Reasons to reconsider water birth due to toxins found in birthing pools and destruction of beneficial flora in the birth canal and vernix caseosa that can compromise proper seeding of baby’s immune system.
Waterbirth has become an established practice in parts of the United States where midwifery is strong and natural childbirth is popular. It is also gaining momentum in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
Advocates of water birth say that it is safe, offering Mom drug-free pain relief, better oxygenation during labor and a calm, peaceful entrance into the world for baby as the warm water simulates the intrauterine environment.
In addition, the umbilical cord pulsates longer after water birth, helping to remove damaged red blood cells from the baby’s circulation which reduces the risk of neonatal jaundice.
I birthed all three of my children naturally in a birth center with only a midwife and a birthing assistant in attendance. I chose to use a birthing tub briefly during labor with my first child.
I did experience some pain relief from the experience. I was particularly grateful to have the birthing tub available as an option during the challenging transition phase.
The decision to give birth in a tub is a lot more significant than the decision to labor in one, however.
Alarming Effects of Water Birth Few Mothers Are Told
The decision to labor or give birth in the water should be approached with extreme caution, and it is disturbing that the very real health risks of water birth are not typically discussed in prenatal examination rooms.
Not a single one of my prenatal exams over the span of three full-term pregnancies ever covered the risks discussed below nor were they even mentioned in passing.
A concern rarely if ever mentioned about water birth is the significant chlorine exposure that both mother and baby experience during the labor and delivery process.
Many mothers who are careful to filter their drinking water during pregnancy to remove chlorine and other toxins seem to give little to no thought about soaking for hours in the very same water or giving birth to their precious newborn in it.
Bathing or showering in tap water is known to expose a person to a significant amount of outgassed chlorine that is absorbed via inhalation and the skin.
For example, taking a seven-minute shower in treated city tap water (pool water would be much worse) exposes a person to more chlorine, disinfection byproducts (DPBs), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) than by drinking a gallon of tap water. (1)
This absorption happens in two ways according to Dr. Mercola:
- The chlorine that enters your lungs is in the form of chloroform, a carcinogen, and chlorite, a byproduct of chlorine dioxide. These forms of chlorine hit your bloodstream instantly before they have a chance to be removed by your organs of detoxification.
- The DBPs that enter your body through your skin also go directly into your bloodstream. And the warmer the water, the more the absorption of toxins is maximized by the skin.
Chlorinated Water Harms Birth Microbiome
The most insidious result of exposure to treated water during the water birth process is the adverse effect on gut flora. Most water births use chlorinated tap water straight out of the faucet attached to the birthing pool.
According to Dr. Zoltan P. Rona, M.D., chlorinated water destroys most strains of friendly intestinal (and vaginal) flora, known as probiotics. (2)
The compromise to bodily flora comes at a time when the baby’s gut needs to be seeded properly with the beneficial microbes that will guard the health and bolster immunity for a lifetime.
Any beneficial microbes present in Mom’s birth canal will be either weakened, destroyed, or severely damaged by exposure to the chlorinated water by the time baby passes through.
While colostrum and breastmilk also contain beneficial bacteria, there is a wider variety of strains in a healthy mother’s gut and birth canal than in breastmilk alone.
Babies born via C-section are also not properly seeded with beneficial bacteria from the birth canal, which may explain why they are 5 times as likely to develop allergies by age two as babies born vaginally. (3)
Think about it … all that work you have done with your diet for 9 months limiting sugar, consuming fermented foods and taking probiotic supplements to optimally prepare the birth canal for baby’s birth potentially wiped away (literally) by choosing water birth.
In addition, exposure of the baby’s skin to the chlorine and other chemicals in the birthing pool tap water destroys the healthy living biofilm on the baby’s skin called the vernix caseosa which should be ideally loaded with probiotics from passage through Mom’s birth canal. (4)
The vernix is protective of the baby’s delicate skin and has anti-infective and antioxidant properties. It should never be exposed to toxic chemicals like chlorine or wiped/washed off until it comes off naturally some days after birth. (5)
Moreover, the moist air in the delivery room coming off the warm birthing tub water (filled with tap water) is the first air that baby breathes, and it is contaminated with chloroform, VOCs, and carcinogenic disinfection by-products like trihalomethanes.
