We always suggest that mothers plan to have a water birth pool set up and ready in CASE they choose to labor or birth in water. It’s so important to have the choice! Obviously, if there’s no tub set up, there’s no choice.
It’s absolutely fine to have a tub set up and not get in, or get out before the birth. Birth is about adaptability, flexibility, and movement for the mother.
What I see and love about water immersion in labor: The woman gets in and a deeper level of letting go is achieved. (Letting go is what lets the baby come!) Birth is not about “doing” so much as about allowing and opening and surrendering with one’s whole being. Water is the obvious grand facilitator for all of those things. Elena Tonetti, of Birth as We Know It video, explains that to her, when a woman enters the water, she can “become like water” and thus allow her being to flow with no resistance along with the natural laboring hormones of her body.
I see women being able to move like dolphins in the water! What a change from the heaviness of “land.” At the end of pregnancy, it can be troublesome to quickly turn over from side to side, but not so in the water.
And I see that when a woman enters the water, there is a certain quietness that settles over the entire environment. Friends, family, caregivers somehow quiet themselves and everyone is more tuned in to the sacredness of the event.
I see babies born in water often just spiral out, looking up and around, with curiosity as they are born. Without shock and fear. They are able to open to their new surroundings in a more gentle way.
As a midwife, I rarely need to touch a woman as she gives birth in the water. The water supports her! It is so easy for her to reach down and guide her baby out of her body, because the water is supporting her body and her perineum. So empowering!
Below is more information from waterbirthsolutions.org below, a site created by waterbirth experts. You can also buy your very own birth pool there if you choose to do that rather than rent one.
Known benefits of water labor and water birth
Facilitates mobility and enables the mother to assume any position which is comfortable for labor and birth
Speeds up labor
Reduces blood pressure
Gives mother more feelings of control
Provides significant pain relief
Promotes relaxation
Conserves her energy
Reduces the need for drugs and interventions
Gives mother a private protected space
Reduces perineal trauma and eliminates episiotomies
Reduces cesarean section rates
Is highly rated by mothers – typically stating they would consider giving birth in water again
Is highly rated by experienced providers
Encourages an easier birth for mother and a gentler welcome for baby
Placing a pool of water in a birth room changes the atmosphere immediately. Voices get softer, the mother stays calmer and everyone becomes less stressed.
The effect of buoyancy that deep water immersion creates allows spontaneous movement of the mother. No one has to help the mother get into a new position. She moves as her body and the position of the baby dictate. Movement helps open the pelvis, allowing the baby to descend.
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.
