Laboring in water

Laboring in water

Some hospitals and birthing centers offer tubs or whirlpools for laboring. If yours does, talk to your health professional about laboring in water. The warm water supports your body and helps you to relax. Among large groups of women, this has been proven to:¹

• Reduce labor pain.
• Reduce the use of or need for pain medicine.
• Lower the mother's blood pressure.
• Help some women move along a slow labor and avoid a need for forceps, vacuum, or cesarean delivery.²

Some time before you are ready to push your baby out, you will have help getting out of the tub.

Delivering in water

A water birth is described as a "gentle birth" for the mother and baby. There is limited experience with this technique in the American medical community, and few studies have been done. One study has reported no major safety concerns.³ But there have been case reports of newborn drowning, near-drowning, infection, umbilical cord breakage leading to severe blood loss into the water, and pneumonia.^{4, 5} While these events are thought to be rare, very few water birth studies have been done. This leaves unanswered questions about how often water births become life-threatening for the baby.⁶

The benefits of water birth may be greater, and the risks lower, for the mother than for her newborn. Overall, women's blood loss is less than during a non-water birth, and episiotomy and perineal tears may be less likely to happen.⁷

If you are thinking of a water birth, discuss it with your doctor or nurse-midwife.⁸

Citations

1. Cunningham FG, et al. (2005). Dystocia: Abnormal labor. In Williams Obstetrics, 22nd ed., pp. 495–524. New York: McGraw-Hill.

2. Cluett ER, et al. (2004). Randomised controlled trial of labouring in water compared with standard of augmentation for management of dystocia in first stage of labour. BMJ, 328(7435): 314–320.

3. Gilbert RE, Tookey PA (1999). Perinatal mortality and morbidity among babies delivered in water: Surveillance study and postal survey. BMJ, 319(7208): 483–487.

4. Nguyen S, et al. (2002). Water birth-A near-drowning experience. Pediatrics, 110(2, Part 1): 411–413.

5. Bowden K, et al. (2003). Underwater birth: Missing the evidence or missing the point? Pediatrics, 112(4): 972–973.

6. Cluett ER, et al. (2005). Immersion in water in pregnancy, labour and birth. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2). Oxford: Update Software.

7. Geissbuhler V, Eberhard J (2000). Waterbirths: A comparative study. A prospective study on more than 2,000 waterbirths. Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy, 15(5): 291–300.

8. Gilbert R (2002). Water birth-A near-drowning experience. Pediatrics, 110(2, Part 1): 409.