Collectively the midwives at Midwifery & Women's Health Care have attended over 200 water births without any untoward effects. Nearly all of our clients use the tub and/or the shower at Geneva Woods Birth Center for labor. Women can not only labor in the tub and in the shower, but can also give birth there as well.

Soaking in a deep tub of warm water to ease labor sounds inviting to most women.  Water has been shown to relax laboring women, which in turn may speed up the progress of labor.  The decrease in anxiety that is felt upon entering the tub (we call this the “auugh” effect) increases a woman’s ability to concentrate.  Fewer stress hormones and more endorphins are then circulating in her system, which give her a sense of general calmness.  In fact, women have said that warm water immersion is “like getting a shot of Demerol without the side effects”, and is sometimes referred to as getting a “wet epidural”.

Water Birth may offer a more gentle transition for the baby because he/she is born from one warm, wet environment directly into a similar environment.  We have observed that water babies are calmer and appear les agitated than babies born into rooms with bright lights and rough hands.  For moms, giving birth in the water has been shown to shorten labor and reduce the need for stitches due to tearing.

Women who are experiencing ‘back labor’ find it soothing to labor in the shower with the warm water on their back to ease the pain. Hydrotherapy is a big part of a birth center birth and is a very effective for pain management.