Breaking your own bag of waters?

[Mommyintraining2]

On another thread someone mentioned the need to break their own bag of waters, or have someone else do it. I'm wondering how you would go about that?

[DreamsInDigital]

At the end of pregnancy I can barely reach my own vagina let alone be able to reach far enough up there to break the water bag. I don't know how it would be possible to do it yourself! Also I would be concerned about the chance of cord prolapse so it is not something I would consider to induce or augment labor during a UC.

[Mommyintraining2]

Originally Posted by DreamsInDigital

At the end of pregnancy I can barely reach my own vagina let alone be able to reach far enough up there to break the water bag. I don't know how it would be possible to do it yourself! Also I would be concerned about the chance of cord prolapse so it is not something I would consider to induce or augment labor during a UC.

I agree, it's not something I would plan on doing either. But someone mentioned the need to in their particular births and I am really curious how it would be done.

[augustacherri]

I have had this done or done this with all three of my labors. In each case, I was about 9 cm with a big anterior lip and was stalling out in a great deal of pain. Something about the waters bulging seems to keep the baby's head from fully pressing against my cervix. I don't know if it's some sort of anatomical thing with my body or what.

With my first UC (second baby) this state lasted for about 4 hours of really intense pain. It pretty much completely resolved and the baby was born within 20 minutes of breaking the water. In hindsight, I totally wish I had broken the water earlier. The relief from the pressure was wonderful. In all three cases, the baby's head was well engaged in the pelvis and low and I was standing, thus lowering the risk of prolapsed cord. UC #2, I got to where I was starting to feel that same sensation I had felt in UC #1 and I decided to do it again (I had at this point a large anterior lip again). Baby was born 30 minutes after rupturing my membranes.

In both my UCs, DH has broken my water at my request. With the first one, he used his fingers to guide a pair of hemostats in and just caught the edge of the bag and pulled. We weren't prepared beforehand to do it, so that's why we did it that way. With my second UC, I thought it might be a possibility, so I purchased an amnicot from InHisHands.com for my birth kit.

The amnicot basically looks like a small condom with a tiny little nub on the end. You roll it over your finger and reach in and it snags the bag and ruptures it. DH just put it on and reached in with one finger and pulled once he snagged the membranes. It was easy because I had a bulging forewater. It worked like a charm and the nub that snags the bag is very small and dull. I was actually surprised it worked as well as it did. You could also purchase an amnihook for this purpose--looks like a crochet hook. That is what they usually use in the hospital.

[Multimomma]

I mentioned earlier in the vaginal check thread that my dh breaks my waters. Baby is always totally engaged and I'm usually a seven or eight by then. Chance of prolapse is very low, in fact, my midwife said most prolapse is caused by medical professionals breaking early to promote unready labor. I would never do it to start labor.

My bag is very tough, during one of my hospital births, the OB actually broke three instruments trying to break Breanna's water. I don't particularly desire to birth the entire baby within the sac, although I know some do. Breaking of the water is very much a relief for me. Dh usually gets two fingers up there, pinches and pulls with the thumb nail to tear the sac. It is bulging enough that I could probably reach it even with a big tummy, but it gives me the heebies

Hope this clarifies

[Isarma]

We could've easily broken mine - bulging bag, he was born in the caul - but I'm so glad we didn't. It didn't feel right and I wanted to just alllow it to happen naturally.

You don't have to break them! Babies born in the caul are a wonderful thing.:

[amberskyfire]

My baby would have been born in the caul, but when I saw the bulging bag of waters, I thought for some reason that if I broke it, the baby would sort of slip-and-slide out. Heh, that didn't happen A couple of tablespoons of water came out and that was it. I wish I had left it alone so she truly would have been born in the caul.