Many of us allow the stresses of a long day to melt away as we relax in a warm bath. Now imagine the stress of labor melting away in the soothing embrace of warm water. Water enables relaxation, labor is no exception. Water has been known to reduce the intensity of labor, and make a laboring mother buoyant as she moves with ease through the water, but most of all water’s calming effect lends to a gentler birth as baby transitions from its water womb to water world.

We offer the option of laboring in water and birthing in the water if the mother desires. We use the La Bassine, made in water, tub. Each tub has a disposable liner to help with sanitation and cleanliness. The following web site has more information on the La Bassine tub www.yourwaterbirth.com .

Waterbirth has been shown to be a safe option for birth. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this with us further please feel free to contact us.

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A Birth Story
I love reading birth stories.
And here is mine….

On Monday March 21st I was 4 cm dilated. I was technically overdue.

On Friday March 25th we got to the birth center at 5:45 pm.  With a natural induction the midwives will try for 4 hours to stimulate your body into labor. If it doesn’t work, they send you home because your body obviously isn’t ready.

We arrived and had the normal routine check up of peeing in a cup, etc. The midwife inserted more evening primrose oil in my cervix than I thought possible to soften my cervix up even more.  Then I got a spa treatment!  I received a 1 hour massage, and it was pretty nice. The midwives rubbed my feet and stomach with a few essential oils that stimulate labor. There were actually 2 pregnant midwives there who could not be in the room with us, it works that well. They rubbed pressure point on my feet and above my ankles and also my stomach. They also gave me some homeopathics that help to stimulate labor. After the hour massage Luke and I went on a 1.5 hour walk. I was having pressure waves about 4 minutes apart. I was having a hard time accepting that they might be real because they weren’t painful. We got back and I was dilated to a 6 (well, my outer cervix was a 6, my inner was a 3). The midwife gave us the option of going home, getting a massage, walking more, or breaking my water. I chose to go for another walk. This time we walked for about 30 minutes. I was making progress but if I stopped walking the pressure waves (contractions) became farther apart. On this last walk Luke and I talked abut breaking my water and how dilated we wanted me to be before we went this route.  We went back to the birth center and I was slowly dilating more. I think at this point in time my inner cervix was a 5 (gosh details are blurring together). We were still not comfortable with breaking my water so we went out for one last walk. By this time it was close to 11 pm.
 
Almost immediately my pressure waves started getting more intense, even though they were still only about 3 minutes apart. Back at the birth center my inner cervix was 6.5 cm so we decided to break my water. This was about 12:15 am. Almost immediately my pressure waves picked up. The midwives started preparing the room for a birth. By the time the birth tub was filled with water my pressure waves were increasing in intensity. I got in and loved the water. The midwives left Luke and I alone and only came in every so often to check the babies heart beat and make sure everything was okay. Luke and I used hypnobabies again and worked through our birthing time together.  Oh, and for the record laughing really hard through a pressure wave is really really painful.
 
 After about about an hour of laboring I was starting to feel like I was beginning transition. I had small urges to push and a few desires to throw up. The midwives joined us from here on out. Transition lasted about 45 minutes when I hit the end of transition with a glorious barf (or two), I started getting a real urge to push. I changed positions in the tub to get comfortable. With Cora’s birth I felt nothing, this time I think because I hadn’t practiced hypnosis as much I definitely could feel the pressure of a baby making its way down a birth canal. After about 10 minutes of pushing I asked my midwife if there was a baby poking out yet! No such luck. I pushed through a couple more pressure waves and then exclaimed that I could feel the baby coming out. I thought I was being really dramatic but Luke recorded this part, and I now have proof I won’t share with anyone that I was very calm. Out popped a baby head. I pushed more, and couldn’t figure out why the baby hadn’t fallen out by now! I gave a few more hard pushes and out came an entire baby. What a relief. I pushed for 17 minutes.

The midwife pulled the baby out of the water and put it to my chest and wrapped us in warm wet towels.
 
It took a minute or so to really get some cries out of the baby. Perfect heartbeat, just a calm baby.  I promise that’s vernix and not a dying child!
 
A few minutes later I held our baby up and found out we had a GIRL!
It was very exciting
 
I stayed in the tub until my placenta detached and got out shortly after that.
 
We moved to the bed where I nursed our very hungry little girl for what seemed at least an hour.  I finally gave her up so she could get a good looking over by the midwives.
 
 
Luke cut her cord 
 
She got a weighing 
 
3 hours after her birth we snapped one last picture with our midwife and headed home 
 
Start to finish we were there for 12 hours.   I don’t regret this natural induction, had my body not been ready it wouldn’t have happened.  It was a pleasant experience, a calm experience, and a beautiful birth. I know many people think we are weird for having an out of hospital birth, but we love it. We are pampered, well cared for, and have a very calm and peaceful birth experience. Our midwife was WONDERFUL. She never pressured us into anything, and let us make the decisions for our birth. I am grateful for the personal attention she gave me through the end of Cora’s pregnancy and birth and throughout this pregnancy and birth.