Abstract
'The midwife, Jenny, was saying, "She's coming, Heather. Reach down in the pool and feel her head." I reached down and felt her soft hair and the roundness of her head. It felt odd, feeling another person slipping out of my body. A few more pushes, and her head was out. With the next contraction and a good push, she was born, and Jenny was saying, "Lift her up, Heather." I opened my eyes, and reached down, and pulled her out of the water and onto my chest. Her eyes were open and she was alert. Within a few minutes, she was rooting around for the breast. Chloe was here.'
References
Garland D. Waterbirth. An attitude to care. 2nd Ed. Edinburgh: Books for Midwives; 2000
House of Common Health Committee. Second report on the maternity services (Winterton Report). London: HMSO; 1992
Department of Health. Changing childbirth part 1: Report of the expert maternity group (Chairman Baroness Cumberlege). London: HMSO; 1993
Royal College of Midwives. The use of water in labour and birth. Position paper https://www.rcm.org.uk; 2000
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Birth in water. RCOG statement No 1. https://www.rcog.org.uk ; 2001
Department of Health. Maternity standard: National service framework for children, young people and maternity services . London: DH Publications; 2004
Beech B. Waterbirth: Time to move forward. AIMS Journal 2000; 12(2): 1-2
Rosser J . Is water birth safe? The fact behind the controversy. MIDIRS 1994;4(1):4-6
Lewison H. Was East Hert Health Trust right to discipline waterbirth midwives? British Journal of Midwives 1994;2(4):146-7
Page L, Kitzenger S. A Midwifery perspective on the use of water in labour birth. Maternal and Child Health 1995;22-6
Redwood R . Caring control: methodological issues in a discourse analysis of waterbirth texts. Journal of Advanced Nursing 1999;29(4):914-21. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.1999.00970.x
Cluett ER, Nikoderm VC, Mccandlish RE, Burns EE. Immersion in water in pregnancy labour and birth. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2004(2). Available from: https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD000111.pub2
Theoni A, Oberhuber A, Moroder L. Giving birth and being born in water. Experiences after 1325 waterbirths. Italian Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics 2003; 15(3): 113-20
Geisbuehler V, Stein S, Eberhard J. Waterbirths compared with land births: An observational study of nine years. Journal of Perinatal Medicine 2004;32(4):308-14. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1515/JPM.2004.057
Gilbert RE, Tookey EA. Perinatal Mortality and Morbidity among babies delivered in water: Surveillance study and postal survey. Br Med J 1999;319:483-7. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.319.7208.483
Kassim Z , Sellar M, Greenough A. Underwater birth and neonatal respiratory distress. BMJ 2005;330:1071-2. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.330.7499.1071
Byrom A , Downe S. Second stage of labour: challenging the use of directed pushing. RCM Midwives 2005;8(4): 168-9
Carroli G, Belizan J. Episiotomy for vaginal birth. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 1999, Issue 3. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858