Bournefree
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Lots of birthing centres have a "policy" of 5cm or more to get into the pool. Why?
Well, 2 reasons:
1 - is that warm water has been show to slow early/latent labour.. but that is only slow labour, it doesn't actually stop for any women. You might get breaks and they might be prolonged, but be happy for the rest periods. The water has also been shown to increase speed in delivery in established labour. however, the important part of this is established labour.. and measuring how dilated you are isn't quite an accurate gauge of whether you are in active labour or not. You could be in active labour i.e having regular contractions of strenght, lenght and duration and be a 2-3 cm.. then find your cervix pops to 6am very quickly, as it is the contractions against baby which dilates the cervix. So dilation alone it isn't a science, it is mearly an indication. Your stage of labour can be better assessed by taking into account the whole picutre of your contractions and how you are behaving.
2 - .. and this is the main reason for the policy. It gives better use of the equipment for the hospital. They don't want you in there for hours on end... even though there would be nothing wrong with that! and quite often they 'encourage' a perfectly happy labouring women out of the pool, to help speed things up. This to my mind is slightly bizzare.. as lots will also advise you to have a bath in early labour to help you relax (which isn't radically different from the pool, but won't take up the pool room!) but that is the truth of it.
There is lots of infomation on waterbirthing in "The water birth book" (find a link on amazon) where this magic 5cm number is discussed.
If you are at home and have free access to a pool.. then you don't have to worry about when to get in, or get out - you just do whatever you want to, either in it or out of it. No magic targets to hit! You can just do what feels right.
So my advise is if you want to get in a pool at a birthing centre of MW lead unit at the hospital, and it is free, get in it - and if ou don't want to get out.. just say no thank you. Look after your own comfort - or get your OH or birthing partner to do that for you.
XxX
Well, 2 reasons:
1 - is that warm water has been show to slow early/latent labour.. but that is only slow labour, it doesn't actually stop for any women. You might get breaks and they might be prolonged, but be happy for the rest periods. The water has also been shown to increase speed in delivery in established labour. however, the important part of this is established labour.. and measuring how dilated you are isn't quite an accurate gauge of whether you are in active labour or not. You could be in active labour i.e having regular contractions of strenght, lenght and duration and be a 2-3 cm.. then find your cervix pops to 6am very quickly, as it is the contractions against baby which dilates the cervix. So dilation alone it isn't a science, it is mearly an indication. Your stage of labour can be better assessed by taking into account the whole picutre of your contractions and how you are behaving.
2 - .. and this is the main reason for the policy. It gives better use of the equipment for the hospital. They don't want you in there for hours on end... even though there would be nothing wrong with that! and quite often they 'encourage' a perfectly happy labouring women out of the pool, to help speed things up. This to my mind is slightly bizzare.. as lots will also advise you to have a bath in early labour to help you relax (which isn't radically different from the pool, but won't take up the pool room!) but that is the truth of it.
There is lots of infomation on waterbirthing in "The water birth book" (find a link on amazon) where this magic 5cm number is discussed.
If you are at home and have free access to a pool.. then you don't have to worry about when to get in, or get out - you just do whatever you want to, either in it or out of it. No magic targets to hit! You can just do what feels right.
So my advise is if you want to get in a pool at a birthing centre of MW lead unit at the hospital, and it is free, get in it - and if ou don't want to get out.. just say no thank you. Look after your own comfort - or get your OH or birthing partner to do that for you.
XxX
