Researchers discovered considerable reductions in pain, severe bleeding, and epidurals.
According to a research appearing in the open access journal BMJ Open, water births provide “obvious advantages” for healthy parents and their newborns.
A water delivery was “as safe as normal care for healthy moms and their newborns,” according to researchers who examined 36 prior studies involving more than 150,000 women.
Water births greatly decreased the usage of epidurals, injectable opioids (painkillers), and episiotomies compared to normal care (a surgical incision of the perineum and the posterior vaginal wall to aid birth).
As parent satisfaction levels rose, so did pain and profuse bleeding.
In addition to the caesarean rate remaining unchanged, it was discovered that water deliveries had fewer postpartum problems and medical interventions than usual care.
The results did show that water deliveries had a higher incidence of umbilical cord breaking.
This risk was remained low, though, with breaking occurring in 4.3 out of every 1,000 water deliveries as opposed to 1.3 out of every 1,000 births with normal care.
Researchers hypothesized that this might be a result of the newborn’s umbilical chord being pulled when it is raised out of the water.
A birthing pool is used during a water birth to promote relaxation and pain alleviation.
The expectant woman either leaves the birthing pool to give birth, allowing the baby to emerge into the air, or stays in it, bringing the baby to the surface to begin breathing.
The studies, which were released between 2000 and 2021, covered a variety of interventions and results, including breastfeeding, artificially breaking one’s waters, using an epidural, and inducing labor.
Researchers said that when utilized in an obstetric context, “water immersion has benefits for the mother and newborn, making water immersion a low-tech intervention for enhancing quality and satisfaction with care.”
Water immersion, they continued, “may greatly enhance the likelihood of an intact perineum and reduce episiotomy, an intervention which delivers no perineal or fetal benefit, can increase postnatal discomfort, anxiety, and have a detrimental impact on a woman’s birth experience.
Immersion in water is a “effective approach to alleviate pain in labor, without raising danger,” according to research.
Nearly 20% of pregnant women in the UK utilize water for pain relief, yet just 10% give birth in pools, according to the National Childbirth Trust (NCT).
When the Department of Health suggested water births as a pain-relieving method in 1993, their popularity began to rise.
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