Not exactly the optimal air to be filling baby’s lungs with at birth, don’t you think? The picture below shows a mother nursing her baby for the first time right in the birth pool!
Remaining in the birth pool for some time after birth is very common and exposes the new baby’s fragile lungs to very contaminated water and toxic air off-gassing from the birthing pool.
What About Untreated or Filtered Water?
Unfortunately, using untreated well water for a water birth isn’t much better.
Below is a list of some of the toxins commonly found in natural well water from contaminated runoff due to dumping by the millions of pounds into soils every single year: (6)
- Herbicides (like Roundup, proven to damage beneficial flora)
- pesticides
- estrogen-mimicking hormones
- drug residues
- heavy metals
Filtering the water would be a much better alternative, but the risk of infection is increased due to the lack of chlorine as a disinfectant to maintain water hygiene.
A study in 2004 of the water in a birth pool that had been filtered and thoroughly cleaned found high concentrations of the pathogens E. coli, coliform, staph, and P. aeruginosa. (7)
One report found that a baby in Texas died from contracting Legionnaires’ Disease from a contaminated birthing pool.
The infant was born in a tub full of well water that hadn’t been disinfected and died after 19 days in the hospital. (8)
Given the unsanitary nature of the water in a birthing pool after potentially hours of labor and delivery, it is not hard to understand the risks from contamination.
Vernix Caseosa Damage
One final note on using filtered or untreated well water for water birth: this will still at least partially remove the baby’s beneficial, protective biofilm called the vernix caseosa from patting the wet baby down with a towel.
The vernix should never be compromised in any manner until it flakes away itself in the days following birth.
The vernix protects the baby from infection and has antioxidant properties affecting immunity that science does not yet fully understand. (9)
In contrast, babies born “on land” do not need to be patted down with a towel because they aren’t wet at birth except in the very rare case of a baby born in the caul, which isn’t an ideal scenario as baby doesn’t get exposure to Mom’s flora in the birth canal when born in the bag of waters.
My third baby would have been born in the caul, but I asked the midwife to break the bag of waters just before I started to push so that my daughter would get exposure to my beneficial flora and have her immune system properly seeded during birth.
Other Water Birth Dangers
Waterbirth supporter and midwife Annie Sprague, author of the book Water Labor, Water Birth, refutes the 2005 warning by the American Academy of Pediatrics on water births which states,
The safety and efficacy of underwater birth for the newborn has not been established. There is no convincing evidence of benefit to the neonate but some concern for serious harm. (10)
Ms. Sprague asserts that current research has shown that babies do not breathe underwater at the time of birth so concerns for water inhalation are unfounded.
While some studies have shown benefits to water birth, a 2003 retrospective study found little to no benefit to the infant and no clear evidence of reduced labor duration or risk of tears. (11)
In addition, a 2004 review of the medical literature found 74 articles and 16 citations of infants who experienced serious complications from water birthing. These included death, drowning, near-drowning, waterborne bacterial infections, cord rupture, and fever. (12)
Contraindications
Even under the best of circumstances, water birth is not an option for some pregnant women. Waterbirth contraindications include: (13)
- Women who do not want to be in the water when laboring or giving birth.
- Women who have a fear of the water.
- Women who are less than 37 weeks gestation.
- Women who show increased maternal pulse rate.
- Situations where maternal fever or infection (including herpes) is present.
- Decreased fetal heart rate during labor.
- Any concerns regarding the health of the fetus.
- Maternal preeclampsia.
- Complicated or overly lengthy labor.
- Less than ideal fetal presentation.
- Women who have used a narcotic analgesic within the previous three hours.
Best to Pass on Water Birthing
It is surely a pleasant experience to labor and birth in water.
Pleasant should not be confused with safe, however.
I had a very positive experience with water labor as it eased my discomfort during the transition, and I felt much more relaxed which obviously improved blood flow to my baby.
