Featured Review: Immersion in water during labour and birth

Labouring in water may reduce the number of women having an epidural but does not appear to affect mode of birth or serious perineal tears.Water immersion during labour and birth is increasingly popular and is becoming widely accepted across many countries, and particularly in midwifery-led care settings. However, there are concerns around neonatal water inhalation, increased requirement for admission to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), maternal and/or neonatal infection, and obstetric anal sphincter injuries (OASIS).A team of Cochrane authors based in the United Kingdom worked withCochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth to update the 2011 Cochrane Review assessing the effects of water immersion during labour and/or birth (first, second and third stage of labour) on women and their infants. This review includes 15 trials conducted between 1990 and 2015 with a total of 3663 women.Labouring in water may reduce the number of women having an epidural. Giving birth in water did not appear to affect mode of birth, or the number of women having a serious perineal tear. This review found no evidence that labouring in water increases the risk of an adverse outcome for women or their newborns. The trials varied in quality and further research is needed particularly for waterbirth and its use in birth settings outside hospital labour wards before we can be more certain of these effects. Research is also needed about women ’s and caregivers experiences of labour and birth in water.“Imm...
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