# No bath after water breaks? What about birth tub?



## Phoebe (Jun 12, 2003)

I ask this because I keep reading that once your water breaks, no baths becasue of risk of infection. In my last labor, my water broke right away and I was allowed in and out of the birthing pool many times. Why was that ok?

Amy


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## accountclosed3 (Jun 13, 2006)

typically because the pool is cleaned. if you clean your bath tub with the proper solutions, then your bath tub would be fine too.

most people don't clean their bath tubs frequently, so unless you cleaned your bathtub first--then bathed--it wouldn't make a good birthing pool.

women who utilize their bathtubs as birthing pools tend to wash the bath tub thoroughly at the onset of labor and allow no one else in it until after the birth--to reduce the risk of dirt, feces, etc getting into the water/on the tub.


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## BelgianSheepDog (Mar 31, 2006)

The concern is in cases of PROM (prelonged or prelabor rupture of membranes.) So if your water breaks either right before or during active labor, it's less of a concern, so long as the tub is nice and clean.


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## djinneyah (Sep 4, 2004)

hmm..

personally, i think it's fine as long as you don't have any vaginal checks in the water (which does nothing but shove bacteria up close to or past the cervix), regardless of how you clean your tub. you're used to the germs in your own house, so anything that enters the birth canal while you're resting in the water probably won't be an issue. i took a couple baths after my water broke with dd (15 min. before onset of labor), and hadn't cleaned the tub for about a week


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## texaspeach (Jun 19, 2005)

There have been studies done (sorry no link, I think I read that in thinking woman's guide to a better birth) that show that water doesn't flow up into the vagina when you're in the tub. It's an old, out dated rule. Way back when they used to tell women no baths in the last month of pregnancy because they thought the thinning and dilation opened up the path for infection. the no baths after water is broken rule is a left over from that time.


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## Momma Aimee (Jul 8, 2003)

my CNM told me I could soak in our whirpool tub after my water broke.


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## pamamidwife (May 7, 2003)

I would only want to soak in my own tub, regardless of my water breaking! call me silly but any other tub with foreign bacteria, I wouldn't trust! especially in the hospital!

But it is true that it's an old rule. IMO, the safest place for a mom to be with ruptured membranes is in her own home with her own acclimated bacteria.


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## Phoebe (Jun 12, 2003)

Ok, that all makes sense. I love my midwife (she'll be attending this birth as well). She is very sound and grounded and no quack! I knew there had to be an explanation. I thought I'd ask her about it but I don't see her until next week. I'll probably ask her anyway.

Thanks for the info.

Our pool is a fishy pool that we used last time. It's been rolled up in our basement for 2.5 yrs. I guess I need to clean it!

Amy


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## GalateaDunkel (Jul 22, 2005)

We had a brand new inflatable tub which we'd sanitized, and one of the reasons I left for the hospital was that the midwife wanted to break my waters, but she made it clear that the condition of the water in the tub was such that I could not get back in after my waters were broken. And I could not tolerate contractions without the tub (well, actually, I couldn't tolerate them with the tub either, but without it I would have thrown myself out the window). I had been shedding bloody show, mucus, what have you into it for 24 hours, and you could tell by looking that it was gross. (I also refused to get out of the tub for long enough for them to empty, clean and refill it.) Even with my membranes intact, DH was getting pretty grossed out at the idea of me sitting in that water.

On many occasions during my life, I have gotten out of a bath and had a little glug of water come out of my vagina moments or minutes later. Water can't get in your vagina is what sounds like a myth to me. I mean, it *is* an opening.


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## moonfirefaery (Jul 21, 2006)

I have never had a little glug of water come out of my vagina...









but I don't think anyone is saying water doesn't go into your vagina...just that it doesn't flow up past your cervix into your uterus. I mean, I can understand it filling the vagina a bit but...flowing way up inside you with no current or anything? That seems farfetched.


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