[apmommy76]

Can you tell me what keeping the bag of water intact has on the pain experienced by mom during labor?? My water didn't break until Loralei was actually BORN. I didn't want any interventions and am now wondering if I would have experienced less pain if I had let them break my water a bit before I started pushing...I remember feeling a bit relieved when it broke.

I may be pregnant and had a very difficult time with the pain last time (totally natural) and am wondering if that made a difference.

 

[Emilie]

My understanding is that having your water intact is very good. I would not have anyone break my water.

I wanted to have a natural childbnirth so that i felt in control. it sounds like with all the people around there was a loss of this?

was the birth center attatched to the hospital or freestanding?

 

[shellbell]

From what I've read and heard... the contractions are more intense if the water is broken. It's gentler when the bag of waters is intact. However, statistics say that the labor can be shortened if the water is broken... because the babies head would be pushing harder against your cervix... wouldn't have that fluid as a cushion.

Personally, I wouldn't opt to get my waters broken... unless my labor was taking an unusually long amount of time.

 

[arlecchina]

mine was broken as part of an induced labour. as bad as induced back labour while forced to lay on my back was, breaking the water made it a million times worse.

 

[apmommy76]

Oh I am SO glad I had this support system. A little bit of background..I was scared to DEATH of childbirth in general which is why I let them give me so many drugs the first time. When I got pregnant again, I knew the drugs were bad so I went to a birth center.

I can't tolerate much pain and even though I WAS in control I remember crying and begging for help and saying I wanted drugs. I couldn't even change positions because I was in so much pain. I didn't want to move. My doula was wonderful as were the others but it was really traumatic for me.

I'm very squeamish about stuff and always have been. You should see me when they have to draw my blood...I freak out. So childbirth for me was extremely difficult.

It was a freestanding birth center. I was allowed to eat/drink. Wear my own clothes. Call the shots. I was totally in control but IT HURT BAD.

 

[laohaire]

I don't know about the mother, but keeping the bag of waters intact must make it much better for the BABY. The cushion of water around the baby's head helps protect it from the contractions. I sure wish my baby had that protection; she really went through a lot with so much labor and pushing.

 

[Emilie]

Oh mama? I hope you dont think i am grilling you! I am just trying to understand better as to better support you! Like lets see what could have been different and then reccomend different. It sounds to me like you did everything you wanted and it still really really sucked.

My birth I kept expecting it to get worse- while it sucked- I had imagined so much worse( my first labor was in a hospital- tied to a bed- 1-3 cm was excrutiating! until i got the epidural!)

So my whole 2nd labor was much better than 1-3 cms.

FWIW- I think you know what you want. If it is not worth it to you- you can have an epidural!

It was not that I wanted the pain- at all- or even that I wanted what was best for Alaina- I did not want to deal with an sOB or bitchy nurses and I would be damned if someone was going to take my newborn baby to cry in a nursery for 3 hours so they could observe him/her.

I knew that if I transfered I would get the epidural. It was not about the labor as much for me as it was to be in control and me be the boss.

As a survivor of trauma it was also very healing for me.
I do NOT think it is bad if you opt for a hospital birth. At all. for me the pain of sitting in a room away from my newborn baby was worse than labor- ya know.

hugs, i am thinking of you- as we are done too..... but i am not sure if i am not pg right now too! yikes!

 

[apmommy76]

Thanks for your response. My biggest fear going in was that I would be transferred and would end up giving birth in a hospital. Or that I would need a c-section! So if I look at it that way then things went GREAT!!!!!

So you might be PG too? Keep me updated!!!!

 

[Emilie]

YES- NURSING IS VERY PAINFUL..,.... i have tender gums- very tired....

we'll see.

 

[Kidzaplenty]

Quote:

Originally Posted by apmommy76 Can you tell me what keeping the bag of water intact has on the pain experienced by mom during labor??

I have had a PROM birth, an "almost" born in the cull (sp?) birth, a totally dry birth (water leaked totally out before labor and I did not know it), and several broke in transition births.

Basically, the pain (or intensity) for me, was the same. My "almost" born in the BOW baby was just as intense as all my other births. And her bag was bulging and did not break until seconds before she was born. However, I know she would have been born an hour earlier if we had broke the water (but her labor was only 4 hours, so, why rush it?).

 

[etoilech]

In my own anecdotal experience, labour was easier with my waters intact. Pushing with waters intact seemed harder. The circumstances of both births were very different though, so it's hard to say what was the contributing factor.

My son was born at 29 weeks at the university hospital. Labour started at 27 weeks and stopped for two weeks, then commenced with PROM. The labour was difficult, very painful (but short). I was on my back, mostly until the midwife asked if I wanted to stand and I did which signaled DS to commence his decent. I went back to the bed and pushed him out. I found pushing easy, compared to labouring.

My daughter was born at home, full term, in the water. Labour was easy. I got in the water late. Nearly didn't phone the midwife, b/c it didn't feel like I was far enough along. I was. Contractions were ok. Not painless but, really not bad. Pushing hurt terribly. My waters broke right before she was born.

Just some anecdotal evidence for you to consider. lol

 

[jul511riv]

labor is gentler on the baby and mother if the waters are intact. (there is a cushion for the babys' head...of water...and the same cushion on the mother's cervix so that it isn't babys bone head ramming against tender cervix over and over again)

chance of infection or exposure to an STD or other bacteria in the birth canal is pretty much 0% if the waters are intact.

This is baby's natural environment from conception onwards, so theoritically it should be more natural and easy on the baby and less tramautic before birth. All resulting in a calmer baby (and by extension mother) in those early weeks. Also better chances of baby nursing and so forth because it was all so gentle and anti-traumatic.

I refused having my bag of waters broken. They broke naturally as I pushed dd out. I woudl have loved to delivered her in the sac totally intact. "like a pearl" as my midwife said once, after delivering such a baby.

Having the bag of waters broken only makes labor 15-20 minutes shorter, statistically speaking. Not so much worth it for all that extra pain and trauma, IMO.

Be well.

 

[Full Heart]

Having done it both ways it seems to be it didn't matter. I had hard labors with water in tact and easy labors with waters broken. When I had a baby born in the caul baby flew out during pushing though. I wouldn't break the waters though because it sets the timer on the clock, can introduce infection, risk prolapsed cord, and interfers with the labor process.