BENEFITS OF WATER / LABOR BIRTH

Advantages for Mother

Safer, more effective and economical than an epidural

Water birth coined as an "aquadural" or "wetepidural"

Pain significantly reduced by blocking nerve impulses of pain to the brain known as the Gate Theory of Pain 

Study in Canada; 100% women who birthed in water use no pain medication 

Less use of analgesics and anesthesia 

Fewer birth canal injuries, vagina, perineum and vulva 

Reduction of labor length 

Reduction of episiotomies and painful stitching, water relaxes the pelvic floor muscles 

Decreases maternal hypertension, high blood pressure 

Increases maternal connection over labor and birth environment 

Increases maternal autonomy 

Greater mobility for maternal positioning during labor and birth 

Conservation of maternal energy 

Better focus and concentration in water 

Less blood loss during the birth 

Deeper relaxation resulting in hormones kicking in 

Less pressure on the abdomen because of the buoyancy promoting more efficient contractions, better blood circulation, more oxygen to baby and mother, equal pressure on all parts of the woman's body. 

Helps to relieve anxiety and promote focusing inward, as labor becomes more intense 

Moist air assist better breathing for mother specifically if asthmatic

Facilitates a dysfunctional labor by stimulating dilation of cervix

Can speed up normal labors, sometimes resulting in less than a two to four-hour birth in total

Many experience more rapid second stage with baby emerging within a few pushes, also known as the 'fetus ejection reflex' (term by Dr. Michel Odent)

Effective tool to easing the woman into and through transition to pushing 

More trust in the process by feeling of weightlessness allows woman to concentrate on letting her body do what it was designed to do

Water labor or birth can result in lower adrenaline, (fight or flight response) levels

Warm water stops false labor contractions 

Assists pushing to an easier place 

Reaching another state of consciousness where fears and resistances are released or dissolved

Sound of water running or the jets on belly or back create more endorphin secretion 

Clean up is easier with less mess 

Empowering experience for mother without drugs, no surgical procedure, moving in any position, developing inner strength and power enriching her life forever

Family relationships empowered with mother in less pain; father takes more active role in birth experience resulting in deeper bonding and a more enhanced relationship the rest of their lives 

Parent-child interactions are enhanced by a positive experience in her body/mind/spirit, less painful, gentle approach in bringing child to the planet

Reduction of Cesareans 

Mother or father can more readily catch her baby 

Bacteria is dissipated in water reducing infection to mother

Advantages for Baby

Easier more gentle transition from one womb of water to an external womb of water, weightless, warm, wet and soft

Decreased trauma at birth 

More blood to baby due to better blood circulation in mother

Baby doesn't receive the invasive stimuli to induce breathing, which results in less crying, babies after birth resulting in a calmer, more alert state

More safe than unsafe alternative in childbirth 

Bacteria is dissipated in the water reducing infection to baby

Cord cutting after birth is delayed until it stops pulsating

Less problems with breastfeeding after birth 

Less trauma to mother means less trauma to baby