Can I prevent my water from breaking and do I want to?

[JudiAU]

My water broke prior to labor in my two previous pregnancies and I went into labor about 12-14 hours later. Both babies posterior. Labors, from the very begining, were really rough and intense. From the first contraction I just have more, sort of the way other people describe transition. People talking about timing them or pausing for the contraction to pass and I have no experience with that. Just a freight train.

My last labor was only about two hours and I delivered unplanned and unassisted at home. This birth is a planned homebirth with a midwife.

One of the midwifes I met with mentioned I could prevent my water from breaking with X and I wonder, can I, and how, and do i want to?

Is labor without broken water so much better especially because I assume I will be posterior again? I just seem to build that way.

[IdentityCrisisMama]

I remember there is some nutritional thing one can focus on to help build a strong bag of waters...I'll see what I can find/remember. 

[philomom]

Originally Posted by IdentityCrisisMama 

I remember there is some nutritional thing one can focus on to help build a strong bag of waters...I'll see what I can find/remember. 

I did the blue ribbon baby diet recommended by Bradley classes. My waters all broke just when the baby's head was crowning. All three times that I gave birth.

[IdentityCrisisMama]

With my first waters broke before labor started. My second was born in the caul. 

OP, a brief search came up with Vitamin C and protein. 

[Lynann]

My first was rupture of membranes before contractions started, and it didn't end well (c/s after 37 hours and only 8cm)

When I mentioned that to my new CNM when I was pregnant with DS2, she recommended 1000mg of Vitamin C daily from 20 weeks onward. I did the Brewer's Pregnancy Diet with both, but the 2nd time added in protein shakes every day towards the end when I was struggling to eat enough to keep my protein levels up. With DS2 my membranes stayed intact until the first spontaneous push. DS2 was born after only 20 min of pushing and had almost no molding on his head. So it worked for me. (DS2 was also a HBAC)

I'll be doing the same with any future babies. DS1 the labor was long and hard with contractions every 3-5 minutes from the get go. It was painful, exhausting and not very effective as the dry birth led to DS1 getting cemented into a difficult position. I took 20 hours to get to 8cm and then never progressed beyond that, even though the contractions were so close together. After 24 hours the LM had to transfer me to the hospital because of Florida Law. Even with pitocin at the hospital the contractions never made DS1 progress down. When he was born he had a lot of molding and we could see that he had been stuck asynclictic and would probably never have come out vaginally. IF he still had a water cushion we might have been able to get him to move to a better position to come out on his own. DS2 the labor was 9 hours start to finish and didn't get really uncomfortable until the last hour or so. I was in early labor for about 6 hours then moved through active labor very quickly. The contractions started at about 15 minutes apart and gradually increased in frequency. I really didn't have to focus on them too much until I hit active labor. Having the membranes intact certainly seems to have been a factor in how much easier DS2 was to birth.

[JudiAU]

Thanks that is really helpful.  I know that part of the reason for the faster birth with the second was the chiro/accupunture work I had done. I am pretty sure I was in much better pelvic position than my first when clearly there was some weirdness. On the one hand, two hours of labor is better than a long labor. On the other hand, several of my friends have had far more gentle and relaxed periods of good labor and it might be nice to at least try.

[Honey693]

Originally Posted by philomom 


I did the blue ribbon baby diet recommended by Bradley classes. My waters all broke just when the baby's head was crowning. All three times that I gave birth.

I did the same diet and my water broke before labor start in 2 out of my 3 labors.  Those labors were both a lot faster, but much more intense, than my first.