Latest / The Birth Lounge Podcast / Ep. 480: What would you do if your waters broke right now?

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Ep. 480: What would you do if your waters broke right now? · The Birth Lounge Podcast

• Your goal is to, no matter what comes your way in labor, you understand your options and you know how to have these conversations, and that's ultimately how you stay in control of the decisions that are made.
• Because you know the information so much so that you have the right questions to ask, you are able to have these conversations with your provider, and you don't feel like a deer in headlights.
• 0:23
  You don't feel really anxious.
• You don't feel out of breath or shortness of breath or like, "I'm so scared to ask this question."
• Or sometimes you just don't even ask it because you're like, "I don't know how to phrase it," or, "I'm too scared to ask something," or, "I don't wanna be an annoying patient."
• Hello, and welcome to the Birth Lounge Podcast.
• You guys, so much fun hanging out always.
• I have such a fun episode for you today because I have something really cool launching.
• If you follow me on Instagram, you know I have been teasing it, and we've got something that is, like, so...
• Ugh, I don't like to say life-changing 'cause I don't, I don't know.
• I don't love life-changing, but, like, this is going to be a true game changer, like a real pivot in terms of how you prepare for your birth.
• I'm not gonna tease you too much 'cause I'm gonna tell you about it at the end.
• But it does go along with today's topic, and I wanted to ask you something.
• If your water broke right now, like right now, literally where you are, what you're wearing, whatever you're doing, whoever you're around, would you know what to do? I'm sure right now you're, like, scanning through all the things in your brain of, like, "Okay, what have I learned so far on social media, and what have I learned so far?" Maybe if you've taken a childbirth ed class or, you know, what have I seen in the movies and that handout that my, uh, my hospital gave me when I first registered, but that was weeks ago, maybe even months ago at this point.
• Like, what does all of this mean? How do I put all of this into my head? Well, like, would you call your doctor? Would you go to the hospital? Would you leave wherever you are? Are you at work? Are you driving? Are you headed to an event? So let's say you went home.
• What would you do? Would you get in the shower? Would you eat? Would you go back to sleep? Would you start timing things? Would you go to the hospital and then you would have a discussion about Pitocin? What would you say in that discussion? What kind of questions would you ask? What kind of things would you be considering? What if you weren't even having contractions yet, then would you still go to the hospital? Would you still want Pitocin? When I tell you that preparing for your birth is deeper than just sitting in a class and learning the what's, like what does it look like when your water breaks, um, what kind of things should you look for when your water breaks.
• It's really deeper than that, you guys.
• It is a full conversation, right? Because your water breaking is information.
• It tells us about your labor.
• It tells us that things are happening, and because labor can happen in a variety of ways, the things that your body does, those are clues, and it kind of helps us pinpoint where on this intricate map of the labor process are we currently And that's why it's so important that, yes, you can identify when your water breaks because you've learned that in a childbirth ed class, but deeper than that, you need to know how to have this conversation.
• Sometimes the information that you are gonna make your decision on is gonna be dependent on other things that are happening in your labor, and so that throws these little, you know, pivots in the conversation.
• And a lot of people will call them, like, hiccups or kinks in the chain, and I really don't think about them like that.
• They're not like speed bumps.
• They're not there to slow you down.
• They're just simply a variation of labor.
• So back to my first question, if your water broke literally right now in this instant, would you know what to do? Okay, well, the first place that I would recommend starting is, did your water actually break? When you're super pregnant and you're, like, at the end of pregnancy, it can sometimes be really hard to tell if it is mucus coming out of you, if you peed yourself a little bit and just didn't feel it, or did your water really break.
• A really fun thing to know about your waters and I learned this years into being a doula, and it blew my mind, and it still blows my mind every single time I think about this fact.
• I'm still like, "Wow, that is so freaking cool."
• So your amniotic sac is actually made up of two layers, the amnion and the chorion, and those two layers can release at different times.
• And so sometimes your waters can break, but it's not all of them.