However, pregnant women need to be fully apprised of the risks to their babies’ health and their own if water birth is attempted, and as of this writing, this is occurring in few prenatal examination rooms.
The biggest risk of water birth, it seems, is the very real potential of the decimation of beneficial microbial populations in the birth canal from exposure to toxic chlorinated tap water such that the baby’s gut (via mouth contact with the birth canal) is not properly seeded at birth. Lack of beneficial flora in Mom’s birth canal means that the vernix caseosa, which is ideally supposed to be a living biofilm, will not be exposed to probiotics either.
Why so many in the natural health community are flippant about the risks to baby’s microbiota from water birthing is concerning! This is especially true given the almost daily research coming out about how CRUCIAL good gut flora is to lifelong health.
Even if filtered water is used, there is the risk of infection from contaminated water (e.g., many women defecate when pushing). The protective biofilm called the vernix caseosa on the baby’s skin would be exposed to these contaminants and then partially washed/wiped away. This protective coating has anti-infective and antioxidant properties that science believes may affect innate immunity. It should never be exposed to contamination or inadvertently tampered with via towel drying.
The second biggest risk is the absorption of dangerous and carcinogenic toxins from skin contact and breathing outgassed chlorine and other chemicals present in treated water. And what about the toxic chemical cleaners used to disinfect the tub itself by hospital or birthing center personnel? Obviously, this can be controlled in home birth, but not elsewhere. And, finally, the risks of other complications including death from drowning, while small, are very real.
If you absolutely must have a water birth because the pain management and relaxation benefits really work for you, here’s a good compromise: Labor in the water (make sure the water is filtered [this one is a good model to consider] and the tub was cleaned with non-toxic, green cleaners) and then get out when it is time to push.
This approach won’t negatively affect your vaginal flora, and you won’t expose your baby to pathogens in the filtered water that has no chemicals in it as disinfectant nor will there be any risk to the integrity of the vernix caseosa.
Author Sally Fallon Morell, author of The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby and Child Care, summarizes it well:
“So, despite glowing reviews, water birth should be embraced with caution.”
(1) Tap Water Toxins. Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?
(2, 4) Rethinking Chlorinated Tap Water
(3) C-Section Babies 5 Times More Likely To Develop Allergies
(5) Wait! Don’t Wash That Newborn!
(6) The Quickest, Easiest Way to Help Detoxify Your Body
(7, 13) The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby and Childcare
(8) Texas Infant Dies of Legionnaires’ Disease After ‘Water Birth’
(9) Unraveling The Mystery of Vernix Caseosa
(10) Water Labor, Water Birth
(11) Water Birth: experience at a university clinic and a district hospital in Austria
(12) The Risks of Underwater Birth
I have had three births. One with a midwife at a birthing center in water, and two more traditionally on a bed (because waster was not available)
Your article presents a valid argument, especially in regards to chlorinated water.
However, I will admit my first thought was if that is the case when are we going to ever bathe are kids. I am lucky to live on a very special place with fresh spring water and little to no chlorine or fluoride treatment.
Also my birth went like this the head was out, push and baby was set on my chest, which was above the water not in the water. immediately water was drained and baby was wrapped up in a warm blanket that was sitting in a warmer waiting for him. Baby had all his natural stuff on him, from that day forward for around a week.
Women should be informed of the risk and make an educated choice, but there are risk with almost every choice this day in age. My second baby was born in a hospital with a midwife and managed to clean all the vernix off him. My third was also cleaned before given to me.
I think water birth is still a good option for women to have, providing an educated choice is being made. Of course I think a hospital birth is a good option, a c-section, and a home birth, they are all choices and we have to evaluate what is best for us and when the benefit out weigh the risk.
In the water birth setting, my babies cord was connected until it stopped pulsating, He had is vernix, he was in my arms and breast feeding immediately, we did not have to give him eye goo, or anything else…. I am happy with our choice and would do it again even with this information.
