Underwater birth

I'm curious too. With my son I had an epidural, but this time I want to try without it, haha.

Had 3x zonder pijnbestrijding bevallen en bij de eerste een badbevalling overwogen, maar ik vond in bad zitten/liggen/hangen alle 2de keren ronduit vreselijk (3e niet eens geprobeerd).

Pin je zelf er dus niet te al te veel op vast, houd er rekening mee dat er veel factoren zijn waardoor een badbevalling niet door kan gaan.

Sorry als ik negatief overkom haha.

I really wanted to do the same with my daughter, but I wasn't allowed out of bed because of pregnancy-induced hypertension and multiple IV drips I absolutely didn't want an epidural either, I was so scared of it, but in the end they did it. But then I went from 0 to 10 cm dilation in under an hour, so they turned off the epidural haha.
Now I want to go for a water birth again, I'll mention that right away during the intake. At our place, every suite has a bath, but in a regular room there's actually a bath where you can give birth.

Had two home births without pain relief. Went great! Last time I wanted to take a bath too, but the baby came too fast. With the new baby, should I set up the bath right away at the first contraction?

I’d also really liked a water birth. But I told the midwife too late, so they were already booked.
You can also rent them online, but I found that too much hassle and expensive for a possible water birth (you really don’t know if it’ll actually work out).

No water birth experience, I had the option but I'm not really a water person. What I do want to share, which is also mentioned above: don't fixate too much on how you want it to go. Sometimes things turn out very differently, and that can be a big disappointment (in hindsight). Try to think: I'd ideally like a water birth and no epidural (or other medication), but the main goal is that you and your baby come out healthy.

I myself didn't use any pain relief for my first (now pregnant with the second) and it went really well. I kept moving, walked around, did hands-and-knees positions, practiced pregnancy yoga exercises, and mostly went with my gut. What helped me a lot was the TENS device that gives small electrical pulses during contractions. It sticks to your back with pads, and when you feel a contraction coming, you press a button and the current flows. It makes the contraction feel less intense. Unfortunately, you can't use it in water, but maybe you can rent (or borrow) one and have it at home just in case the water birth doesn't work out.

A home birth sounds nice to me I showered a lot during my first birth. The biggest downside was that if you wanted to do something else, you had to dry off and get dressed (walking, lounging on the couch, etc.). At one point, when I had to go to the hospital, they even refused to let me get dressed haha. I did it anyway, I think, but I didn't look good xd

Hey Stefanie, I went through my first birth without an epidural, but with my second one I did have one. I can tell you it's very painful and difficult. My husband even said, "I thought you were going to die"—just the way he put it, because he saw me suffering so much. I know I won't be able to do it without next time, since I already know what it's like now. Every woman is different, so it might be more or less painful for you. Wishing you all the best, girl.

I always said, no matter what happens, I don't want an epidural.
So at 16 and 17 I went under general anesthesia for leg surgery.

I made it clear to my husband and midwife during my first pregnancy, so everyone knew. But once labor started and I got a fever in the hospital, things changed.
They transferred me to the OB-GYN. Later I got a contraction storm and stopped breathing, so they called the anesthesiologist for an epidural. Since I couldn't breathe, I couldn't say anything. My husband told the OB-GYN: "I'll wait in the hallway." And the midwife said nothing.

When the anesthesiologist arrived, they tried to place the epidural, but it didn't work well the first time due to the contraction storm, and it turned out the second attempt didn't work either. By the time the epidural was supposed to kick in, I had already controlled the contraction storm myself. Half an hour later I was fully dilated and had the urge to push. I told the OB-GYN, but she said that was impossible. With an epidural, I shouldn't feel that, but she'd check my dilation. I was indeed fully dilated, so they'd empty my bladder with a catheter and then I could start pushing. Despite my pleas not to, because I'd just peed (a minute earlier), they just said that was impossible due to the epidural. Then they said: "Ohhh, your bladder is empty anyway, how can that be??"

For the second birth, I did it completely without pain relief, which was partly due to how fast she was born.

For the third, I had a Pethidine injection, and that was quite nice. If I choose pain relief for this one, it'll be another injection like that, but if it's a smooth birth again, I'll do it without pain relief.

No experience with water birth here. But I did give birth twice without pain relief.
With the first one, I found it quite tough, but I held on using good breathing techniques until 8 cm. Then I really couldn't go on anymore, but I was already too far along for an epidural, so I had to push through. After the second one, I realized my 'mistake' was lying still on the bed.
The second one was very nice and relaxed at home. I stayed active throughout and managed to hold out until the end, even though I went from 5 cm to fully dilated in an hour.

But as others have already said: a birth is really hard to plan and you can't pin your hopes on anything in particular.

No experience with water birth here, since it's not an option where I gave birth. With the first, I asked for an epidural, and while it was bliss on one side, on the other hand, I didn't feel much of the birth. With the second (which was a termination at 24 weeks due to non-viability), I also requested an epidural because I was completely emotional and overwhelmed, and really not in a state to handle a natural birth. With the third, I didn't have an epidural because the birth was so fast that it just wasn't possible anymore. Man, I begged them to take it out; it really felt like too much pain (respect to the women who choose this themselves!). If it's possible next time, I'd like to have a different kind of pain relief where I hopefully won't be as incredibly out of it as with an epidural

Hi! I have no experience with a water birth, but I really wanted to have a bath during contractions. However, I was on an IV drip because my contractions weren't coming fast enough (my waters had already broken for 36 hours, and I had been having contractions every 6-8 minutes for 12 hours, but that was it).

Then, when the contractions finally started to pick up a bit and I was really looking forward to my bath (as much as you can look forward to anything during labor ), I went from 4 cm to 9 cm in a quarter of an hour. I got the urge to push and things got intense. The little one was also in distress, so they had to hurry.

So I'm reading along with you, and I'm also curious to hear others' experiences. I agree with the rest: you never know how it will go, so don't fixate on anything! I really wanted to have a home birth, even without pain relief. But I had to go to the hospital because my waters had been broken for too long. I did have a good cry for a bit, but everyone in the hospital was super kind, and it went well there! It's great that you want to try without pain relief; I hope it works out! Fortunately, it worked for me too; when I really couldn't take the pain anymore, the little one was born after 15 minutes!

I was put in a birthing pool because it didn't work on the bed. My body couldn't handle it until delivery. They let me sit in the pool for two hours and then checked how many cm dilated I was. After two hours in the pool, I was 5 cm dilated. They then broke my waters, and it turned out the baby had pooped in the amniotic fluid, so I wasn't allowed back in the pool. I did give birth without an epidural though.