I birthed with a woman having her 7th baby who had been told with all her other births that her waters were too tough to go by themselves. She was amazed when at her home waterbirth her membranes went as she started pushing her baby out. I think most of the interfering done with midwives breaking waters is due to their fear of what will happen if you don’t do it.
So here are my fav pictures of what happens if your waters haven’t gone and your pushing. If the baby is born in the caul it’s called an Angel birth. What a fantastic expression.
I have a funny story about breaking waters as I am against any unnecessary intervention. I had a client a few years ago (who has commented on this blog so wave to you lovely) who after a very, very long labour decided with her mum that she would like her waters broken. After lots of umming and ahhring I consented to do this intervention. I don’t condone this but at the same time don’t feel the need to justify my clients individual experience either. Four hours later she had her baby.
When she came to write her birth story, she asked if it was a problem if she mentioned that her waters were broken. I told her that her birth journey was her own and I wouldn’t expect her to change a thing to protect what I may or may not have done.
This was published in the homebirth magazine in South Australia and has since become the most popular issue ever sold. It even led a woman (whom I haven’t birthed with but knows my client) to exclaim that I wasn’t very spiritual. This is now a standing joke with my friends. How my lack of spirituality affects me. The point however was quite serious. Although I can laugh off the comment and the fact that the story was popular and fabulous, I can’t shake off some of the sadness I have about a birth I interfered with.
Rupturing membranes prior to birth can hinder position as it’s acting as a buffer and protector of the baby as it comes through the pelvis. A woman can often be very advanced in her labour at the hospital when rupturing her membranes is suggested “to speed up the labour”. This isn’t effective for more than 80% of women. The membranes are providing pressure and holding the cervix until the baby has moved into position and come through the bag . If they are broken and the baby’s head isn’t just behind the waters (as you can see in the picture above the baby’s head isn’t just behind the waters) then the cervix doesn’t remain stretched open but decreases in size. This can not only cause major problems for the baby but in a hospital when time is of the essence the chance of a normal birth rapidly fade away.
ARM (artificial rupture of membranes) is like any other procedure, interfering with the natural process of birth is a huge intervention which can become part of the well documented cascade.
You can say NO.
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Fascinating. Love the pics! I have just recently been in discussion with a friend who had a completely unnecessary AROM. She mentioned how much more painful contractions were after that, so much so that she ended up having pain relieving drugs when until that point she had been drug-free. The worst bit was that the midwife said “I’m going to break your water now okay?” in the middle of her contraction so it’s not like she was really in a place to be able to refuse it! (Not that I’m disagreeing with your point about being able to say no, but in such circumstances it’s pretty much impossible.) Anyway, thanks for this post, it definitely confirms what I already thought about AROM. Grrr!
I also find it interesting how AROM can become a major source of grief for women when they’re processing the aftermath of an intervened birth. Allowing this normal physiological process to unfold in the baby’s own time is vital to the normal progression of that particular woman’s birth and intervening without consent at that point seems to affect something very primal in many of us. Perhaps the membranes form part of our safety link with our babies, perhaps they are of greater significance on an emotional level than we can predict with our gross ways of measuring such phenomena, who’s to say? I think that the invasion of a woman’s body with the amniohook is also a pretty big assault for those of us who haven’t consented and using an instrument in a woman’s vagina to make her unborn baby unsafe is very psychologically painful. I’ve heard so many stories of membranes ruptured without consent and even some stories of this happening at home, it’s considered such a minor event and yet the repercussions are potentially catastrophic. It really can kick off the cascade and cause so much damage and yet it forms part of the protocols of almost all hospitals. I’m glad that your client is happy with her request being fulfilled but I sympathise with your discomfort about it nonetheless.
Wildmama AKA Looking Glass Alice
http://www.blognow.com.au/lookingglassalice
Processing things I’ve done as a midwife is really important to me so that I can keep learning and growing both in my practice and as an advocate for women’s rights around childbirth. Owning our decisions as practitioners is the only way to reflect and improve.
Discovering and revealing inadequacy’s in ourselves is never easy.
Thanks wildmama, love your work.
I had an arm with the birth of my daughter. We tried it at home but were unsuccessful, after which I was in the hospital for induction of labour as I was 11 days over my due date. And after three unsuccessfull attempts of ARM and inserting gells within a period of 24 hours they finally broke the waters. The labour failed to progress naturally and I ended up having a C-Section. I strongly agree with your post and I wish I would have chosen not to have my membranes ruptured and followed my Midwifes instincts. Even today I wish to go back and change what happened If I could.
I´m so happy to see these pictures! I gave birth to a boy in May 2009 at a hospital i Stockholm, Sweden, and he was born in his caul. The midwife at the hospital didn´t break it until he was out. I never had the opportunity to see him in the caul, because after he was born they opened the "bag" very very quickly. Thank you for these pictures!
ya learn something new every day…i havnt had any babies and it never even crossed my mind about how breaking waters would effect the labour, delivry…i learn so much on this site!…i always assumed hospital birth with drugs ( i am a wimp)…but now i think hey all these woman can do it…and have ben doing it since the dawn of time…maybe i can too!
I’m sure that you can do it. Just the fact that you have been looking for information means that you are half way there already.
I have had two home births. My son was born on christmas 10lbs 10 oz. in 2003 and my daughter 8lbs 14oz June 12th 2009. It was amazing and I loved it. My midwives were wonderful. I hope home birth makes a come back. It was so nice to eat move and laugh my way through labor. People are amazed and tell me how brave I am. I think the women who have hospital births are brave. Especially if they did their homework. I just happened apon your page and just wanted to share. Keep up the beautiful work.