Sunny Gault
planning on having a water birth? Well, how do you prepare and what should you expect? I'm Sunny with New Mommy Media and today I'm joined here with Cheryl Furer. She is a midwife and educator and founder of Your Thriving Pregnancy. Cheryl, thanks so much for joining us today.

Cheryl Furer
Thanks for having me, Sunny.

Sunny Gault
Cheryl, let's talk about what a waterbirth is. I feel like we need to do some definitions here at the top. So how would you define waterbirth? For someone who may not be familiar with it?

Cheryl Furer
Sure. So waterbirth is giving birth in the water. It might differ from laboring in water and laboring in water might include the shower or a bathtub, or a fourth pool. In some places, it might even include wild areas of water like river or ocean swimming pools. And a water birth is the physical act of giving birth in the birth pool or in the in the water.

Sunny Gault
Okay, does a mom have to be fully submerged? You know, we see some of the pictures of moms and these big tubs and stuff like that is that typically what happens

Cheryl Furer
that's how you get the most relief from a water birth. So if you are submerged, with your abdomen completely underwater, and maybe even most your breasts are half your breast, it really helps take the weight off of your back and helps relieve the contractions. So I have had people buy like kiddie pools for water birth. And they were and as some of our your listeners know, kiddie pools can be quite short and to submerge your whole pregnant belly into kitty bowl can be quite a trick. So the water birth pools that I bring in my practice in that most work centers, and even hospitals have are pretty deep. And so you so you can really submerge your whole abdomen and your top half as well. Okay?

Sunny Gault
When you say kiddie pools, I'm thinking of those old, the old school plastic ones. I'm thinking I don't know how comfortable that would be. But I think they've advanced past that, though. And you can at least get the blow-up ones that probably are a little bit more comfortable. Cheryl, what should moms do to prepare? So if they kind of have it in their head that they're going to do this? Like, what are some of the things that they need? And how do they prepare for this experience,

Cheryl Furer
moms should definitely check with their care providers. So that would be my number one tip is to see what your care provider has in terms of a waterbirth. And then what their recommendations are to prepare. So if you're having if you're planning a home birth, then your midwife may have a birth pool that you can rent. And then they may have you purchase hoses or tarps to protect your carpet, you'll definitely want lots of towels, if you're planning for that, if you're planning a birth center birth, and they may have specially installed waterbirth tubs, which are really beautiful. If you've ever taken a tour of a birth center and looked at their tubs, they're just like really deep, submerging tubs. And then if you're planning a hospital birth, they may also have those deep submerging tubs, they may have other options as well. And if you're planning a hospital birth, you might also want to ask how many birth tubs do they have? I know that some labor and delivery units only have one birth tub. And so if it's been occupied, and that's what you have your heart set on, then you may want to, you know, see what other options there are, maybe you can labor in the shower, or some other ways to get that water verse, or at least laboring in water feeling to help relieve the labor pains.

Sunny Gault
Yeah, that's a really good point I didn't think about because obviously, a lot of women don't know when they're going to give birth, it just kind of happens. And it's not like you make a reservation, you know, at a hospital to go in there. And even if they did have some pools available, or some rooms that had, you know, the supplies and everything that they need, it may not be available. So I guess that would be one thing to mention to moms is to say maybe you know, you want to think about if that if this is something that's really, really important to you when there's no way to reserve which I don't know how you would reserve something like that at a hospital than maybe doing something in a birthing center or home birth might be a better way to just make sure you get exactly what you're looking for. Sure What typically happens during a water birth, how would it vary from a standard birth at a hospital or something like that.

Cheryl Furer
They're often able to be in their own space. And what I mean is that you know, when you're on a hospital bed, or you know in any other birth setting, you know, you might have people who are very close to you. And then there might be your support people. But when you're in a water birth tub, you can have your partner in there. But you can also have the privacy of being in a birth tub. So even though there, there are going to be other people in the room, you can really get that private moment of being able to go inward during the contractions during your searches. So that you can really relax in between. and that's usually what I stress to people in labor is that I want you to relax completely in between the contractions. So a water birth can really help women just let it all go and completely release themselves, if you will, to the water. And so that is a really nice feature of water births, they can also have less interventions due to water birth. So if they're actually going to birth in the water, there's conflicting studies about this, but there's potential that you may tearless. And that might also be because there's less hands-on your peronism as you're giving birth, which allows the person who's giving birth to really like center in their own body and not push too hard through their tissues. And the baby emerges, and what happens then is the care provider, either helps bring your baby up behind you, or sometimes we can like shuffle the baby between your legs, and you can bring your baby up yourself if you wind up giving birth in the water. So it's really a lovely experience to support someone who's laboring in the water. And for women who are birthing in the water. They often report that they just feel calmer, and they're able to relax better. And they feel like they have a little bit more control over their body even though it's still the surrender of birth. So it's just a nice feature if your care provider has it. And it's available to you.

Sunny Gault
And I've seen some of those videos online that even after the baby comes out for a little bit, it's like they're swimming underwater. Yeah, that is like the coolest thing to see.

Cheryl Furer
Yeah, babies are born with a dive reflex. And so because they're coming from a space that is amniotic fluid, it's a fluid-filled space. When they're born into water, they instinctively don't take a breath. underwater, they wait until their face emerges out of the water. And there's theories that there are little oxygen receptors on their skin. And that's how it triggers them to start breathing. And it makes sense with the diving reflex. Because when they're under there, they'll just swim to the top. I mean, you want to help them too, right? Hey, let's get you out of there. But, you know, it's just really sweet to see them emerge and bring them on.

Sunny Gault
It's just it's amazing what our bodies can do. You know, like you were talking about what could be on their skin just so your body knows when you know to take its first breath. I'm always amazed by the whole birthing process. So thank you, Cheryl, thank you so much for being with us today. Guys. If you want to check out Cheryl's business and learn a little bit more about what she does, her website is yourthrivingpregnancy.com, so be sure to check that out. And while you're at it, head on over to our website, which is newmommymedia.com. We have podcasts, we've got videos, we've got blog posts, everything you need for really the first five years of you and your baby's life. So check that out. It's where real moms talk about real life.