Jade’s water birth experience

Jade's birth story

I had contractions during the night but when I phoned the hospital they said they said I shouldn’t come in yet because the contractions weren’t strong. Instead they told me to stay at home and relax.

The contractions got stronger as the night went on. I had a bath at home in the morning to help ease the pain, but it didn’t seem to help at all.

Later that morning the contractions were really regular, every 3-5 minutes. I couldn’t talk through them so I asked my partner to phone the hospital. They said they would send a community midwife round.

When the midwife arrived shortly after, she examined me and I was 7cm dilated!! She said I’d done so well with to get that far without pain relief and offered me a home birth but I said no, I’d prefer to be in a hospital.

We had to leave to get to hospital straight away. She asked me if I wanted the hospital to start filling up the birth pool. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go in so she said I could think about it on the way.

When I got to hospital, I spoke to the midwife there and she asked if I wanted to get in the birthing pool but I still wasn’t sure. I asked if she thought it would help me and she thought it would probably be a good idea because of the bad back pains I was having. I eventually agreed because they promised that I could get out if I didn’t like it.

When the birthing pool was full, I got in.

I was surprised by how warm it was in there, and so nice and relaxing! They were able to check the baby’s heartbeat while I was inside the pool and I hadn’t eaten so they even made me some toast and my mum had to feed me.

I was offered gas and air too, which did help, I guess. I wasn’t offered any other pain relief because I had gone so far without it. The pool made me feel very relaxed. I had a pressure pain below like I needed to go for a "number 2" and the pool helped as I could float around in it and not have my bum touching the floor of the pool. I think if I was on the bed that this would have felt horrible.

There were many different positions to sit in because of the “bumpy bits” in the pool. I mostly stayed laying down but near the end the midwife asked me to go on my knees so the gravity would help baby come out.

I was in the pool from about 12.30pm until 3pm but unfortunately my contractions slowed down a bit, so I had to get out of the pool and finish off labour on the bed.

I’m so glad I went in and would definitely recommend it! If I have another baby in a few years, which I hope to do, I am really hoping the birthing pool is free!

Find out more about having a water birth.