What are the pros of labouring in water?
Relaxation
The relaxing effect of water, with its support and warmth, can help you through your labour. Your contractions may lose their rhythm if you become tense. This means your labour may stop and start without moving on. Being bathed in water is likely to help you go with your contractions, so that they are less stressful for you and your baby.
Being relaxed also helps you to breathe calmly. It means you're less likely to take short, shallow breaths, which can make the pain of contractions worse.
Privacy and control
Once you're immersed in the warm waters of the pool, you're in your own world and can labour undisturbed. If the lights are dimmed and the room is quiet the effect will be heightened. It may help you to feel more in control of your body.
Buoyancy
The water bouys you up and makes you feel lighter. It's easy for you to move about, so you can make yourself comfortable. The best position for you is likely to be one that helps your baby move most easily through your pelvis. A useful rule of thumb is to keep your knees lower than your hips.
Coping with pain
Being in warm water can make it easier for you to cope with the pain of contractions. It's just the same as having a bath to soothe a tummy ache or backache. If you want strong pain relief, such as pethidine or an epidural, you'll have to leave the pool. But you can use gas and air, which is a mild pain reliever, while you are in the water.
Having a birth supporter with you
Hospital guidelines state that you should not be left alone while you are in a birth pool. This means that either your midwife or your labour partner should be with you at all times.
Your midwife may be looking after other women as well as you, which is often the case in a busy maternity unit. So you may have a student midwife assigned to you as well.
Satisfaction with your labour
Using a birth pool for labour is often such a positive experience that many women want to use one again when they have their next baby.
The relaxing effect of water, with its support and warmth, can help you through your labour. Your contractions may lose their rhythm if you become tense. This means your labour may stop and start without moving on. Being bathed in water is likely to help you go with your contractions, so that they are less stressful for you and your baby.
Being relaxed also helps you to breathe calmly. It means you're less likely to take short, shallow breaths, which can make the pain of contractions worse.
Privacy and control
Once you're immersed in the warm waters of the pool, you're in your own world and can labour undisturbed. If the lights are dimmed and the room is quiet the effect will be heightened. It may help you to feel more in control of your body.
Buoyancy
The water bouys you up and makes you feel lighter. It's easy for you to move about, so you can make yourself comfortable. The best position for you is likely to be one that helps your baby move most easily through your pelvis. A useful rule of thumb is to keep your knees lower than your hips.
Coping with pain
Being in warm water can make it easier for you to cope with the pain of contractions. It's just the same as having a bath to soothe a tummy ache or backache. If you want strong pain relief, such as pethidine or an epidural, you'll have to leave the pool. But you can use gas and air, which is a mild pain reliever, while you are in the water.
Having a birth supporter with you
Hospital guidelines state that you should not be left alone while you are in a birth pool. This means that either your midwife or your labour partner should be with you at all times.
Your midwife may be looking after other women as well as you, which is often the case in a busy maternity unit. So you may have a student midwife assigned to you as well.
Satisfaction with your labour
Using a birth pool for labour is often such a positive experience that many women want to use one again when they have their next baby.
What are the pros of giving birth in water?
Working with gravity
Getting into a comfortable upright position may be easier if you are using a birth pool, particularly if you have a physical disability. Being upright gives you the advantage of working with gravity as your baby is born.
It may be easier to push your baby out in the water than in air. You'll be supported by the water and can use the sides of the pool for extra support.
Peaceful birth for your baby
Champions of water birth believe that the transition to the outside world is less traumatic for babies who are born in water.
The idea is that the warm waters of the pool will feel like the waters of your uterus (womb) to your baby. Babies born in water are often calm, and cry less than babies born in air.
Satisfaction with the birth
Women who have water births generally say they have had a positive experience. They say a water birth is particularly helpful when it comes to the pushing stage.
Getting into a comfortable upright position may be easier if you are using a birth pool, particularly if you have a physical disability. Being upright gives you the advantage of working with gravity as your baby is born.
It may be easier to push your baby out in the water than in air. You'll be supported by the water and can use the sides of the pool for extra support.
Peaceful birth for your baby
Champions of water birth believe that the transition to the outside world is less traumatic for babies who are born in water.
The idea is that the warm waters of the pool will feel like the waters of your uterus (womb) to your baby. Babies born in water are often calm, and cry less than babies born in air.
Satisfaction with the birth
Women who have water births generally say they have had a positive experience. They say a water birth is particularly helpful when it comes to the pushing stage.
