Pain relief...

[MrsTurner2012]

The midwives will bring gas and air, that's great stuff

I'm too fat for birth pool in hospital too.

It's so ridiculous! But after you've given birth I bet they let us fatties have a bath to wash in! Isn't that just the same!
It's health and safety gone mad!!!

 

[irish_cob]

I had a wonderful time in my birth pool at home last time (although I ended up transferring in the end) and I had no problem getting in and out of it - my OH is hardly going to stand by and let me drown is he? They worry about not being able to get you out - I had 5 midwives there at one point (they love a homebirth) plus my doula, plus my OH - I think between all of them in an emergency they would have got me out. Silly eh?

 

[solitaire89]

What a load of cr4p about being too big to use a birth pool! If you can get out of the bath no problem there is no problem with getting in/out of a birth pool.

 

[irish_cob]

Lol - I actually got stuck in the bath the night I went into labour - my OH had to haul me out! But it's different in a birth pool, you can turn round and climb out more easily and it's not slippy, I didn't have any problems getting in and out of it

 

[solitaire89]

Lol - I actually got stuck in the bath the night I went into labour - my OH had to haul me out! But it's different in a birth pool, you can turn round and climb out more easily and it's not slippy, I didn't have any problems getting in and out of it

If you have something like a birth pool in a box then you can also deflate the top ring a little to lower the "step" required

 

[MrsTurner2012]

I was the same weight having my son and there were no restrictions back then!! It's crazy.

It just makes me all the more determined to have my HB after them saying I shouldn't!

I'm not even huge! Size 16! It does my head in.

 

[solitaire89]

I'm not even huge! Size 16! It does my head in.

A 16?! That's not big!

What if you just happen to have a birth pool at your house? Have they specified that you can't have a water birth at all, or just not in the hospital?

Just to add - there is nothing in the NICE guidelines for the NHS that says anything about size and water birth. The only thing it mentions about water for pain management is:

1.4.4 The opportunity to labour in water is recommended for pain relief.
1.4.5 For women labouring in water, the temperature of the woman and the water should be monitored hourly to ensure that the woman is comfortable and not becoming pyrexial. The temperature of the water should not be above 37.5°C.
1.4.6 Any bath or birthing pool should be kept clean using a protocol agreed with the microbiology department and, in the case of birthing pools, in accordance with the manufacturer's guidelines.

Sounds to me like they're just trying to pull the wool.

 

[MrsTurner2012]

Just at the hospital I presumed.

I'm not going to have a pool at home though anyway but they catagorised me as high risk and high risk pregnant women can't have access to the birthing pools.

It's ridiculous.

Now I've totally decided that HB is for me I am goiv to have a really long appointment with my MW at my 32 week check n get everything sorted.

If I want to have a bath at home I bloody will!

 

[irish_cob]

Solitaire - they can't stop you getting in your own birth pool at home. Their policies prevent women over a certain BMI going in a birth pool in hospital.

I'm much bigger than you MrsTurner - I'm a size 20/22, I still don't feel "high risk" and I had a great time in my birth pool at home in the lounge last time

 

[MrsTurner2012]

I don't feel high risk at all.

I can run on a treadmill and hike up a mountain! I didn't think anything of royal marine circuit training before getting preg! Granted that was a few months ago but I feel fit enough to have a normal trouble free birth! Ludicrous.

I may be on the chubby side but I'm not unfit at all

Every time someone else tells me something positive about water birth it tempts me to look into them.

 

[Lois22]

I have birth with 0 pain relief and no courses etc. I decided at 37 weeks to have one! The mind is an amazing thing!

Xx