One of my favorite books about childbirth in general and waterbirth in particular is Barbara Harper's Gentle Birth Choices. As Barbara Harper shows from study and lived experience, when women labor in water, the water reduces the pain of contractions. When they give birth in water, their pelvic floor muscles relax and so there is significantly less perineal tearing. For a longer list of benefits, check out: Benefits of Waterbirth.
Recently, I headed off to the West Suburban Homebirth Meet-up, where the topic was waterbirth. The meeting was facilitated by Christina Oser, CNM and homebirth midwife at Genesis Family Midwifery, who shared from "Waterbirth Basics." This essay was written by Barbara Harper and originally published in Midwifery Today Magazine (Summer 2000). To read it online, click: "Waterbirth Basics."
What I found most fascinating about this essay was the explanation of how a baby, who gets oxygen through the blood of the cord while in utero, begins to breathe air and get oxygen from the air once the baby emerges into the world. In the minutes directly after birth, the baby is still getting oxygen through the blood of the cord even as the baby's lungs begin to take in air. Here, miraculously, is how the change takes place:
"The shunts in the heart are closed; fetal circulation turns to newborn circulation; the lungs experience oxygen for the first time; and the umbilical cord is stretched, causing the umbilical arteries to close down."
So a baby who previously swallowed amniotic fluid and had it present in the lungs ... now breathes air. The baby is now not an aquatic mammal but a land mammal! The transformation is astonishing.
Babies safely make the journey from the inside of their mothers' bodies into the world in water because the cord continues to nourish them until their skin makes contact with the air and then, gradually, their bodies make the shift that allows them to take their first breath.
Jane Beal, PhD
Childbirth Doula, Counselor & Educator
christiandoula.net
