Soaking in a tub of water to ease labor sounds inviting to most women. And for women who find water soothing and comfortable during labor, they usually want to give birth in water. However, laboring in water does more than merely relax and comfort the woman. Resting in a warm tub of water actually facilitates the progression of the latter stages of labor. Many women report a sensation like an "energy surge" that moves through them as soon as they step into the water. While a woman in labor relaxes in a warm pool, free from gravity's pull on her body, and 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 compliment labor.

Andaluz Waterbirth Center, Guatemala

The hormones that are released during stress, noradreneline and catecholamines, actually raise the blood pressure and can inhibit or slow labor. Dr. Serge Weisel presented his findings from a study of women laboring in warm water in Belgium at the 1987 Pre & Perinatal Psychology Association of North America conference. Weisel stated that women with hypertension (high blood pressure) experienced a drop in blood pressure between 10 to 15 minutes after entering a warm bath.

Leslie Carlton and her husband relax in a Gentle Birth Pool
at Chicago Northwestern Hospital

Being more relaxed physically, a laboring woman is able to relax mentally. Many women, midwives and doctors acknowledge the analgesic effect of water. One obstetrical nurse who had a waterbirth, described sitting in a tub of warm water during labor as similar to "getting a shot of demerol, but without the side effects." Others have referred to the pool in labor as "a wetepidural." Women achieve a level of comfort in the water that in turn reduces their levels of fear and stress. Women's perception of pain is greatly influenced by their levels of anxiety. When labor becomes physically easier, a woman's ability to calmly concentrate is improved, and she is able to focus inward on the birth processes.

Andaluz Waterbirth Center, Guatemala

Water helps some women reach a state of consciousness in which their fear and resistance are diminished or removed completely; then their bodies relax, and their babies are born in the easiest way possible. Mothers feel not only relief, and although exhausted, they often feel exhilerated, estatic and delighted from having the full birth experience in such a wonderful way, and knowing the baby also has experienced little or no trauma! This is a positive result unknown in hospitals not equipped for water birthing.

Many women report being better able to concentrate once they get into the water. Doctors and midwives who attend waterbirths find that the mere sight and sound of water pouring into the tub helps some women release whatever inhibitions were slowing the birth, at times so quickly that the birth occurs even before the pool is filled. Often times women get in the pool to labor and the birth happens before they can get out of the pool.

H. Surreys Hospital, Ostend, Belgium

Another benefit of waterbirth is the elasticity that water imparts to the tissues of the perineum, reducing the incidents and severity of tearing and the need for painful stitches or episiotomies. On the occasion of his 100th water delivery, Michel Odent reported that in the 100 waterbirths he had attended, there were no episiotomies performed and only 29 cases of tearing, all of which were minor surface tears. A 1989 nationwide survey published in The Journal of Nurse Midwifery on the use of water for labor and birth reported less incidents of perineal tearing with less severity.

The ease of the mother who labors and gives birth in water becomes the ease of the child who is born in the water, as well. Gentle alternatives that make birth easier for the mother most likely will make birth easier for the child. Their body responses are intricately linked. While the child is in the womb and when he is passing through the birth canal, the mother's experience influences the child's experience. The emotions the mother feels can also be felt by the child because the hormones her body secretes in response to her emotions are absorbed by the child.

Andaluz Waterbirth Center, Guatemala

In a medically controlled birth, any drugs or synthetic hormones that the mother receives would also be received by the child. If the mother's delivery is easy and smooth, so too is the child's birth. He spends less time in the cramped birth canal and is free from the fear, frustration or other painful emotions which a long and difficult labor might arouse in the mother.

The baby emerges into the water and is "caught" either by the mother herself or the birth attendant. In the water, the child has freedom of movement within familiar fluid surroundings. A baby's limbs can also unfold with greater ease during those first moments when he leaves his mother's body and enters the water. The water offers a familiar comfort after the stress of the birth, reassuring the child and allowing his bodily systems time to organize.

Welcome baby, Grace Allen!!
Midwife, Marina Alzugary, CNM, and Mother, Debbie Allen join hands to cradle Grace

During the birth babies often open their eyes, move in all directions and use their limbs. The shock and sensory overload which are so often an inextricable part of birth are mitigated. Lights and sounds are softer when perceived from under the water, and even the touch of his mother's skin to his own tender skin is softened by the presence of a familiar element: water.

Also, in some cases, the mother may wish the entire family to be with her during this very special time for everyone.

Schroeder Family, Cubu City, Wisconsin

This element of water, familiar and secure for the baby, becomes comforting and relaxing for the mother. The mother and baby together are profoundly affected by this gentlest of gentle births.

Andaluz Waterbirth Center in Guatemala