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SALT LAKE CITY — Water births are rapidly becoming a norm at many hospitals across the U.S., but the nation's leading obstetricians say it's not the safest way to deliver your baby.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics released a joint opinion on water immersion during labor and delivery and said past the first stage of labor, there is no real benefit to laboring in water.
“The safety and efficacy of immersion in water during the second stage of labor have not been established,” the report reads, “and immersion in water during the second stage of labor has not been associated with maternal nor fetal development.”
The new report has caused an uproar among midwives across the nation, who regularly help patients labor in tubs.
"I would consider warm water immersion during labor and birth a midwifery standard of practice," Jenna Shaw-Battista, director of the Nurse-Midwifery Education Program at the University of California, San Francisco, told NPR. "We don't believe that the [doctors'] letter accurately portrays the growing body of research supporting water birth."
But the doctors say there is not enough research about babies being delivered under water to safely recommend a water birth, and the procedure should be considered "experimental."
"There's actually pretty good evidence that it's safe to labor in the tub," Dr. Aaron Caughey, an associate professor of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and a member of the committee that wrote the opinion, countered to NPR. "But there's less good evidence that it's safe for the baby and even safe for the mom, in terms of infection risk, to give birth in the tub."
The report drew its conclusions from case studies, particularly where babies have drowned while breathing in water at hospitals and home births. And while some may discount those as isolated incidents, both the ACOG and the AAP think those deaths are relevant enough to withhold recommendations at this time, citing the need for more research.
Should you choose a water birth?
Sitting in a tub of warm (not hot) water may sound like an appealing way to relieve the pain of labor, but a laboring woman should know the risks before she plans her labor and delivery.
Doctors and midwives both agree that a pregnant woman needs to be healthy and deemed low-risk before proceeding with a water birth. Cathy Emeis, a certified nurse-midwife at the Oregon Health & Science University, told the Associated Press that women who want to have a water birth have to sign a consent form acknowledging risks and also take a class.
"We always acknowledge to our patients that there is not a lot of high-quality evidence that shows there's a benefit to birthing under water," Emeis told the Associated Press.
Tina Johnson of the American College of Nurse-Midwives, disagrees with the recent report and told ABC News her organization is compiling its own recommendations about the safety of water birth to be released in the coming weeks.
Potential risks of water births include infection, difficulty regulating the baby's body temperature and difficulty breathing if the baby inhales water. Both the ACOG and AAP recommend that only low-risk patients choose immersion in water tubs during labor and delivery. Tubs also need to be kept clean and doctors and midwives need to be able to get a woman out of the tub quickly if a complication arises.
Hospitals in the Intermountain Healthcare and University of Utah systems both currently offer water birthing as an option.
