Waterbirth- a few questions.

[WindyCityMom]

Well, I've been compiling many questions in my head about this.. so here it goes.

I plan on birthing in our tub. We have a jacuzzi tub that I fit in very comfortably in a number of positions, and with us being in the basement apartment, our water heater is awesome.

-How clean does the tub have to be, actually? I mean, it is generally clean, as i do bathe DD in there, it's not grimy or nasty (nesting takes care of that!) by any means, but should I be concerned with it? I guess I shouldn't consider it any more clean than say, a fishy pool, but I've got to wonder. Especially if my water has broken. KWIM? Am I being silly? Can someone reassure me?

-Okay. So baby is born, breathes, everything is fine. What about the placenta? Do I need to get out of the tub to birth it? How will I monitor my blood loss if I'm still in a tub filled with water? Do I drain the water? Wouldn't baby and I become cold at that point?

For some reason my mind drew a blank as far as the rest of my questions go- so that's it for now!

[Niniel]

Hi,

I just cleaned my birthing pool down with some sterilising fluid before filling it (I'm in the UK so I'm not sure what brands are the same in the US, it's the same stuff you would use to cold sterilise a breast pump or bottles). During your labour you should aim to have the pool at around 96 degrees (blood temperature) but you may want to warm it up just a couple of degrees as the birth approaches. It's fine to throw a towel over yourself and the baby while still in the pool to help you keep warm.
Some professionals would want you to get out of the pool to deliver the placenta because of the tiny, tiny risk of water embolism but the chances of that happening are pretty remote and plenty of women deliver the placenta in the water with no problems. You may find on the day though that you want to get out.
I really don't know anything about monitoring blood loss in the pool as when I had my DS I got out to deliver him.

hth and good luck!

x

[prancie]

You could use a powdered brewers wash, it will disinfect and it's food grade as well (don't drink it though!). You can even just spray it on and let it sit for 30 minutes and rinse it. It will work great as long as there is not a lot of build up of grime or mold in you tub.

[Happiestever]

You could try vinegar to clean and perhaps grapefruit seed extract liquid in conjunction. I plan on doing something like this to clean my pool.

[WindyCityMom]

Oh yeah- no mold in the tub haha. Thanks for the suggestions

As for the placenta- I think I might just drain the tub after I birth the baby, and put her to my skin and wrap us up. I do have an old comforter so I suppose we could be wrapped up in that (have been looking for excuses to throw it away but could never bring myself to do it!). I really just want to be able to gauge blood loss. With DDs birth my placenta was out within 10 minutes. I'm pretty sure though that they applied traction or something because it was so quick- I was asked to give a tiny push (I gave a huge one) and my placenta shot out.

I had alot of bleeding postpartum and I'm sure some fragments were left inside (though not attatched to me.. just being 41w2d my placenta wasn't in tiptop shape) so I got all of those *TMI* "crumbs" in my pad. I bled for quite awhile and quite heavily, but I was fine and never went in for PPH. I think I was scared enough, being 17, first baby, horrible hospital experience.. I even had to go back in for the epidual blood patch for the epidural that I DID NOT WANT. Anyhow, I'm confident that this time will be much easier, and I'm going to be equipped with herbs and the like.

[CageFreeFamily]

I was just going to start a post about placenta delivery in the water...

If you're going to get out of the tub to deliver the placenta should you cut the cord first? It seems (perhaps because I'm only 5' tall) that it would be difficult to scale the sides of the birth tub and manage a baby that is still attached to an undelivered placenta.

If I don't want to get out of the tub to deliver the placenta, is it really that dangerous? Should I just do what feels right??

[weliveintheforest]

I don't think you need to do anything special to your tub, as long as you keep it generally clean with no mold etc (which you already said was no problem). Maybe get your dh to do a quick cleaning with vinegar if you have time in early labour.

You can deliver the placenta in the pool, and you do not have to cut the cord to get out. If you want to get out while the placenta is still inside, hold your baby against you and have your partner help you out of the tub. As long as you can stand up, you will be fine.
I've attended 4 homebirths in the last year, and all 4 women delivered the placenta still in the pool.

[Astraia]

You could do a water spill test in your tub.

Get some red-coloured fluid and dump it in your full tub. I think the usual measurement is 2 cups- more than 2 cups is considered too much (although it depends a LOT on the mom. Some go pale and shocky with much less than that, others can go beyond that with no problems). Then you'll have an idea in your mind of what to look for.

[Marlet]

-How clean does the tub have to be, actually? I mean, it is generally clean, as i do bathe DD in there, it's not grimy or nasty (nesting takes care of that!) by any means, but should I be concerned with it? I guess I shouldn't consider it any more clean than say, a fishy pool, but I've got to wonder. Especially if my water has broken. KWIM? Am I being silly? Can someone reassure me? It never occured to me to do any extra cleaning. I just did a basic clean up of it maybe a week before she was born. There wasn't any grime or residue on the side of the tub of anything. It seriously never occured to me. My SIL came in the next day and went to town. I've never smelled so much bleach.

