10/10/2025
✨Launch Pod✨
I often use the metaphor with clients that the birthing person is the solo astronaut traveling to the cosmos to bring their baby home and their support team is ground control. Submerging in water can be one of the best tools during what I call "launch time". In a spontaneous labor this is usually when someone is shifting from late early labor to active labor, around 4-6cm. If early labor is like pushing a boulder up the mountain, we're about to get to the summit and staring the roll down the other side (which is quicker and more intense!) In an induction, this may be useful when a balloon is placed and it starts to get intense or when pitocin is running and things are happening.
I love suggesting the bath at this time for EVERYONE, not just people wanting to avoid an epidural. It really helps people settle in to this shift in intensity and helps them get into their labor flow state. Plus it's dark, small, private, and quiet - all elements that our nervous system craves in labor and our labor hormones enjoy.
And if you still are getting an epidural, it's a great place to hang while you get the fluids!
There are 3 tub rooms at Burdett Birth Center, one St. Peter's, and one at Bellevue. Make sure you ask for a tub room when you get admitted! If they are full at Burdett and St. Peter's, there are blowup pools that can be brought into any room.