• It's just that first layer.
• And so later in labor, you'll get an even bigger gush, and you're like, "Whoa, now my waters are definitely broken."
• You know, the first thing that you want to kinda check is that TACO acronym.
• If you follow me over on Instagram well, if you don't, what are you doing? But if you do, then you're probably familiar that I teach TACO, time, amount, color, and odor when your water breaks.
• And these are really good indicators for you and your own knowledge but also for your medical care team.
• You're gonna wanna tell your doctor or your midwife, um, whoever's checking you in at triage, about TACO whenever your water broke if your water is already broken when you arrive at the hospital.
• The next question I would probably ask is, how's your baby doing? So one thing that kinda gets a little, like, blurred online is that people have all sorts of opinions on what babies should be doing in labor, and the data is very clear.
• Your baby should be moving as normal.
• We should not see much variation from them from their normal patterns.
• If you have a longer labor, your baby may be tired.
• I mean, you're gonna be tired, too.
• But they shouldn't be, you know, completely not moving.
• We don't want to see them being erratic either.
• We want them to kind of- follow their same pattern that they have always followed If anything feels concerning to you or even intuition-wise, if you feel like something is off, you should go in.
• Also thinking about how far along you are.
• So if you are not past that thirty-seven week mark, that's usually your hospital's gonna have you come in automatically.
• Um, that would be a baby that had not quite made it to term yet, and thirty-seven even is considered early term.
• So if you really wanted to have a deep conversation with your provider, that's something that you could ask them is, "You know, if my water breaks before thirty-seven and thirty-eight when I'm still early term, what is your recommendation that I do?" And then you get to consider what they say, consider what your goals are, and then make your own choice after you think about the risk and the benefits of both of those Some other things you wanna think about too when it comes to you and your baby's health, things like significant bleeding, not normal.
• Immediately head to the hospital.
• Things like fever, that can indicate a infection in your body or with your baby.
• Sometimes those layers that I just talked about, the chorion and amnion, and even your amniotic fluid, can develop infections, and that can be very dangerous for your baby, but also for you, too.
• If you're having, like, super severe unusual pain, now, of course, labor is intense for sure, and it is, um, you know, it's uncomfortable.
• I'm not even gonna...
• I'm not gonna lie to you.
• There were places where I was really just, I don't even know, it's like on a different planet with the amount of pain.
• But it, it never, like, crippled me to my knees.
• It was never excruciating.
• I was...
• It never felt torturous.
• It felt like something I could handle.
• And so if you are feeling something that is bigger than you can handle, you should probably head in to the hospital because, again, labor's intense, but it should not be something that is just, like, debilitating in the level of pain that you're feeling.
• Decreased fetal movements, very concerning.
• I just talked about that.
• The fluid, remember, that's part of TACO.
• And then also cord prolapse.
• So this is where your cord comes down before your baby.
• So typically, the first thing to hit your cervix and then to exit your body is your baby's head.
• Sometimes we see it be things like a fist in, you know, breech babies, obviously, it can be feet or butt.
• But ideally, with a head-down baby, the first thing that we see is their head.
• If you were to see anything protruding from your body or you feel as if, uh, you might be looking at a cord, that is considered an obstetrical emergency, and that would be something that you would actually call 911 on.
• You should talk to your provider about this and how to identify it.
• The riskiest time for this is when your water breaks, and so that's why I wanna mention it in this conversation.
• Once your water has broken and your baby's kinda settled down into your pelvis, the risk is substantially lower.
• But until your water has broken, you just wanna be very mindful of when your water does break, what, if anything, is, is kind of in your vagina.
• Can you see? Hopefully it's a head.
• That would be ideal And if not, then you have all of these questions that you need to ask.
• And again, this is kind of where that regular childbirth ed, the traditional childbirth ed courses just leave so much, I wanna say, like, to be desired, but it's really not to be desired.
• It's like there's a true gap in education because now you know how to identify a cord prolapse.
