Amherst Homebirth Midwifery is owned by Beth Anne Moonstone, Midwife, CPM . You can learn more about us here.
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Waterbirth
Waterbirth at home can be a gentle loving way to bring your baby into the world. Some of the advantages of waterbirth are:
- Greater comfort and mobility.
- Helps mother to conserve her energy. Water supports the mother's weight so that her energy can be used to cope with the contractions.
- Promotes deeper relaxation.
- Water minimizes pain so effectively that for most women other pain control methods are no longer needed. Immersion is often more effective and safer than an epidural. Some people call waterbirth an "aquadural."
- Facilitates a dysfunctional labor.
- Water can reduce the need for drugs to artificially stimulate labor.
- Change of consciousness. Water helps a woman to let go and focus inward as labor strengthens.
- Easier breathing. Moisture in the air makes it easier to breathe and can be helpful to women with asthma.
- Facilitates the second stage of labor.
- Many mothers are less inhibited in the water. The warm water softens the vagina, vulva, and perineum, leading to fewer injuries to these tissues. Many women experience rapid second stages, with the baby emerging minutes after the body starts pushing, also known as the fetus ejection reflex (see Odent, The Nature of Birth and Breastfeeding).
- Empowerment of the mother. When a woman delivers her baby while remaining awake, aware and in control, it greatly enhances the birth experience for her and becomes a source of great personal strength and power that enriches her life forever.
- Greater involvement of the father.
- Enhanced family relationships.
- Better parent-child interactions. A mother who has had a beautiful and empowering birth experience will have an especially positive association in her mind and emotions to that child; and a baby who has had an easy, non-traumatic, not painful, gentle birth will have an especially positive association to the parent. This exceptionally positive start to their relationship will likely enhance the parent-child interactions forever. Evolving humanity in a positive direction. Many psychologists believe that babies born gently grow up to become more gentle adults, and have a greater ability to deal with problems non-violently.
- (see the Waterbirth website for additional information)
Why Waterbirth? by the Global Maternal/Child Health Association, Inc.
