My water birth: 'She literally just floated up in front of me and I put her on my chest'
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IN LABOUR, standing beside the Coombe Hospital’s birthing pool this summer, Keeva Redmond asked her midwife: “How does it work?”
While the 32-year-old loved the idea of birthing in water, she had never believed she would have the option and so had not researched it. “I knew about water births through TV shows but I thought it was a thing on telly – something beyond my reach.”
Had she known it could be possible, she “absolutely would have made it number one” on her birth plan.
The Co Meath-based mental health nurse went into labour in the early hours of her due date last June. In bed, she realised “this is definitely, undeniably the waters breaking”. After getting her husband Gavin to ring the hospital, Keeva took things slowly.
“I wanted to take a deep breath and go slowly with it. Through contractions, I had a shower, washed my hair. I was like ‘Take it easy, take a breath, go about it nice and slowly’. The contractions started coming quicker – I thought we do need to get going now.”
In the Coombe by 3am and 1cm dilated, it was felt “things might happen quickly”, so Keeva was advised to remain in hospital. “I had no desire for pain relief beyond gas and air. I wanted to be able to feel my own body, what I had to do.”
Keeva laboured for up to eight hours and then her midwife – who had been “popping in and out”, reassuring her throughout – said the birthing pool was available. “She said she’d been observing me and thought I’d be a really good candidate for the birthing pool – would I like that?
“I was nearly in tears. Until then I thought I’d be giving birth on a bed. Suddenly it was like someone had clicked a button and there was a reset. I thought bring it on, I’m so ready. I’d been through hours of labour – and it felt like it was really starting now. I was so excited.”
Responding to Keeva’s poolside question about what she should do, midwife Deirdre Davitt told her to hop in the pool in her own time, to follow her body and do what was comfortable. “It was like getting into a bath at home. It was so lovely, simple and easy. The water was tepid, so comfortable. Before I got in the pool I felt hot and uncomfortable, like I was doing a marathon, constantly looking for a cold face-cloth or a fan to be put on me.
“In the pool, I found my own position – the lower half of my body in the water, my elbows leaning on the front of the bath. I had the gas and air held very tightly in one hand, my other hand was holding Gavin’s. I was conscious of letting gravity do the work.
“I knew Deirdre was there. She didn’t speak – she was so gentle and subtle in everything she did,” says Keeva, recalling how Deirdre explained, prior to her getting in the pool, that this was a very hands-off approach, that she would be in the room but Keeva and Gavin would be in charge.
“The only ‘instrument’ she had was a mirror so she could make sure the baby was coming down correctly.”
Keeva was concerned about quite long gaps between her urges to push. “Deirdre explained, ‘It’s just your body pushing your baby down the birth canal and doing it gently – it’s what we want to see, these slow urges and taking your time’. She explained I was getting ready for the active pushing stage.”
Admitting she had dreaded this stage, Keeva says in the end it was like being able to give into a craving. “It was nearly like a release to do it. It was just amazing... it was like my body had completely taken over and knew what to do. And Deirdre was saying ‘Yes, this is it, your baby’s coming – your baby will be here in the next few pushes’.”
Baby Chloe was born two hours and 20 minutes after Keeva got in the pool. “When she came out she literally floated up in front of me. I just picked her up and put her straight onto my chest. It was absolutely incredible.”
Fourteen of Ireland’s 19 maternity hospitals have birthing pools but currently only three offer the water birth service: Wexford Maternity Hospital, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda and the Coombe. “We’ve had water births in the Coombe since 2014. Up until Covid, 200 women had a water birth, though a further 400 laboured in the pool,” says Coombe midwife Paula Barry, HSE national lead in water birth services, as well as national lead for water immersion with National Women and Infants Health Programme (NWIHP).
Wexford Maternity Unit has approximately 50 water births a year, while between June and October 2023, Drogheda and the Coombe combined had 24. Water birth is for low-risk pregnancies, Barry explains. “Women at term — 37-42 weeks — where baby’s head is down and there are no signs of infection in mum or baby.”
When it comes to safety of mum and baby, Barry says all high-quality, robust research shows at least the same outcomes for water births as for ‘land’ (non-pool) births. In fact, she says, a 2022 study published in the (exa.mn/BMJ-water-birth) showed better outcomes for some aspects - for example, women had less pain and higher satisfaction rates because of the enhanced control they experienced.
“All the research says water births reduce pain and therefore the need for pain relief, for epidural. There’s less intervention, a more natural approach. Women labour well and usually don’t need the drugs or all the drips and drains — with epidural, you have an IV canula and a urinary catheter. You’re on a monitor on a bed. All interventions you wouldn’t have in water because you’re labouring well — women call water birth ‘a natural epidural’.”
Barry describes meeting women in the ward post-water birth. “They’re on a natural high because they’ve done it themselves without medication.”
Babies benefit too because when women birth in water, they’re often the first to touch their baby. “Mothers’ natural instinct is to gently pick their baby up, with midwife support, and bring the baby to their skin. Next thing they’ll do is put baby on their breast because they want to breastfeed.”
A water birth is gentle, quiet. “You never hear ‘come on, push, push …’ It’s very silent, relaxed, calm. The mother knows when to push because she hasn’t had epidural. She instinctively goes on all fours. It’s instinctive birth. The woman is in control, feels very empowered, and the partner feels involved.”
Angela Dunne, national lead midwife with the NWIHP, says midwives want to work with water birth because they are experts in normality. “[Normality] is what they trained in. Water birth fully utilises the midwife role of the midwife.”
Midwife Deirdre Davitt, who looked after Keeva Redmond, enjoys facilitating water births. “We see so much high-risk care that it’s nice to facilitate low-risk. With water birth, we stand back a lot. We allow the physiological process and let the woman lead her own labour.
“It’s very relaxing, serene women have a positive birth experience and feel very empowered where they’ve needed minimal intervention or guidance.”
Dunne says the water birth service is not provided equitably across Ireland. She confirms plans for developing national guidelines and standardised training for all maternity units. “I’d hope that by next year we’ll see an increase in numbers of units providing water birth services.”
Keeva recalls how within minutes of giving birth, she stood up, baby Chloe at her chest, and stepped over the side of the pool. “I’m not for one second saying the birth wasn’t very, very painful, though the gas and air took the edge off. I was exhausted. But I had no grazes, tears or stitches. I’d done perineum massage during pregnancy, but I know in my heart the water birth helped the delivery and just eased everything.”