• You know how to identify too much bleeding.
• You know how to identify what it should look like when your water breaks.
• But no one teaches you your options beyond that, and that's what I do in the Birth Lounge.
• I really want you to understand, like, now what questions you should be asking, and now what does this mean for the rest of my labor? Are there any decisions that are impacted? Are there any shifts that we need to make from what I had originally expected from my labor? One of these things that always trips people up is like, what happens when your water breaks and then you don't have contractions? That happened to me, and we just waited for contractions to come.
• It happens in a good percentage of births.
• We're unsure, like, how many exactly, but it's a fair amount.
• Enough to need to know what to do if that happens to be you Now, the next thing I would ask yourself is not really a question, but ask yourself to remind yourself about what your preferences are around your waters breaking and going into the hospital.
• Did you have a preference for staying at home, or did you have a preference for going into the hospital? Now, if you went into the hospital, if you decided to go into the hospital, then you have two options there.
• Expectant management, where you are just waiting for labor.
• You can, you know, hopefully you can eat.
• Hopefully you've had that conversation because we know the data's very clear, you should be able to eat during labor.
• Eat.
• You're gonna rest.
• You're gonna take a shower.
• You're gonna just be hanging out.
• That's expectant management.
• A lot of times people will choose to do that at their home.
• Or you have the option of induction.
• And you know, induction at this point is not good or bad.
• It just is a question of does this align with how you want your labor to go? The other couple things to know about going into the hospital at this point is gonna be, obviously, you're gonna be subjected to vaginal exams that you wouldn't have if you were at home.
• And then sometimes, which we know this is outdated, but it hasn't been updated in every single place, i.e.,
• not all hospitals follow this, but some hospitals are still putting you on what they call, like, the 24-hour clock, and they expect to see your baby in 24 hours, and we know that some labors just simply don't progress like that.
• That's just literally not real.
• Like, I don't really know how else to say that.
• Like, not all babies are gonna be born in 24 hours, and that's okay.
• It's just not...
• That's not realistic for all labors.
• Um, and so you wanna be sure that you kind of understand that.
• If you were at home, would there be this time clock put on you? If you decide to go in the hospital, how will you kind of keep that in the forefront of your mind and navigate conversations around the timing of your labor, how long it is, how short it is, you know, how much further you have to go? These are all the conversations that I step you through because I don't want you to get into labor and not know how to have these conversations.
• A lot of people are teaching you like, "Yes, having a baby within 24 hours is not real."
• And then you get into labor and they're like, "Okay, you're coming up on 24 hours."
• And you're like, "Yeah, that's not real."
• And they're like, "Okay, but you have to do this.
• We, our policy says that."
• And you're like, "Uh, okay.
• Now where do I take the conversation?" I'm teaching you where to take that conversation Okay, you guys, I have just a few more.
• I know I keep being like, "Okay, and this, and this," but that's literally what I mean is, like, every single thing that happens in your labor is a conversation.
• There are questions that you need to ask yourself to make sure a couple of things.
• A, are you following your plan that you want? Are you having these discussions so that the people around you are helping you get the birth that you want? As your birth changes and things happen and your birth transpires, are you still the one that is making the decision? No matter what that looks like, and, you know, not everything in your birth is gonna be ideal.
• That's just nature.
• That's the natural progression of labor.
• Your job is not to, like, control those things or to make sure everything is ideal or even that you feel happy about everything.
• Your goal is to, no matter what comes your way in labor, you understand your options and you know how to have these conversations, and that's ultimately how you stay in control of the decisions that are made.
• Because you know the information so much so that you have the right questions to ask, you are able to have these conversations with your provider, and you don't feel like a deer in headlights.
• You don't feel really anxious.
• You don't feel out of breath or shortness of breath or like, "I'm so scared to ask this question."
• Or sometimes you just don't even ask it because you're like, "I don't know how to phrase it," or, "I'm too scared to ask something," or, "I don't wanna be an annoying patient."