Hi, just wanted to mention that water birth doesn’t somehow clean of the vernix. Babies will still have it, as it’s a waxy substance. If it dissolved in water, then I would think it would in amniotic fluid, too. But you can see many water birth photos of babies with plenty of vernix, and I can attest to all of my children having it after water births, as well.
I didn’t see any research articles linked to this post, but you may want to look at the peer reviewed journal articles on the topic, particularly water birth and GBS+ patients. It’s actually studied to be the most effective prevention method for transmission.
Also, if you were concerned about diluting mom’s vaginal flora, you could easily do a vaginal swab prior to getting into the tub and rub that over baby’s nose and mouth after birth. This has done with positive effect for c-section mom’s.
What about destruction of the vaginal flora from the chlorinated water (see citation in article).
What about women who have taken a bath in tap water? Wouldn’t their flora be destroyed according to this theory?
It would certainly be negatively affected no doubt about it. This is why bathing or showering in chlorinated water is a bad idea especially when pregnant. There are other health risks with the chlorine exposure too … not just disrupted flora. I personally would not even swim in a swimming pool when I was pregnant for this reason.
I am really, really curious why you assume flora-killing water would somehow be drawn up into the vaginal canal. Not only is this unlikely at any time, it is even more so when a giant baby is making his or her way down the canal. Are you under the impression that water flows into the vaginal canal whenever it is immersed in water? It doesn’t, because physics. Are women who takes baths showing signs of wildly disrupted flora?
I am definitely curious at what point you think it is safe to bathe children.
I do not find that any of your conclusions are supported by your arguments. There is a lot of speculation here, followed by extremely pointed recommendations. If you are going to declare something as unequivocally unsafe, it is best to have a pretty strong argument. You don’t.
Because the water does go up there that’s why 🙂
When I was first researching water birth and saw that some facilities made moms get out after their water broke, for fear of water entering the vagina, I found a study which refuted it. It’s been a decade, so I no longer have the citation, but it was a very simple study. Women inserted tampons dipped in a simple starch solution. They then entered a bath containing iodine. If starch met iodine, there should be a dramatic color change, right? Well, there just wasn’t. I suppose it’s like filling a very narrow necked balloon in the bathtub. Unless air is pushed out so that water will rush in, all it can do is slosh around the opening. While primates don’t birth in water, lots of animals swim, and it makes no sense evolutionarily that their/our vaginas would freely be contaminated with whatever nasties the other creatures shed into the water that day.
“Because the water does go up there that’s why :)”
Oh. Well, I guess I stand corrected.
Hear hear! Thanks for your correct insights, Rachel. (Especially about the vernix, that was a ridiculous point). And Sarah, did you read what she said? She said one possible way to preserve the most vaginal flora would be to do a swab before getting in the water and swab baby’s mouth and nose with it after birth, thereby voiding your point of chlorinated water “destroying” vaginal flora (which is not at all true anyway).
I’m still confused about filtered water not bring safe. I thought the whole purpose of a filter was to not only eliminate chlorine, but other harmful things, to be safe for consumption. So, by filtering my water, I’m susceptible to contracting e.coli?
The pathogens in the filtered water in the birthing tub are from the feces and other bodily fluids and tissues that the water becomes contaminated with during labor and delivery. See the bloody water with who knows what else in it in the photo above that the baby is getting into his mouth while nursing in the tub? The baby would also get some in his mouth, ears, eyes etc after being born underwater in the tub.
I would like to point out a few things if we are using the picture as a reference. One: The baby in the picture is not nursing. Not to say that it’s not done, but the many women I’ve known to have a water birth have gotten out soon after. Even before the placenta was birthed in many cases. Two: unless you were there, you do not know for certain that that is bloody water. It could very well be an after birth herbal bath. I’ve seen countless pictures from woman I am acquainted with that the water was clean. The few that looked “bloody” were herbal baths. Just something to consider. Water birth may not be for everyone and everything must be weighed for it’s pros and cons, but let’s not over react or condemn women who choose to water birth.
Having given birth to 3 children, there is a lot that comes out at birth and if this went into the water, the water would be filthy. Just sayin.
