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Your Choice to Waterbirth
The term water birth refers to women laboring, and sometimes birthing, in a pool of warm water. This can be a bathtub, a labor pool which is made specifically for that purpose, a kiddie pool or many other things.
Many women feel that being in the warm water is comforting, relaxing and helps to ease the discomfort of their contractions. The buoyancy of the water also helps mothers to be able to change position more easily which can also help to ease discomfort and speed up labor.
Our midwives are very experienced with monitoring baby during labor with mom in the water, checking for dilation in the water and catching the baby in the water. If we catch the baby in the water he/she will be brought to the surface immediately.
Claire Wilson
Benefits
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Helps to keep mom relaxed which can make labor more comfortable.
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Helps to keep tissues soft to reduce/prevent tearing.
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Bouyancy makes it easier for mom to change positions which can help labor progress.
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Being in water can help mom feel like she has more privacy, allowing her to better focus on birthing and reduce fear.
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Has been shown to reduce the stress hormones which can slow labor.
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Mimicks the amniotic environment and can reduce the stress of the birth transition for baby.
Claire Wilson
"When a woman in labor relaxes in a warm deep bath, free from gravity’s pull on her body, with sensory stimulation reduced, her body is less likely to secrete stress-related hormones. This allows her body to produce the pain inhibitors-endorphins-that complement labor. Noradrenaline and catecholamines, the hormones that are released during stress, actually raise the blood pressure and can inhibit or slow labor. A laboring woman who is able to relax physically, is able to relax mentally as well. Many women, midwives, and doctors acknowledge the analgesic effect of water. Thousands of these mothers state they would never be able to consider laboring without water again." - Waterbirth.org
Claire Wilson
Learn More
For several informative video interviews of Barbara Harper and Dianne Garland, two of the world’s leading experts on waterbirth, please click here.
You can find Waterbirth International, founded by Barbara Harper, at www.waterbirth.org
There is an excellent FAQ page at bellybelly.com.au which addresses questions about safety, what water birth is like, what prevents baby from breathing under water and how baby is monitored during a water birth.