• I'm gonna teach you how to have these conversations where you're not annoying.
• You're literally just having a conversation, and that is your right.
• You know? You wanna be the one that's making the decisions so that when you have your baby, you can look back and be like, "This was so cool.
• I made all of my decisions and I got a great birth."
• And I want that for you.
• Okay.
• Can you eat? That is a question that always comes up about after your water breaks.
• Yes, of course.
• I mean, please eat.
• Again We want you to be nourished and fueled so that your uterus can work efficiently and so that you have the energy and the stamina to continue to labor no matter what your labor asks of you and be able to push your baby out.
• Now, taking a bath always comes up as well.
• I am a big fan of baths, hydrotherapy.
• You know, I think if you're at your house and you know that your tub is clean and it's your own personal germs for sure.
• Um, if you're birthing at a hospital, I hear so many women be like, "I don't wanna get in a tub that so many people have also been in."
• And I really...
• That is so valid.
• I really want you to hear me when I say, like, I hear you.
• I get it.
• Um, I think a couple of things.
• You could always ask your provider and just double-check, hear them say that they clean it between each patient.
• I know they do.
• Hospitals have to be clean.
• But maybe it'll be helpful to hear your, your doctor say that, or even ask your nurse, you know.
• When you get there, you can say, like, "I just wanna double-check that this hospital or, you know, that this tub has been cleaned since the last person was in it."
• Your nurse is gonna say, "Of course."
• You can always bring your own, like, wipes or your own spray if you wanna clean the tub.
• You could ask your partner or your doula to do that If you feel like getting in the bath after your waters have broken is gonna cause you more anxiety than it's worth because you're gonna be preoccupied in, you know, getting an infection, or am I getting an infection from this tub, then just stay out.
• You could always take a shower.
• That's another really great way to take advantage of hydrotherapy, but you don't have to be submerged in a tub.
• And then some hospitals are gonna have, like, birth tubs, like, big, nice birth tubs, and that's awesome.
• Sometimes you hear hospitals say you can't get into the water after your water breaks because they don't want you to get infection, and then I would simply just kind of revert back to that first question of, like, when's the last time this tub has been cleaned? Has it been cleaned since the last person used it? And if so, then, you know, then you get to decide are you okay taking on that risk.
• And if you are, you can say, you know, "Thanks for having this conversation with me.
• I feel A-okay taking on the risk of that so I'm gonna get in the tub."
• Okay, I kind of think that wraps up my thoughts on the things you should ask yourself and kind of know about your water breaking.
• So if we go back to that very first question, did you know what to do if your water had broken 20 minutes ago, 30 minutes ago, however long I've been talking and yapping at you? Did you, like, really know? Or did you think like, "Oh, yeah, I'll just go home," or just like, "I'll just go to the hospital"? Or did you think, "Oh, gosh, I hope, I'm so glad that's not true 'cause I don't wanna, I don't want that to happen right now or right here."
• Like, did you really know what to do? Now I want you to think about if, what if you were like at home when your waters broke? Would that have impacted any of the decisions that you had made And what if you had already been having contractions when your water broke? Would that have impacted any of your decisions? Maybe.
• That's a big one Here's the thing about birth.
• It's literally impossible to teach it on a checklist.
• There is no, like, magic list of 47 facts, here you go, memorize them and you're gonna be all good.
• Or like, you know, here's a flip book of all the things that your partner needs to know.
• Good luck.
• Like, it's not like that, you guys.
• There, there is like a process to labor and something happens, and then you have all these discussions and you have all these decisions.
• And the best way that you can make this a smooth experience, one that you enjoy, one that you feel supported in, one that you can walk away and be like, "Wow, I was able to make all of my decisions autonomously and confidently, and the people around me loved me and supported me through that, through the entirety of that entire process.
• They made me feel so seen and supported, and I got to do what I wanted, and my baby and I got to work together," I want that for you.