What are the cons of labouring in water?
Infection
There may be a risk of infection in a birth pool. As you push out your baby, you may open your bowels. This is entirely normal, and debris will be quickly cleaned out by your midwife. But it does introduce the risk of infection. However, birth in air is not sterile either and most babies will take on organisms from their mother's bowel during birth.
Research hasn't found any difference in rates of infection between women who give birth in water or in air. Hospitals have strict rules about cleaning pools after each water birth. They do regular checks to ensure that the pool is left hygienic after each use.
Unpleasant environment
You may feel uncomfortable about accidentally opening your bowels as your baby enters the world. The idea of the midwife having to sieve debris out of the water to keep it clean may be unpleasant to you. But remember that midwives are quite used to this. You need not worry on their account.
Disappointment with pain relief
You may find that being in a birth pool does not make contractions less painful. If your plan was to spend most of your labour in water, it could be demoralising to have to get out so that you can have drugs, such as an epidural, for pain relief.
Monitoring and emergencies
You may have to stay out of the pool if your labour develops complications. Having to get out of the water and change the course of your labour may be upsetting for you. You will be asked to leave the pool if:
Most water births go smoothly, but if an emergency does arise, it may take time to get you out of the pool. Even so, midwives are trained to deal with emergencies. They'll have ways of getting you out as quickly as possible, and getting you the help you need.
There may be a risk of infection in a birth pool. As you push out your baby, you may open your bowels. This is entirely normal, and debris will be quickly cleaned out by your midwife. But it does introduce the risk of infection. However, birth in air is not sterile either and most babies will take on organisms from their mother's bowel during birth.
Research hasn't found any difference in rates of infection between women who give birth in water or in air. Hospitals have strict rules about cleaning pools after each water birth. They do regular checks to ensure that the pool is left hygienic after each use.
Unpleasant environment
You may feel uncomfortable about accidentally opening your bowels as your baby enters the world. The idea of the midwife having to sieve debris out of the water to keep it clean may be unpleasant to you. But remember that midwives are quite used to this. You need not worry on their account.
Disappointment with pain relief
You may find that being in a birth pool does not make contractions less painful. If your plan was to spend most of your labour in water, it could be demoralising to have to get out so that you can have drugs, such as an epidural, for pain relief.
Monitoring and emergencies
You may have to stay out of the pool if your labour develops complications. Having to get out of the water and change the course of your labour may be upsetting for you. You will be asked to leave the pool if:
- monitoring your baby's heartbeat shows that there is a problem
- your labour is progressing very slowly
- you start bleeding during labour
- your blood pressure goes up
- your baby's first poo (meconium) is detected in your waters
- the pool water gets very dirty
- you feel faint or drowsy
Most water births go smoothly, but if an emergency does arise, it may take time to get you out of the pool. Even so, midwives are trained to deal with emergencies. They'll have ways of getting you out as quickly as possible, and getting you the help you need.
What are the cons of giving birth in water?
Baby starting to breathe under water
You may be worried that your baby will inhale water with his first breath if he is born in a birth pool. However, healthy babies have way of protecting themselves, called a "dive reflex". They instinctively close their airway, stopping them from breathing in water.
Your midwife will also monitor your baby during your labour to make sure he's getting enough oxygen. There is no evidence that babies born in water suffer from breathing problems any more than babies born in air.
Experts believe that babies are only at risk of inhaling water if:
Risk to the umbilical cord
The way water births happen means your baby will be brought quickly to the surface, head first. This will enable him to start breathing as soon as possible. Because of this swift movement, there have been a few cases where the umbilical cord has snapped.
You may be worried that your baby will inhale water with his first breath if he is born in a birth pool. However, healthy babies have way of protecting themselves, called a "dive reflex". They instinctively close their airway, stopping them from breathing in water.
Your midwife will also monitor your baby during your labour to make sure he's getting enough oxygen. There is no evidence that babies born in water suffer from breathing problems any more than babies born in air.
Experts believe that babies are only at risk of inhaling water if:
- they are startled during the birth so that they try to breathe air
- their head is brought to the surface before the rest of their body is born, overriding their dive reflex
- their oxygen supply via the placenta is affected in some way
Risk to the umbilical cord
The way water births happen means your baby will be brought quickly to the surface, head first. This will enable him to start breathing as soon as possible. Because of this swift movement, there have been a few cases where the umbilical cord has snapped.
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