But the chlorine that is in the water that is supposedly strong enough to kill all probiotics, gut flora, vernix (there are literally no studies or evidence that short term exposure to chlorine on skin kills vernix) would then be able to kill whatever’s in the “filth” that your baby is born through even on land birth. Yes our babies get a mouthful of our feces on the way out. That’s how it works. So which is it? The chlorine is strong enough to kill bacteria, or it’s not?
I guess it really depends on how much chlorine is in there. Gyms and spas with whirlpools are checking that chlorine all the time to see if there is enough in there to maintain a pathogen free environment. Maybe midwives should be checking the chlorine and adding it if there isn’t enough .. but then it would make for ever more toxic water from a chemical standpoint. Either way, you can’t win with a water birth. Too much chlorine or too little. It’s a bad deal either way. Best to opt out.
Why did this never occur to me? It’s so obvious! This is to say nothing of fluoride exposure, a known neurotoxin! Thank you for writing this! I’m so glad I never did a water birth. Although water birth must still be a far better option than cesarean sections, don’t you think?
Wow, I didn’t even cover the fluoride. Yet another issue to consider. I am so not a water birth fan. So many problems with it. And, unless the baby is born in the caul, the baby doesn’t go from water to water. The baby goes from water in the sack to out of the sack to back in the water. That is just not right and doesn’t make sense. So unnatural. Humans are not dolphins.
I am honestly very disappointed that this author would bother to put so much effort into frightening people away from water birth with such thin arguments. What about the toxicity of nearly EVERYTHING a woman encounters in a hospital setting. The water she drinks there is not filtered. Everything she comes in contact with is teaming with potentially harmful bacteria.
emedicine.medscape.com/article/967022-overview
nursingschoolhub.com/top-10-most-common-diseases-found-in-hospitals/
medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=113578
There is potential harm lurking in every corner. Where is the article vilifying hospital birth? If water is so terrible for a birthing woman where is the article condemning showering at all during pregnancy? Or bathing your baby after its born?
Waterbirth is possibly the safest form of analgesia for birth next to deep hypnosis. Get a filter if you are that worried. Don’t frighten women away from a very safe and natural form of relaxation and pain relief used for ages the world over and in places with god knows what in the water.
Then labor in the water … fine. Just get out of the tub when it’s time to give birth. Laboring in the water is bad enough but birthing in there is just awful. Look at the water in that picture. In addition to almost certainly being chlorinated and the tub disinfected with who knows what cleaning chemicals, the blood, feces and tissue in there … and the baby is taking it in via mouth with breastfeeding. Wow, cannot even fathom anyone thinking that is safe.
Hi, don’t forget to talk about flouride, which is added to most municiple water supplies in this country and some others. It has a different list of toxic effects and would make for an even more convincing argument.
I am not sure that waterbirth would wash off the vernix caseosa. After all, the baby has been living in an underwater world for nine months prior to birth. True, amniotic fluid is not exactly the same as water, but a brief time in the water (it really is brief for most babies) without any scrubbing or wiping action is unlikely to remove a significant amount of vernix.
In addition, this information might apply to a woman who has religiously monitored exactly what type of water she has consumed or showered in for her entire pregnancy, but other than that, being born in the same water that has been sustaining mother’s life is not likely to pose any additional risks to the infant.
In addition, the microflora of water-born infants has been researched and waterbirth has not been found to have a detrimental effect. A more evidence-based examination of waterbirth can be found here: evidencebasedbirth.com/waterbirth/
Some midwives would no doubt be more careful than others. As for a hospital water birth, wiping it off would likely happen after the baby comes out of the tub. I’ve had mothers tell me this happens.
Parents can simply request the vernix not be wiped off at all. I’m a birth doula and have yet to see a doctor or nurse wipe vernix when parents have expressed their wish not to.
Sarah, I’m having trouble locating the 2003 review you mention here: “However, a 2003 review of medical literature pertaining to water births found 64 infants experienced serious complications from water birthing. These included death from drowning, near-drowning, bacterial infections and fever.”
Do you mean the 2004 review of the literature published by Pinette, Wax et al?
