I figured out how I wanted to birth my baby before I even got pregnant. An addict of The Learning Channel's A Baby Story, I watched a water birth episode. Just after the birth, a baby girl floated on her back in the water, supported by the hands of her new parents, eyes wide open. I was struck by the peacefulness. No bright lights, no baby crying, no medical instruments – just soft voices of welcome and warm water. I knew that was the transition into the world I wanted to offer my baby.

While water birth is not a particularly mainstream option in this country, women around the world often give birth in water. Traditionally in Hawaii and some other coastal cultures, women sometimes even gave birth in the ocean.

Today in the United States, water births most often find Mom laboring in a large tub of warm water. As the baby descends down the birth canal, Mom, Dad or a birth attendant, such as a midwife, monitor the progress of the baby. With the final push, the baby is caught and lifted gently to the surface of the water, where most babies begin to breathe on their own with much less crying than is typical of a more conventional birth. The cord is often not cut for several minutes as the baby becomes accustomed to using its lungs while floating in the watery environment, cuddled by his or her parents.

Medical researchers in other countries have found water birth to be a safe way for low-risk mothers to deliver healthy babies. Scientists in Austria found that women who gave birth in the water used less pain medication and labor-augmenting drugs (such as oxytocin and Pitocin), had less hemorrhaging and infection and delivered equally healthy babies when compared to women who had a conventional vaginal delivery. In a different study conducted in London, England, researchers found that women choosing water birth to deliver their first babies had less perineal trauma (episiotomies or tearing) and spent 90 fewer minutes in labor.

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