STM: short labor, birthing pool & backup support
cyprissa
member
Ok, so I've got a few questions...first I know every labor is different but last time I had a 6hour labor and started in full active labor with contractions only 2-3 mins apart. The midwife was not able to fill the tub at the birth center in time. I'm doing a home birth this time and debating on whether or not to order a pool...thoughts?
Next, my husband is away until 2 weeks before my due date and I'm having a hard time figuring out who to have as backup support. I'm not close with my mom at this point and no friends really stand out. I'm nervous about not having anyone though. I will have a birth assistant working with my midwife and she is also a trained doula so I will have support and last time the midwife who caught my baby (same practice) was really good with comfort measures but I'm not guaranteed to get her this time.
Re: STM: short labor, birthing pool & backup support
I would rent the birth tub just in case. My births have all been very different and my third was actually my longest to date (20 hours), so it isn't a given that your second will be shorter than your first.
What you can do is have your birth tub set up and ready to go so that all DH has to do is start filling when you give him the green light. That's what I plan to do this time. Last time we waited to have him set everything up until I went into labor and that part took almost as long as the actual filling. This time the tub will be in the corner of my bedroom once I hit full-term.
Try to brainstorm a few backup support options. I see you're in Alexandria so I can guess which practice you're with and if it's the same one I used, try to get in writing what their policy is on having a support person. They might require you to have some one other than the birth assistant there for you, but either way you want to know and not have the policy changed on you at the last minute.
I had kind of a bad experience with a last minute change. One of their midwives called me after the 37 weeks appointment reading me the riot act about the plans I had agreed to with the head MW months prior. If I had known, I would have tried to get it all written down well ahead of the delivery window.
Sorry you had a bad experience. When did you deliver with them? i dont know any of the midwives now except the 2 founders which makes me a bit nervous. You are right, they are going to make me have a backup support person. I just can't come up with anyone even though I know they won't have to do much except make sure that I'm ok after the birth. It's not like I don't have friends but I can't really picture any of them in that setting. Most of my good friends don't have kids and of the ones who do either had c-sections or live too far away. Ugh....We have the WORST timing ever!
I delivered a year ago. The midwife who gave me a hard time, and was also really rude to my husband, left the practice a few months later. Most of the ladies seem nice but I just felt a little duped because one of the founders is very laid back - told me various things were totally acceptable & that I didn't have to decide much ahead of time - while the other midwife and some of the junior MWs have a more exact sense of what they can and can not work with. Now that I know the practice better, of course I realize how I could have managed it but as a newbie, I took for granted that if the head midwife said something was OK, that it was and that she would stand by her agreement with me.