Today NPR ran a ridiculous article about how water birth is not proven to be safe.
They don't seem to like evidence based medicine nor stats. They chose to ignore that a woman birthing in water at home or in a hospital setting:
- will immediately bonding with her newborn
- will delay cord cutting
- will breastfeed within and hour after birth ensuring a longer duration of breastfeeding
- will not have had pain medication
- will have a positive birth experience therefore less likely to experience PPD
The Upstate is fortunate to have 3 birthing centers with tubs for mothers to labor and deliver in. We are also blessed with the GHS midwives who have pushed for tubs in hospital and women are birthing babies in them everyday.
Water birth ultimately allows a woman space to birth her baby. She creates a circle around her, not the machines, not the OB. All eyes are on mama as she labors and strongly births her baby. This hands off approach is foreign to surgeons, I mean obstetricians. Birth is a woman's choice. She should choose her birth team, if her family is present, and how she births.
