Water Birth: A Midwife's Perspective

by Susanna Napierala

As women increasingly seek more humanistic birthing methods than the hospital-based delivery, certified midwife Susanna Napierala suggests that water birth offers mother and infant the ideal circumstances for beginning their lives together. Warm water, explains the author, reduces the hours and stress of labor, offers bodily support and relaxes blood flow, helping to ease the baby's journey. The baby makes its transition to breathing air in a familiar, gentle medium. Avoiding the didactics of ideology, Napierala infuses her eloquent text with answers to commonly-asked How does the baby breathe underwater? What about complications or infections? For whom is water birth a viable choice? How does a couple prepare for it? Water Birth guides the reader through the details of parental and midwife preparation, labor, and birth, noting danger signals that must be heeded. Here is a wealth of solid information, personal testimony, and instruction for those who make this choice.

Giving birth is one of life's most enriching, yet emotionally and physiologically stressful experiences. Faced with the dehumanizing mandates of the medical establishment, women increasingly seek alternatives to hospital birth. In her carefully presented book, Susanna Napierala, midwife to more than 600 births over 18 years, suggests that giving birth in water offers mother and infant the ideal circumstances for beginning their lives together.

Recognizing that this birthing approach is not yet widely practiced in the United States, Napierala readily acknowledges the commonly-asked How does the baby breathe underwater? What about complications or infections? What specifically makes water birth a viable choice, and for whom? How do a couple and their chosen midwife prepare for water birth? Avoiding ideological didactics, the author cautions that, regardless of a couple's expectations of the birth experience, every pregnancy's priority should be a healthy mother and baby. As she details aspects of parental and midwife preparation, labor, and birth, Napierala counsels vigilance, noting possible difficulties and danger signals that must be heeded. For midwives, their assistants, pregnant women and their families considering birth options, Water Birth offers a wealth of solid information, personal testimony, and guidance for those who make this choice.

Genres: Parenting

256 pages, Paperback

Published September 26, 1994

Reviews

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is one of the few entirely devoted to the subject of childbirth in water. While it is a useful guide with plenty of background information, Water Birth unfortunately hasn't been updated since its original 1994 edition, and as a result the information it contains is somewhat dated. Because water births are no longer considered so experimental, many of the concerns raised by the author -- such as whether or not a women should be allowed to labor in water once her membranes have broken due to the risk of infection -- have been answered over the last quarter of a century. The standard practices described might have also changed or evolved, so check with your doctor, midwife, or doula.

American attitudes towards water births have also changed since the early 90's, and many U.S. hospitals now have birthing tubs in their labor and delivery suites and offer the option of water births for low risk mothers. Also, a variety of birthing tubs including inflatable ones can be purchased or rented via the internet, so interested parties planning a home birth needn't follow the provided instructions on how to build and maintain a birthing tub.

Despite its minor flaws, Water Birth does have the advantage of having been written by a practicing Californian midwife who helped pioneer the contemporary interest in water births. The author provides a wealth of personal experience and first-hand accounts. She also scrupulously cites her sources when discussing the history of the modern practice of water births and the benefits of laboring and/or delivering in water.

Mothers considering water births might also want to read the water birth chapter in Active Birth : The New Approach to Giving Birth Naturally, Revised Edition.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great resource for the development of modern day water birth. I can appreciate the history but I feel like an updated version is in order.