Water Birth

More Women are considering a Water birth and why shouldn’t they? Water is Natural and women have been giving birth for a very long time….

There are a number of ways to bring your baby into the world, you may choose to deliver in the hospital, a birthing center, or at home. where ever the location, more and more women are choosing water birth as the way their babies enter the world. The earliest record of a water birth was in France in 1803, when a woman, after 48 hours of labor, was encouraged to enter a bath by her physician, Fifteen minutes after immersion, the woman delivered a healthy newborn into water without interventions or complications. The first recorded water birth in the United States was in 1980 when a woman gave birth underwater to a healthy baby after only 90 minutes of labor. Church (1989) reported the first 483 women to have a water birth at The Family Birthing Center in Upland, California between February 1985 and June 1989. There were no neonatal complications in the 483 water births.

So, why are so many choosing to have a water birth? Most of the time when you think of “birth” you think of “pain” and when you think of “water” you just might think “hydrotherapy.” During a water birth you will be submerged in water while laboring and birthing your baby. You may also labor in water then get out of the tub to deliver your baby. The purpose of water, pain relief! Let us think of the word relief. It means, a feeling of reassurance and relaxation following release from anxiety or distress. Now, let us think of water. Water is natural and relaxing. Water is life.

Studies revealed that women who labor in water may also have a lower cesarean section rate and Women who birth in water also report higher birth satisfaction. Additional benefits are increased mobility. When your able to move freely you can work through the pain. Reduced need for analgesia or anesthesia, because water is a natural pain reliever. Decreased likelihood of perineal tears. Labor progress by diminishing stress and best of all, greater levels of patient satisfaction of how their births were more natural and less of a procedure.It makes perfect sense that more woman are choosing this very way to birth their babies.

-Article written by Ashley Morrison

Successful Water birth 06/27/2020 @ Antelope Valley Birth Center

View clips of her water birth here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b7Ltn0w1DI