My experience with a Birthing Chair…Does it speed up Labor and Delivery

Someone asked me about my experience with a birthing chair that I mentioned in my post about my 7th Birth Story.  I ended up writing a super long response so I thought I’d share it as a post just in case anyone else was also curious. Here is my response to her question:

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Thanks so much! I really appreciate you taking the time to comment on my post. To answer your question, the birth chair my midwife brings with her is basically a modified toilet seat on a chair, but it doesn’t have a back so someone braces you from behind (my husband did that). The picture I used in my title graphic is actually how I was positioned on the chair, with the midwife in front, and my husband bracing and holding me from behind.

I think it’s better than sitting or laying on your back on a bed because everything is more open for the baby to just move through quicker. The pressure of laying on your back or sitting on a bed kind of closes that space up more. I’d say a birthing chair is like a birthing stool.

Here’s a link to some birthing upright facts and birthing chair/stool rental. According to the research, birthing upright actually does improve the quality and length of time you are in labor. I’ve seen these, but never tried them. I did consider getting one of these before my midwife told me she had something similar.

This is a birthing stool I found on ebay. I had looked at getting one of these, but when my midwife told me she had something similar I figured I’d just go with what she had instead of spending more money right then. It seems they are a bit hard to find anyways, and fairly expensive if you ask me. But I’m pretty sure the expensive birth stool/chair from ebay would be a more comfy option than the hand rigged birthing chair my midwife had, haha.

I personally wanted to just squat, but my legs felt like jello. My other idea I wanted to try was to lay on my side and prop my leg up on the blue peanut ball. I reasoned that I would be more able to relax, and the peanut ball aligns and opens your hips in an amazing way. Alas, delivering with the peanut ball method remains an untried theory for me.

But I wrote a post mentioning the birthing balls, and I included a great video from labor and delivery nurse, Mandy Irby that just released a course yesterday. Her videos are very well done, and I recommend checking out her course and her youtube videos. She knows her stuff and is the reason I bought a peanut ball. That thing really helped me that last month of pregnancy, especially with my hips, and aligning my back. If you’re interested you can find her new class here. And her youtube channel is here.

All the best to you my dear. I definitely am enjoying baby Destiny, I wake up next to her every morning and think of how I don’t deserve to be so blessed, and just thank God so much. It’s an amazing thing to meet this little person that has been with me so many months and to see her face and be able to kiss her and see her smile at me. I love it.