[SarzMH]

Hi ladies,
Ii live in brisbane and am debating between 2 hospitals; Logan or Mater Mothers.
Does anyone know if I am able to have a water birth in either of these hospitals?

[chickenpants]

I don't think you can at Logan, I had my little dude there and we did the antenatal classes there beforehand which included a tour of the birthing suites. There are only showers in the suites, no bath. The midwife did mention a bath in another area of the hospital but they (whichever area it is) don't like for births to happen in them.

[chickenpants]

Ok, so I just googled it and found a list of hospitals that allow it in & around Brisbane.

John Flynn Private Hospital
Royal Brisbane Womens Hospital Birth Centre
Gold Coast Hospital Birth Centre
Ipswich Hospital


You can find out more about hospitals you are interested in by looking at the Queensland Centre for Mothers & Babies site.

Regarding using water immersion during labour and birth:

There is a lot of variation across the state in current practices of using a bath or pool during labour. Only 25 out of 61 birthing facilities have a bath or pool but of that 25, only 12 facilities support women to use it for water immersion.You can find out what facilities close to you offer water immersion in labour by visiting www.havingababy.org.au/birthplace.

How to find out if a hospital or birth centre has water immersion facilities:

1. Follow steps one and two listed on the Birthplace website.
2. In step three click on ‘about pain relief’.
3. When you scroll down to see the results you can click on ‘Show all facilities’ to see all the facilities in QLD.

[tamjk]

I'm not sure about Mater, but Logan doesn't have facilities for waterbirth.
As far as I know the only hospitals with water birth facilities in the area are Ipswich Hospital, RBWH, and Gold Coast hospital.

Ipswich hospital definitely has them, I tried them out with my first born and they were still there with my third. They do strongly discourage you from using them though.

[Alacritous~Andy]

I think the midwife led birth centre attached to the Mater might, but the catchment is very strict, so it depends where you live.

[Alacritous~Andy]

The Mater does have bathes in many of their birthing suites, and showers, so the option of a bath during labour is there, but you have to get out for the delivery.

This post has been edited by Alacritous~Andy: 28/02/2013, 08:47 AM

[redmum77]

I've heard conflicting stories about water births at the mater from mums who went there, one saying they couldnt birth in the bath, the other saying they were allowed. Not sure if that was the private or public though.

One thing might be questioning how experienced the midwives are at delivering a water birth if they don't do them very often. I can't understand why everyhwhere doesn't have the option, it's safer than an epidural from what I've read.

The birth centre at the rbwh do mostly water births, but you might not be in the catchment.

[soontobegran]

One thing might be questioning how experienced the midwives are at delivering a water birth if they don't do them very often. I can't understand why everyhwhere doesn't have the option

There is no particular extra skill required for delivering in water and the reason they are not available in many places has little to do with the safety of the baby but the safety of the mother.
Some hospitals are not well placed with the staff to retrieve an unconscious mum from a bath and this is what factors into their decision to have them or not.