Hi
With both my labours my babies heartrates dropped. Were you induced forst time round??
I only ask because induction can lead to distress for the baby. I was told initially that this was the reason for my first baby's heart rate dropping. i was induced and had a reaction to the pessary which sent my uterus into overtime with contractions practically running into one. I gave birth lying down legs in stirrups.
With my second I had her at home and was in the bath for quite a time. Her heartrate also started to drop and obviously no induction this time round. However as soon as I stood up her heartrate came back to normal. My midwife believes it is the shape of my pelvis at a certain point which affects the baby's heartrate (squeezing them too much) and the change of position to standing up helped - may be relevant to you. In a birth pool you can kneel and still be covered by the water so that could be an option.
The problems with pushing could have been because your body wasn't actually ready to push or could have been because you were tired. Second time around my contractions slowed right down. i got in the bath and felt like I needed to poo (TMI) so I did some small pushes it wasn't until I actually got out of the bath and was standing up that the real need to push actually happened. You can tell because (although this is not the case for all women) you actually start to involuntarily grunt and sound like an animal, it took nearly two hours after the contractions slowed for me to get to the actual pushing stage. I didn't have this with my first and was told to push - it was possibly before my body was actually ready to.
The bath was really good for pain relief and lots of people think it is a good way to give birth.
With regards to the spinal. I had one after I had my first baby because I had a nasty tear which needed to be stitched in theatre and I didn't think it hurt at all.
Good luck with whatever you decide.
