What's the benefit of birthing in water?

Why is it that women are choosing water as a medium to labor and give birth in?
Well, here are just a few of the benefits:

• facilitates mobility and enables mom to assume any position which is comfortable for labor and birth
  
  
• speeds up labor
  
  
• reduces blood pressure
  
  
• provides significant pain relief
  
  
• reduces the need for drugs and interventions
  
  
• reduces perineal trauma & eliminates episiotomy
  
  
• encourages an easier birth for mom & a gentler welcome for baby
  
  

Two questions I am asked when discussions arise about water birth are: Is it safe for babies? What happens if they take a breath underwater?

FACT: Babies don't take a breath until their cheeks make contact with cool air. Trigeminal nerves in this area of the face sense when the face is immersed in water & sends messages to the brain. The brain responds by inhibiting breathing, decreasing heart rate and redirecting blood to the brain and heart. This reflex prevents babies from gasping for air underwater. Once those nerves feel cool dry air then baby takes a breath.
Additionally, the newborn isn't under water for very long as mom wants to hold baby so usually she/he is brought up into her waiting arms only seconds after birth.
As well as babies not taking a breath until their face feels cool dry air,  a number of other factors inhibit babies from breathing underwater at birth:

• prostaglandin levels are high at the moment of birth which causes the baby's muscles for breathing to not work
  
  
• newborns are sensitive to temperature so they are stimulated to breathe by the cooler temperature of air compared to the warm womb
• Check this link with the latest information regarding water birth: http://evidencebasedbirth.com/waterbirth
  
  In Vancouver, water births can be done at home with a registered midwife. There are a few basic supplies you need on hand. The optimal pain relief requires that the woman be submerged in the water deep enough to cover her whole belly. So, usually a birthing pool needs to be rented or bought, as bath tubs aren't quite deep enough, (but in a pinch, will do).

Along with the pool, there are some attachments required, a pump to inflate it and lots of towels! 
I offer the birth pool and some basic accessories for home water births. There is no extra fee to use these. (Valued at $400.+) The pool, lid, cover, air and sump pump are included. Purchased items are a drinking hose, tap adapter, pool liner, thermometer, debris net and a few other necessities.

To learn more about my home birth doula care visit my website: www.vancouverhomebirthdoula.com

BC Women's Hospital has lovely rooms with deep tubs for laboring in and depending on your care provider, birth may be possible in one.  St. Paul's Hospital has bath tubs which women may labor in, but not give birth in. The same is true for other Vancouver area hospitals.
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To keep you & your baby safe while having a water birth you need to:

• have established good labor pattern with regular contractions
  
  
• have reassuring heart tones
  
  
• absence of bleeding great than bloody show
  
  
• have no strong meds such as morphine
  
  
• no meconium in the amniotic fluid
  
  

As well, you would leave the water if your midwife had any concerns with your or your baby's well being. There are some conditions that would prohibit a water birth which you would discuss with your care provider.

In my years as a doula, I have seen that water is such a wonderful element for laboring women to be in.  Immersion in water during labor is dubbed 'the midwives epidural'.
Babies come so gently from water into water! A beautiful, easy transition from womb to the world.
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Visit http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-01-evidence-birth-poses-newborns.html for recent research on safety and benefits of water birth.