Let me source that. I don’t see the proper reference there. Thanks for pointing that out.
I see you edited your statement, but I’m not sure you mean for it to come across like it does to me…? Out of 74 articles, the review focused on 16 that described complications, but to me it sounds like you’re saying there are 74 articles AND 16 citations with complications (what the abstract doesn’t say is that Pinnette, Wax, and Wilson are including the Rosser article where a baby was born “in caul” and died from being left in the sack, as well as a baby that was left underwater for 25 minutes in a birth pool and drowned. Who knows what the other articles say…it sounds like some of the evidence is being misrepresented in this abstract).
I agree on the chlorine risk, but view your remaining points as being very sensationalized.
You used to be one of my favorite bloggers, but I don’t see the benefits and risks being equally shared recently so we can use your posts for making truly informed decisions (for example, I’ve utilized the suggestions in your guest’s post on what to do when swimming in a chlorinated pool. Of course avoiding the chlorine is what’s best, but the willingness to recognize not everyone will, and making suggestions to make it safer was refreshing. I miss that side of your blog, but also understand this is *your* blog. 🙂 You were a huge influence in my journey into natural health 4-5 years ago, and I thank you for what you chose to blog about back then).
Yes, I made a mistake there. Thanks for having me double check that reference 🙂 I actually got that out of a book and the book was wrong when I checked the actual citations that the book referenced.
Thank you for your time and research with this topic. Your article and your research has given me an opportunity to pause to reflect and reconsider my upcoming birth plan. However there are a lot of benefits to water birthing which I feel you failed to mention. The stress and pain relief is extremely beneficial to both baby and mommy. This helps to prevent moms in labour to allow their bodies to work thru labour instead of against it. How many medical interventions in labor have been prevented because of water births? What are some natural ways to keep water sanitary and clean? These are questions I feel should be addressed regarding this topic.
I don’t understand the concern if you have a whole house filter system for water?
Hi Kelly, because using filtered water introduces the risk of infection. In addition, water birth washes off the baby’s protective biofilm called the vernix caseosa which should never be washed off.
I really think you’re grasping at straws with the water safety. If the city restricted bathing, then I’d absolutely forego waterbirth, but unless you bathe your entire household in distilled water, there’s not really a point
But my “overdue” waterbirth baby was COVERED in vernix. It didn’t affect that at all. My landbirth (hospital) baby was promptly scrubbed down, though.
What happened when the baby came out of the toxic tub? It was likely wiped off with a towel, right? Unless, the midwife very carefully patted the baby dry but this would have been a problem with all that blood, feces etc in the tub water. Please forgive me for saying this, but that grosses me out and I am *not* in any way a germaphobe. When something is filthy, it is just filthy and birthing tub water is filthy with who knows what. Look at the picture above. I certainly would not want to nurse my baby in that.
You keep referring to that picture in your comments, and most moms that birthed in a tub have pointed out that it looks like an herbal bath, which is most likely the case. Moms don’t just soak in the same water for hours after they give birth. They are most often examined by the midwife shortly after. Then they are put in a fresh bath with herbs. I can see your point on the chlorinated water, but that is all. You can buy a filter for that if its a concern. water birth is beautiful and a wonderful option for pain relief. Most mothers who do water birth enjoy it very much. I’m sad that your negative advice has discouraging some, Didn’t your mom ever tell you if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all. I don’t find this article informative in any way, but rather very biased.
Most? You mean one? Yes, water birth is enjoyable, but enjoyable doesn’t mean “good” or “should”. Doesn’t look like an herbal bath at all to me. Looks like blood and it wouldn’t take much blood to make it that red. At the very least, there is feces in there.
the water in my birth pool was NOT full of blood or feces and it was not filthy. My baby was covering in vernix, we got out before the placenta was delivered so there was no blood in the water, and he stayed on my bare chest covered with a soft flannel blanket for a while until I gently patted him dry.
A baby that is born bloody shouldn’t be washed or wiped off at birth? And as far as the risk of E. Coli, I don’t think this risk is any more greater than putting an infant, baby, or toddler in a bath.
