After much research I have found very few documented risks involving water birth. I find this rather strange as many hospitals do not have facilities for water birth and doctors and gynecologists don’t seem to even mention it unless the mother to be specifically inquires about it. At this point the medical professions standard answer seems to be that “better evidence that water births are safe is needed before the method is offered as a matter of routine“.
I managed to find four incidents where new born babies nearly drowned, all four of these babies recovered 100% and had absolutely no side effects. If the baby is not getting enough oxygen during birth it is possible but highly unlikely that they may gasp for air. This would of cause allow water to enter their lungs. Supporters of the water birth technique say primitive reflexes keep babies from taking a breath until they are removed from the water.This does make sense as babies live in liquid until they are born so they would naturally only take a breath once they are exposed to air.
Below are some guidelines published in the journal of Pediatrics.
- Careful control of the water temperature
- Keep the pool clean
- Avoid prolonged immersion
- Consider using isotonic water
- Consider leaving the pool for the final stage
- Have an agreed protocol for dealing with unexpected complications
Another potential risk is that the mother could get water in her bloodstream from excessive bleeding, I couldn’t find any documented cases of this happening.
Other situations that could possibly do harm to the child:
- if the mother is infected with herpes
- the mother tends to be inflexible
- the mother has excessive bleeding or some kind of infection
- the baby is pre-term (which is born about two weeks prior to the scheduled date) water birth is often not recommended.
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