not even one! (I had had many with Keira). Yes, Myla’s head had torn me a little, but my Midwife told me to keep my legs together (rather than apart) for a couple of days, if I could. By day 3,, you wouldn’t have known there had been a tear there!

Water did make a BIG difference for me. I know it will for you, too! You can choose to labor in warm water and then come out when you feel that your baby is ready to be born; or you can choose to let your baby come out in water, with your Midwife next to you. For me, it was just so much better in water and so comfortable.

Listen to your body, and it will tell you what to do…