Well, a bath would be clean water right? Not birthing tub water contaminated from labor and delivery with feces, blood and other bodily tissues.
In regards to your comments on water birth and the washing off of the baby’s vernix: Vernix is a very thick, lotion-like substance that is NOT easily washed off. For example, a baby birthed in the water and then placed on mother will not simply clean off the vernix from the baby. If that were the case, the vernix would not stay on the baby in the fluid environment that he or she has lived in thus far.
True, but water birth in chlorinated water would compromise the vernix (it is a living biofilm) and the baby would be wiped off with a towel after coming out of the pool which would no doubt be loaded with contaminants … feces, blood, tissue etc.
Why would the towel have feces on it?
The birthing tub water is contaminated with feces, blood, tissues etc. That has occurred without a doubt. Patting the baby dry who is wet from being in the toxic birthing tub instead of washing or wiping the water off leaves it on the baby.
The water in birth pools is not chlorinated any differently than the water that the child will later be bathed in. This article is baseless. The Legionnaires disease baby died because the water was left to stagnate heated for many days, which is not a recommended practice. Hospitals all over the world deliver babies in the water and have done so for decades. But you can come up with only 60 “victims” who were not conclusively linked to the water birth itself? 60 out of hundreds of thousands, possibly millions? Ok. Furthermore, the “blood and feces in the water” is the same blood and feces that the baby is exposed to on the way out of the birth canal. That is what colonizes the baby’s gut! There’s a reason why babies come out face down with mouth toward the mother’s – so they can get colonized with bacteria needed for digestion. And don’t forget the study that says that waterbirth for GBS+ is found to be slightly more PROTECTIVE because it clears the bacteria from the baby’s body. Sorry.
Babies should not be bathed in chlorinated water either and they certainly shouldn’t be birthed in it. Did you see the citation above by a medical doctor who writes about chlorinated water destroying beneficial probiotic flora?
So don’t wipe the baby off after a land birth because it will mess up the vernix. Leave the baby covered in the blood, fluid, tissue etc? But that very same blood, fluid, tissue, etc., if it’s in the water birthing tub, is suddenly bad? I’m really confused by your point.
My babies didn’t need wiping off or towel drying after birth “on land” as you call it. They weren’t wet.
I can understand the risk using a birthing pool-I actually did wonder about contamination when we discussed that option. Our midwives caught the baby and lifted him out of the water without wiping the vernix off him by just wrapping him in several warm blankets and putting a hat on him. I can see the point here, but for myself, I still feel much safer at home in my own bathtub/environment than anyplace else. (and we do filter for chlorine)
🙂 thanks for sharing.
Just de-chlorinate the water and you have a win win here, just because you didn’t like your water birth because you got freaked out about chlorine doesn’t mean you have to “toss the baby out with the bathwater” so to speak. There is a good and not as good way to do everything… a water birth can be done healthfully. The chlorine piece is the main point that holds actual potential concern in this article, so why not help people by showing them their options, aka “how to dechlorinate water” wikihow.com/Dechlorinate-Water or “10 ways to build up your babies gut flora in pregnancy birth and post preg.” that is if you want to take the helpful approach, and not the fear mongering approach, but this is your blog, your choice… Just realize, instilling fear takes the power away from women, where instilling tools like how to’s and hope empowers women to do what is best for their situation. Hopefully the women reading your stuff can tell when they are being empowered or fearmongered.
Unfortunately, filtered water has its own set of risks. I also wonder about the dilution effect of vaginal and skin based flora from the water in general. I don’t think birthing in the water is a good idea all around … too many people are not taking protection of the baby’s microbiome seriously enough. This microbiome affects the baby’s health for life … anything that would remotely harm it is not even an option in my book. In China, a custom is not to wash or even rinse a newborn for over a month after birth … that skin flora from the vernix plus what the baby got coming through the vaginal canal is precious to the child and needs to be given time to flourish and grow and take hold as part of the baby’s biology before washing any of it down the drain. And, even if soap is not used, some will still get washed away.