'Birthing' ball advice needed

telly-addict

I bought one (as I did loads of other stuff as a first time mum), sat on it in the lounge a bit, rocked backwards and forwards and did all the stuff my NCT teacher told me to. Took it to the hospital too, and it never got used. I had a very complicated assisted delivery and I was glad to see the back of the thing!

I sold it on Ebay. I'm not sure if it helps getting the baby into the right position etc.... Mine was sold as a birthing ball but the packaging also said it was an exercise ball.
Short answer - don't bother IMO, if you do, don't spend loads. There's probably still loads of them on Ebay. Spend the money on a Tens machine instead, that with gas and air works wonders!

Lillibet_2

Forgot to say check with your hospital if you are having a hospital birth, mine has one in every delivery room so I am going to rely on that & not worry about getting one for home. HTH

telly-addict

Jay-Jay wrote:

Yep and you'll probably then need a synthetic hormone to keep your contractions up, a monitor strapped to your belly as you'll be classed as 'high risk', a drip in your hand....'just in case', maybe some fluids and maybe even a ventouse or forceps (not to mention after effects like headaches and back pain...and a nice blood patch to fix them)

Worse case scenario but 'OH so common' on our delivery suites nowadays.

Stick to the ball

Some mothers have to have a ventouse delivery even when we didn't have an epidural. Then we have a 1.5 litre post partum haemorrhage (PPH) that requires a 4 unit blood transfusion. All the NCT (and similar) opinions you express that are anti-intervention go a long way to make mums that need this assistance feel very guilty afterwards. Some of us physiologically will need help, some won't. All the birthing balls in the world won't make any difference.

I am grateful for the assistance and intervention I received, it probably saved my baby's life, and the immediate assistance after my PPH didn't do me any harm either.

I am aware this is off topic, but the sarcastic smilie after ventouse deliveries
made my blood boil.

Jay-Jay_4

telly-addict wrote:

Some mothers have to have a ventouse delivery even when we didn't have an epidural. Then we have a 1.5 litre post partum haemorrhage (PPH) that requires a 4 unit blood transfusion. All the NCT (and similar) opinions you express that are anti-intervention go a long way to make mums that need this assistance feel very guilty afterwards. Some of us physiologically will need help, some won't. All the birthing balls in the world won't make any difference.

I am grateful for the assistance and intervention I received, it probably saved my baby's life, and the immediate assistance after my PPH didn't do me any harm either.

I am aware this is off topic, but the sarcastic smilie after ventouse deliveries
made my blood boil.

First I'll say that I had an epidural with my first baby and was 'just' about to have an episiotomy for an assisted delivery when her head came out, so that wasn't a sarcastic smilie.

My references to interventions are largely based on World Health Organisation (WHO) guidlines and are based on fact rather than anecdotal evidenceto the positives and negative of medical interventions on low and high risk births.

I am fully aware that not all assisted deliveries are because of epidurals but the fact is that most assisted deliveries are down to lack of mobility and the administration of drugs to augment labour. Unfortunatey, epidurals are largely responsible for both of these factors which is why I 'now' dislike them.

I agree that there are times when an epidural is essential and the unfortunate side effects are outweighed by the benefits to both mother and baby.

I don't know the circimstances of your delivery and subsequent PPH but I would imagine that I would be very grateful for some syntometrine, had the same thing happened to me. I'm not saying that all drugs and intervention are bad, I'm saying that for a low risk pregnancy the use of drugs is in fact more likely to lead to intervention when a little more informed choice could have made a difference in what route a mother decides to take regarding pain relief.

<

---

not sarcastic

skylight

Crikey - Sorry I mentioned an epidural now.........................

Jay-Jay_4

charlotte664 wrote:

Crikey - Sorry I mentioned an epidural now.........................

:rotfl: .............

telly-addict

charlotte664 wrote:

Crikey - Sorry I mentioned an epidural now.........................

So am I! Only joking. I considered myself very well informed about pain relief and everything else and I still had to have a lot of assistance. Who can tell what a low risk pregnancy is, until actual labour?

Jay-Jay_4

telly-addict wrote:

So am I! Only joking. I considered myself very well informed about pain relief and everything else and I still had to have a lot of assistance. Who can tell what a low risk pregnancy is, until actual labour?

You're considered as low risk if you've had a problem free pregnancy and if any previous deliveries have been problem free.

'Most' women are considered low risk but as soon as you have an epidural you're considered as high risk and that's when your options are considerably reduced.

For example: You're being timed as soon as the needle goes into your back, there's only so much time that they can give you before the baby 'has' to come out. After an epidural you may need constant monitoring which then means that you're confined to a bed. The lack of mobility can slow down labour which means that you need to have a synthetic drip to speed things up. You're no longer in control of your body and pushing is difficult when you can't feel the pains or urge to push, then they come in with the ventouse or forceps.

I'm not blaming ANY woman who has to have intervention, I blame the lack of information given out to Mums to be, that an epidural is the easy option. It's not easy and can cause even more problems for the Mum and baby, not least the feelings of guilt afterwards.

rach1973

I got the Tesco's own cheapy standard sized one for my 2nd as I had him at home.

He was laying back to back.....so I was told from about 37 weeks to rest on my hands and knees to try and get the baby to swing round, this ball was great for leaning on - more comfortable than a chair.
Couldn't tell you if I used it during my contractions or not - it was just one big blur.

Plus I used it after to get back into shape :rotfl: I'll get there eventually!!!

s@sha

Thanks for all the replies everyone... and for the good luck wishes! Baby isn't due till sept 3rd, but I'm beginning to feel fat & a bit uncomfortable & achy...I know, I know it's only going to get worse!...which is why I thought a ball might help at home.

So it seems a cheapie one will be fine for that then, and probably the standard 65cm one, if Jay-Jay found it OK then I should be OK as we're the same height.

As for the labour itself, well I'm keeping an open mind about it all at the moment. I have a few ideas about what I think I 'might' like or not like to do...don't really want to have an epidural (if possible), would like to try wallowing in a birth pool (if possible), don't really want to be induced or speeded up with that drip that makes your contractions harder & more painful (if possible)

Notice there's a lot of 'if possibles'!

That's because I know ideally it would be nice to sail through on nothing but gas & air (& birthing ball) but it's my first experience of labour, so I'm not ruling anything out as I don't want to get rigid ideas about how it will go & then be upsetting myself if things have to change at the last minute.
Thanks again..off to Ebay now to look at birthing balls