Most pregnant women fears increase with their approaching due dates; either they will undergo a normal delivery accompanied by labour pains, or a Caesarean. The experts put forward a new option for the expectant mothers- water birth.
Now water births have been introduced since 1805, although it is less known in India.
“It is better than C-section any day; Caesarean involves a lot of complexities; it is, after all, a surgical process of delivering the baby. And what makes water birth better is that this is a completely natural process. It is also a precious moment for a couple to go through the labour hours and witness the birth of the baby together,” Kavitha Gautham, founder, Bloom Fertility and Healthcare, Chennai, said.
Sushma P. Sinha Senior Consultant-Obstetrician, Gynecologist and IVF Expert at Indraprastha Apollo said “Water birth helps the patients deal with labour pains. It results in less use of epidural analgesia for pain relief. It helps the women in relaxing and alleviates anxiety.”
A water birth helps a patient to flex her body in a better way, helping her to change directions easily inside the warm water. The buoyancy of the water increases the blood circulation resulting in better oxygenation of the uterine muscles, resulting in more oxygen for the baby.
So, who all can avail the water birth? Any pregnant women with more than 37 weeks of pregnancy and with no complications of distress and positioning of the foetus are eligible to undergo water birth.
There are a few basic steps to look into when opting for water birth is to check and maintain the temperature of the water. Other precautions to take into account are the chance of the baby drowning it gets stuck, and the rare cases of waterborne infections and cord rupture with haemorrhaging.
Although a well-known concept in the West, in India the concept is yet to grow. A huge quantity of clean water and trained birth supervisors are need for water birth, which is not available in India. Water birth option was available in Apollo Hospital, but had to shut down due its lack of popularity.
In Kerala, Birth Village, Kochi, offers water birth.
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