Any hospital waterbirth pioneers??

[dharmama]

We are planning a hospital birth (small community hospital w/ great midwives) next June.

I am REALLY drawn to the idea of laboring and possibily birthing in water. But....there have not been any waterbirths at this hospital.

When I mentioned it to one of my midwives (during a pre-pregnancy consultation) she said something like....it's been talked about a LOT...it's on the horizon...I just can't PROMISE you that a birthing tub will be available when you want it.

Sooooo....I have my 12 week appointment next week and I want to start talking about the birth -- and in particular the fact that I want access to a tub!! I've done plenty of research on the safety of waterbirth. I have some articles from nursing journals that I'm planning to bring.

Just wondering if there are any hospital water-birthers out there who birthed at hospitals that weren't doing water-births previously who can offer me any advice/encouragement.

I'm less concerned about convincing my midwives -- they seem really open to the idea -- and more concerned about hospital administrators and policies. :

Thanks!!

~Erin

[Eman'smom]

ME ME ME, I had a hospital water birth it was amazing. Our midwife said it was the first planned waterbirth at the hospital.

A bit of history, we love our midwife and the hospital is really great, so we knew we were going to deliver there. We talked about water birth, but she pretty much said that the hospital would never go for us bringing in a birthing tub (liability), but she said that there were tubs in every room and jacuzzi tubs in 3 rooms, well we knew this but the tubs were small so you had to hope for a jacuzzi room being free. We briefly looked into other options, but they weren't for us. So we just planned on water labor in a small tub, I really hadn't planned on birthing in the tub.

Fast forward to labor, dh askes if a jacuzzi room is available, they say yes but it's being cleaned and we'd have to wait, I'm about to say fine, any room will do, but before I can dh say's "we'll wait", so we stand in the hall for 45 minutes. We get into the room, labor a bit, and then start the tub. I think I was in the tub for maybe 5 contractions befor I wanted out (dd was posterior, and the only thing that felt good was standing, go figure). So I stand through labor, when I hit transition, and just wanted to lay in bed and get knocked out, the midwife suggested I get back in the tub. I didn't want to do anything (have a baby, push, let alone get in the tub). But dh to the rescue again, he tells the midwife, yes she'll get in the tub.

I get in the tub and it was great, zero, I mean zero back pain. I still felt the contractions. I think the midwifes idea was she knew what we wanted and what could they really do at that point.

It was great go for it.

The only "problem" was they had no doppler type equipment for listening to the heartbeat under water. But that was worked out.

[pamamidwife]

You know, Barbara Harper from Waterbirth International can help you with just this! She has managed to rent waterbirth tubs for hospitals and given them information that they need for waterbirths. She's a wealth of knowledge and very happy to help!

Here's her website: http://www.waterbirth.org

[dharmama]

Eman'smom ~ Congratulations!! And way to go DH!

Pam ~ Thanks for the link!! I will check it out! I'm really excited about this possibility!!

~Erin

[dharmama]

Wow!! I e-mailed the info address at waterbirth.org this afternoon. When I got home from work my husband was on the phone with Barbara!!

She's great! She's sending me a free packet of info. to take to my midwife appointment next week. Then after I talk with my midwives -- and just verify that they are indeed supportive of waterbirth -- Barbara will help us work with the hospital administration.

On their Web page, it says they have a 90% success rate with changing hospital policies to allow waterbirth!

She said based on the fact that it is a small hospital and that I am starting very early...she thinks we will be successful!

Thanks SO much for suggesting that I get in touch with her!

~Erin