Why use a bath?
Physical benefits of a water birth
Health concerns about baths for labour and birth
Using the water wisely
What you will need

The history of water birth

First water birth?
In the 1960's
In the 1970's and 1980's
The 1990's
Water birth today

First water birth? Water or 'hydrotherapy' has been used in the form of hot springs and warm baths for centuries in an effort to heal the body and relax the mind. How long it has been used to help women in labour is unknown. The first documented water birth occurred in France in 1805, when a woman, exhausted after a 48 hour labour, climbed into a warm bath to relax, giving birth to her child into the water shortly afterwards. Before this and for the next 150 years afterwards there has been little written on water birth, although it has probably occurred unreported for women birthing at home.

In the 1960's an interest in water birth emerged again. A Russian obstetrician called Igor Tjarkovsky experimented with water and birth, as well as training newborn infants to swim underwater in their early weeks of life. He believed that birth into water alleviated the crush of gravity on the brain cells at the moment of birth, thereby enhancing the baby's psychic abilities. His experiments were regarded as radical, especially considering he used to leave the baby underwater for up to a couple of minutes after the birth. He continued water training the babies, instructing their parents, with the aim of physically assisting the child to build health, strength, balance, confidence, flexibility and endurance.
Another obstetrician in the 1960's named Leboyer, introduced placing the newly born infant into a bath of warm water soon after birth to reduce a perceived 'violent transition' to the outside world, along with dimming lights, and reducing noises. He did not actually attend water births, nor use the bath to relieve the pain of labour for the mother.