Water Baby

This image makes me sleepy. It is from the book "The Water Babies" by Charles Kingsley and photographed by Zena Holloway.

In last weeks birthing class we talked about coping mechanisms during labor and one of the things was soaking in the bath and the other was sitting in the shower. We can use water for easing pain and making ourselves a bit more comfortable. We can also use the tub to have a water birth. I like that idea. If the baby is anything like Mike it will be appropriate to enter the world underwater - Mike is like a fish - he could be in the ocean or lake all day. I'm more of a sand crab - I like chillin' on the beach and dipping in the water for brief amounts of time. It also seems appropriate because babies in the womb have been "swimming" around in the amniotic fluids for 9 months or so, so to enter from one wet place to the next is a nice transition I'd think. The birth center has a thermometer just for the tub to make sure that it is not too cold or hot (it shouldn't be above body temperature.) Our instructor said that if we end up doing a water birth that once we give birth we should get out of the water to deliver the placenta, otherwise things will get really...RED. She also recommended getting back in the tub after we've delivered the placenta or if we didn't give birth in the tub getting in there after the birth with the baby and having some of our first moments there in the water since the umbilical cord is still intact and not healing up yet. She said that you can hold the baby's head and have it sort of float on it's back. It sounds so peaceful to me. I was thinking about it while I was driving to work today and really visualizing that scenario and I started to cry. Big, salty tears slid down my face just thinking about how lovely that would be.