birthaquabirt.htlm

birth aqua birth water birth

Maternité du Chablais (VD-VS)

SWITZERLAND

Childbirth in water: myth or reality?
Rev Med Suisse Romande 115 (7), 521-525 (1995)

editorial

September 1996 , during the European Perinatology Congress held in Glasgow, Professor James Walker of St James University Hospital warns mothers against the water-birth "fad", claiming that it seriously endangers the safety of both mother and child.

The "Revue Médicale de la Suisse Romande ", recently published statistics, based on 1765 deliveries (21% of which were water-births) offering any woman who so wishes, the possibility of giving birth in ways that would seem less conventional than those usually offerd but which respect standard safety norms (37% choose non-conventional ways : a water-birth or with the mother in a squatting position).