Over the past thirty years, women have been giving birth in all kinds of creative settings including pools, Jacuzzis, cattle baths, home bathtubs, and, quite amazingly, glass tanks in Russia. The possibility of birthing in water captivated the imagination of thousands of women and families all over the world, especially with the growth of the human potential movement from the1960s onward.
Water birth was also partially a trend of the natural childbirth movement, and by now there have been slightly over 15 000 recorded water births, and about 30 000 babies born with the help of water (part of labour spent in water) between 1984 and 1999. Naturally, we do not include all of those "accidental" births that happened before and during those times which nobody bothered to count them.
According to old Greek and Indian legends as well as Maori and Egyptian stories, shallow water has been used for birthing since earliest times. The touch and feeling of warmth given by the ocean or sea water conjoined with other natural elements such as moonshine, sunshine or a salty ocean's breeze has had a mesmerizing effect on many birthing women. The very first medically recorded birth in water happened in France in 1803. After 48 hours of prolonged labour, the birthing attendants were so exhausted that the midwife suggested a quick warm bath to the pregnant woman. Very soon afterwards, and without leaving the bath, the baby was swiftly and easily born.
I'm an advocate of truly having your eyes opened and honestly appraising how much power you really have, not pretending that you will have as much power as you desire, just because you really want it. I think that's the essence of informed consent. Gretchen Humphries
The following is an extract from ,THE WATERBIRTH HANDBOOK, by Eileen Herzberg and Dr Roger Lichy
"The aquatic ape theory may explain why humans are so different from other members of the ape family. Unlike apes, we're born with practically no hair, we're fat, we cry, and we're wonderfully adapted to diving underwater. When we're older we sweat, walk erect, learn to talk and can make love face to face. These peculiarities separate us from other apes.
Although we know that man is descended from apes, there's a mysterious gap of 10-20 million years between our ape-like ancestors and the first evidence of fossilised man. An aquatic age would explain the gap, and it was first tentatively suggested by Sir Alister Hardy when he was talking to the British Sub-Aqua Club in Brighton in March 1960. The mere suggestion of man's aquatic ancestry created such a burst of publicity that he decided to write a longer explanation of his ideas in the New Scientist. (8)
Hardy's theory is that humans might have spent a few million years living by the seaside. He suggests that some of our ape-like ancestors spent hours on end wading, digging for shell fish, gradually becoming more adept at swimming and diving further and further from shore. Man might even have learned to stand upright in the sea.
The aquatic ape theory would explain our ability to swim and to dive. Newborn babies go through the motions of swimming, although they seem to forget by the time they're toddlers and they need to be taught how to swim, just like young otters. Compared to other mammals, we have relatively little body hair which gives us less resistance to water when we swim. Aquatic mammals such as whales and hippopotami are equally hairless. Similarly, our subcutaneous fat can't be found in other animals - but is remarkably similar to whale and seal blubber. Our aquatic ancestry may even explain some common ailments. For example, asthma is characterised by excessive contraction of the smooth bronchial muscles that is similar to the diving mechanism used by some sea mammals.
Does any of this have any bearing on waterbirths? We don't know, but it's an interesting theory and if nothing else it may explain why humankind seems to have an enormous urge to visit the seaside - and why so many women feel instinctively drawn towards waterbirths."
You are constructing your own reality with the choices you make...or don't make. If you really want a healthy pregnancy and joyful birth, and you truly understand that you are the one in control, then you must examine what you have or haven't done so far to create the outcome you want. Kim Wildner-Mother's Intention: How Belief Shapes Birth
In the 1960s, Erik Sidenbladh, in his book, Water Babies, chronicled the life and work of Russian Igor Tjarkovsky, a gym teacher and swimming instructor, researcher and scientist. Igor Tjarkovsky tried to help his daughter to endure the effects of a premature birth by bathing the newborn in the water right after the birth.
His theory is that gravity does not have a beneficial effect on the newborn, and a predominantly water environment may actually speed up physical, mental and emotional development.
He also believes that babies intensively trained in water will develop other faculties not available to gravity babies. Some can communicate with animals, especially dolphins. Igor Tjarkovsky was not a trained medical professional, was controversial and sometimes too radical, in many of his methods.
In 1988, Barbara Harper, a water birth advocate in North America, visited Tjarkovsky and some maternity units in local hospitals where women were giving birth in shallow water. Inspired by the reality of the impoverished maternity wards in Russia (and this was twenty years ago!) and by the beauty of the people who wanted to make a different choice, Barbara Harper founded Global Maternal Child Health Care, a non-profit organization that responds to the needs of home birthing couples and educates them about alternatives.
In 1993 they produced a segment for the popular television show 20/20 that changed the outlook on birth for many women in North America.
On the other side of the Atlantic, in France, in a small maternity clinic run by midwives, Dr. Michel Odent began in the 1970s to investigate the effects of births in water. Trained as a surgeon, Dr Odent came to change his speciality after these experiences of water birth. Michel Odent promotes trust in a woman’s innate ability to give birth and to deliver in her own unique way. For more about his works please refer to Birth Works, a company that has been promoting water birth and doula services in England since 1980s.
The truth for women living in a modern world is that they must take increasing responsibility for the skills they bring into birth if they want their birth to be natural. Making choices of where and with whom to birth is not the same as bringing knowledge and skills into your birth regardless of where and with whom you birth. Common Knowledge Trust
Influenced by Michel Odent's research, Dr. Herman Ponette began in the 1980's to make water birth available in The Serruys Hospital in Ostend -including water births for breech babies and twins!
One of his clients was Isabelle Gabrielle, an artist and marine biologist. Her husband, Yves de Smedt, who started to promote aquatic prenatal classes, also initiated a project with a birthing centre located on an island where birthing women are close to marine life.
The popularity of the movement also touched British hospitals whose midwives started to use water birth in their practice.
The work of Janice Balaskas through the Active Birth Centre helped to furnish many of the hospitals in England with birthing pools. In the last ten years a body of research has been established proving not only safety of water births but its viability.
"To help mothers achieve pain-free childbirth, we must free ourselves from the mechanistic view of life and embrace a new holistic philosophy that does not presume to put arbitrary limits upon women, the experience of giving birth or life itself." Laura Kaplan Shanley
Today, with the Cesarean rate higher then ever before, the major goals for individuals and communities promoting natural births would be:
To inform and educate expectant parents about the availability of home birth and midwifery care (it is free of charge in Ontario)
To empower expectant parents with knowledge so they will feel free to make an independent choice
To stress the importance of effortless integration of the baby into the family unit over the manner or circumstances of the baby's birth
To be primarily concerned with the health of the mother and the baby
We must have faith that our lives will develop as richer and better experiences when we keep ourselves informed, keep our options free of self-imposed limitation, keep the flow of our feelings continuously open to rapid changes of pace, and when we maintain our freedom through the effort to find and express our own voices. Then and only then can we consider ourselves no longer passive consumers but rather co-creators of a more authentic, more genuinely lived life.
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