Whale-Watching-Web: Water-Birth Statisctic01

La Nouvelle Maternite Aquatique Ostendaise
The New Aquatic Maternity in Ostend

Before putting a pregnant woman into the water:
- Ensure that all normal hygienic procedures are followed, meaning that the bath has been disinfected thoroughly before filling it with pure tap water, and that women must have had a shower and a enema before entering the water.
- Make sure that the woman in question is good in labour, meaning she has heavy contractions lasting 40 sec every 2 or 3 minutes, otherwise you risk lengthening the whole process of labour too much.
- Check that the surrounding temperature is warm, so that neither the woman, nor the baby catch cold.
- Verify if the water isn't too hot or too cold because thus: it has no comforting or relaxing effect. it startles the baby too much when being born, so that he has a great tendency wanting to breathe when still under water and too hot water has a very great tendency to diminish the strength and the frequency of the contractions.
- Make sure that a foetal monitoring of minimum half an hour with normal readings of course happened upon admission
- Make sure women are not in a state mentioned in the contra-indications.
- And finally we add special (lyophilised) sea salt to the water. Besides the slight disinfecting effect, it also makes a better osmosis possible between the water and the human tissues, so that an even more weak perineum is created, leading of course to a smaller episiotomy if one is needed.

WHEN THE WOMAN IN LABOUR IS IN THE BATH
- Make sure she's feeling fine and comfortable and that she's never left alone.
- Enable her to take any position she likes, helping her by suggesting some, if needed.
- Offer her the possibility to easily get in and out of the water.
- A woman in labour in the bath gives you, by no means, reasons to diminish your observations concerning the evolution of her labour.