Birth in water is as safe as traditional birth

Researchers at the University of Michigan analyzed 397 water births and 2,025 conventional dry births for their study, but found no difference in newborn safety. Postpartum hemorrhage rates were similar in both groups.

When giving birth in the water, the newborn takes its first breath after being lifted out of the tub. In the meantime, his lungs are filled with water, which is discharged when the child is airborne and breathes. It receives oxygen through the umbilical cord.

It is important that the newborn should not be returned to the water. Babies born in the water at the University of Michigan Hospital are taken out almost immediately, and doctors are very careful not to be immersed again. The mother and child leave the tub with help and wrap them in warm blankets. Typically, it is only after this that the placenta is born, so that those involved in the birth are aware of the amount of blood loss.

Lisa Kane Low, senior author of the study, professor of child care, says that if done with the right technique, the experience of giving birth in the water is very good. Their hospital experience reflects what is written in international studies on water births, he added.

According to Ruth Zielinski, co-author of the study, clinical assistant professor of child care, more institutions should offer maternity births with appropriate rules, and more research should be conducted to understand the reasons for the satisfaction of women born with water.

In the United States, only a handful of hospitals or maternity hospitals offer water births because they are considered risky due to neonatal infections and possible rupture of the umbilical cord.

The study was published in the Tuesday issue of Birth.

(Source: marmalade.co.uk; hirado.com | Image: pixabay.com)