As I was pondering how to handle testing (or not) of Group B Strep, we began to set other plans in motion for a home VBAC, or HBAC. My primary focus was on setting up the birthing tub. Our midwife said her favorite (lucky) tub was one that was six feet around, which sounded enormous. I knew I wanted the tub for labor, but was unsure whether I wanted to actually give birth in it. I thought about the origins of water birth, how in some tropical climates women would have waded in the ocean during labor. I also saw how strongly my midwife encouraged the use of the tub.
We made arrangements with another family who had the tub on loan(that home birth went swimmingly)and were ready to pass it along. The dad dropped off the tub, which was broken down into a large box and several hockey bag-sized duffles. I nagged my husband for days to set it up, which he finally did, in the baby's room upstairs. And then we realized that in our ancient house, with 130-year-old original faucets, no modern hose would connect with them so we could fill the tub!
Eventually, we rigged a board and hose and used gravity to accomplish the job but my husband sat there for hours directing the water into the tub. We treated the water, ran the motor to heat the pool to a safe temperature and put a lid on it to make sure the 4-year-old didn't go for a dip when we weren't looking. I couldn't wait to get in the water, as even our deep clawfoot tub was no longer big enough for me to submerge my entire belly.
8 comments:
I don't know if more babies are in your future, but, a friend of mine got the nice gents at her local fire department to come over and fill her tub.
What a cool idea! I'll have to remember that with my upcoming home birth. :)
Can I just say one thing about the tub? HUGE! I'm glad I saw it after the fact. My son-in-law gets a big pat on the back.
Genevieve- what a great idea! They just stuck a hose through the window???
When we went to pick up our tub for our first birth from Waterbirth International, we got there only to realize the box would not fit in our car! We ended up taking my inlaw's truck to get it, which is ironic, since they always thought I was a weirdo for wanting a home birth. Now that I think about it, I have absolutley no recollection of how it got out of the house. All I know is the part of my garden where they siphoned the water into after the birth has always been very lush.
As far as I know they just went through the front door. But a window would probably work too!
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