What is a water birth and can I have one under midwifery care?
Yes, water birth can be arranged with a midwife during a home birth. Inflatable children’s pools are often used, which will require some extra preparations that are neither expensive nor difficult to implement. Warm water often alleviates the discomforts of labour pains and helps the labouring woman to cope. My experience has been that water births are generally quite gentle. Even if you don’t actually deliver your baby in the water, spending time in warm water acts as a natural method to ease the discomforts of labour pains.