-Okay. So baby is born, breathes, everything is fine. What about the placenta? Do I need to get out of the tub to birth it? How will I monitor my blood loss if I'm still in a tub filled with water? Do I drain the water? Wouldn't baby and I become cold at that point? I didn't get out. I just hung out there for maybe an hour (the water was really warm and I had no intention of getting out ). I never actively needed to push my placenta out so I probably sat there for maybe 30 minutes before it was actually out (though "out" is relative...it was at my vaginal opening for who knows how long). Once I decided to get out I passed DD2 up to my SIL and she wrapped her up in a blanket. Then I passed up my placenta and she wrapped that up in the corner of the blanket. She carried her to the living room and I got out and got dressed. I kept the tub full of water the whole time. I didn't make a focused effort to watch blood loss. Just more of a mental note on how I was feeling. I didn't have an issue aside from basic lower blood volume.

[NEgirl]

For both my births, I've started with a clean pool, but treated the water anyway. We just dumped in some iodine (oldie but goodie), and a product called Sol-U-Mel from Melaleuca (tea-tree oil based product - has a million uses). Probably about 1 or 2 oz of each. As a result, any time I smell iodine, I instantly think of new babies! The Sol-U-Mel can be found on ebay (otherwise you have to go through Melaleuca, and they sell multi-level marketing style, unfortunately).

Since the water was "treated", I was confident any stray bacteria were taken care of....nice since my water was already broken with DD 2. We're on well-water that's fairly clean, but you never know what's in there. Also, if you happen to tear or get any skidmarks (highly unlikely with a water birth though!), you know you're in clean water. I'd highly reccomend treating if you've got a jacuzzi tub....it's hard to be sure those jets are ever *really* clean.

[NEgirl]

OH, one more thing I wanted to mention. As far as delivering placenta in the water, keep in mind you don't want your water temp to be too hot if you're going to be staying in. Keep it around 98 degrees (and get a thermomoter....it's hard to tell by feel!). If your water temp is too high, you're chance of excess bleeding can go up. Sometimes mom just feels SO relaxed by the nice HOT water, she seems to bleed more. Something to consider, especially if you have any history of extra blood loss/PPH.

[Sarah Faith]

I am sure a lot of people here may not be big fans of bleach, but I was told by a friend who is a plumber that once a month you should fill the tub with water add a few cups of bleach and run the jets because stuff does build up in them (he has seen it when repairing tubs). I don't know if maybe vinegar with TTO would be a crunchy alternative to this.

Other than that, your usual cleaning is probably fine. I just had a UC and used a fishy pool and I got out of the water to deliver the placenta as that makes it easier to monitor blood loss. I moved to a bed with chux pads on it and had towels or blankets draped over baby and I.

[Nicci P]

I just birthed my placenta in the pool. It came less than 5 minutes after DS so I wouldnt have had much time to drain the pool or anything. I just fished it out and put it in a bowl and cut the cord about 5 hours later. TBH it never occurred to me that it would be an issue.
One thing I would recommend is putting some kind of padding on the floor of the tub. DS2 shot out so quickly that my mum couldnt catch him in time...also my water broke just as he was coming out (maybe thats what shot him out of me so quick?) so the water in the tub suddenly went cloudy. Anyway, it meant that my mum had to feel for him in the water, only took her a couple of seconds but I was glad the pool had a soft inflatable bottom!
xx

[KimProbable]

I used disinfectant wipes to clean out my pool and then in washed it out with a microfiber cloth since I didn't want the residue from the wipes to be in the water. As for the placenta, we stayed in the pool and nursed until I delivered it. I was a bit chilly but I took a quickie shower to warm up after.

[futuremamaheather]

One of my friends has a tub with jets in it, and she said that before she used it she and her dh filled up the tub, crumbled a couple of blocks of Cascade dishwasher soap into the water, and ran the jets. She said that despite the tub itself being clean, the stuff that came out of the jets was disgusting. They repeated as needed until the water ran clean through the jets, and ran it for a while with just water too, to get rid of the residue. I try to avoid things like Cascade, but in this situation, I would probably do the same thing - Cascade has abrasives in it that are supposed to get the food and grime off the dishes, and it makes quick work of the grime in the jets too.

[gabeyho]

Originally Posted by futuremamaheather

One of my friends has a tub with jets in it, and she said that before she used it she and her dh filled up the tub, crumbled a couple of blocks of Cascade dishwasher soap into the water, and ran the jets. She said that despite the tub itself being clean, the stuff that came out of the jets was disgusting. They repeated as needed until the water ran clean through the jets, and ran it for a while with just water too, to get rid of the residue. I try to avoid things like Cascade, but in this situation, I would probably do the same thing - Cascade has abrasives in it that are supposed to get the food and grime off the dishes, and it makes quick work of the grime in the jets too.

that sounds like an excellent idea! Not that I have a tub I can even fit in, but later when i live in my dream house with a ginormous jetted tub, i will remember this!

[Happiestever]

Originally Posted by gabeyho

that sounds like an excellent idea! Not that I have a tub I can even fit in, but later when i live in my dream house with a ginormous jetted tub, i will remember this!

LOL me too!

[gossamerwindweb]

yes, I have heard this on cleaning shows. Running the jets with dishwasher soap is supposed to really clean out and dissolve all the gunk in there. Then of course you run it repeatedly with clean hot water to make sure no more dishwasher soap is in there.