• But the key is, you have to have the knowledge, yes, which I feel like you can get that on social media.
• But the thing that's missing is actually knowing what questions to ask, not only yourself, but your providers and the people around you.
• That way you can make these informed decisions, but it's not based on 90-second clips or something that you learned in an eight-hour Saturday class.
• It's genuinely real conversations that you're gonna have in your pregnancy, and it's the back and forth, because it's not just...
• It's not enough to just know what you're looking out for.
• You have to know how to have discussion around it so that you can be the one that's making all of the decisions in your birth and you're not being robbed of that autonomy.
• And that is why I created Labor Live.
• You guys, this is what I've been working so hard on.
• I'm so excited.
• It's the first ever interactive birth simulation So for three days, I'm gonna be taking you through an immersive birth simulation in literally real time.
• Like, as things progress in the simulation, you're gonna get notifications to your app that says, "Hey, your water's broke."
• And then you're gonna go into the app and see a conversation that may happen in your labor, and we're gonna talk about your options.
• We're gonna talk about the questions that you should be asking, and you get to do this with so many other women.
• Do you wanna know something that I kept thinking about in my own pregnancy? I thought about this, no lie, like almost every single day, and it was so cool, and I wondered in pregnancy, like, "Will I think about this in labor?" And do you know, in those long moments, I did.
• That was millions of women all over the world every day are having babies.
• Like, we're literally all in labor at the same time as someone else at some point.
• And when my labor got really hard at some places, I would be like, "All right, but I'm not by myself.
• Like, there are so many women who are doing this, and I would not let them give up, so I'm not gonna give up."
• And I wanted to bring that feel to Labor Live because not only do I think that labor is such a sacred event that if we can share it and learn from other women who are doing this alongside us, I think it will restore so much power in birth that has been stripped away by making this such an isolated event.
• You know, don't talk about it, don't share your stories.
• Everyone births separately in hospital rooms, and it's very sterile.
• And then you just see these other moms and dads passing in the hallway, and it's this, like, little glancy smile like, "Mm-hmm, hi."
• And then you're back into your own rooms where, oh, my gosh, that does not have to be our experience.
• People can, you know, love on you, and you can be in this community feel, and you can have people take care of you, and you can have people that you can ask questions to, both before and after your baby gets born, and I want to bring that to you.
• So labor starts on September 1 And we are gonna practice confidently navigating labor I'm gonna help you take all those random facts that you have gotten and learned and put them into an actual plan, and then we're gonna practice using that plan.
• We're gonna practice using different phrases.
• We're gonna practice navigating your options as your birth unfolds.
• That way, when you go into your labor, you've already done this a time or two.
• You kinda know how the ropes go.
• Now, of course, this was not real-life labor and you weren't having contractions during that time But you have already practiced speaking up for yourself.
• You have already practiced asking the right questions.
• You have already practiced thinking through your options and what you might want to do.
• Throughout the entire Labor Live experience, we're gonna be unpacking your decisions together.
• I'm gonna be teaching you what you wanna consider at each of these decision points, and then you're gonna walk away with tools in your actual birth bag that are going to implement all the things that you learned in childbirth education or scroll on social media.
• So if there were moments in this episode, or maybe it happened the entire episode and you were like, "Wait, what would I actually do at that point?" That's exactly what you're gonna do inside of Labor Live Labor Live gives you a chance to practice before it's really your turn.
• Head to thebirthlounge.com/laborlive
• to sign up And I will see you on September 1st when labor starts Thank you so much for tuning in today.
• I love hanging out with you, and it is an honor to be your go-to gal when it comes to preparing for your baby.
• If you've enjoyed today's episode, please leave a five-star review and tell others why they should be listening to the Birth Lounge Podcast too.
• You deserve to have a birth that you love with a provider that values your autonomy and respects informed consent without all the trauma that you so commonly hear about on social media.
• New episodes air every Wednesday and Friday.
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• I'm HeHe, and this is the Birth Lounge Podcast.