Woman gives birth under water

Press, 18 March 1982, Page 1

Woman gives birth under water

PA Whangarei New Zealand's first underwater birth is reported to have been carried out successfully at Tutukaka, about 29km north-east of Whangarei. The woman who set up an underwater-childbirth clinic at the Rainbow Dolphin Centre. Mrs Estelle Myers, said that the birth had gone according to plan and that both the mother and the child, a boy weighing about 3.6 kg, were in good health. Under-water . childbirth was developed by a Russian scientist.

Mrs Myers is an Australian dolphin researcher. Mrs Myers said that the mother, an Australian woman, aged 32, who now lived in New Zealand, wanted to remain anonymous.

The boy had been delivered in a normal-sized bathtub about 7.30 a.m. The child was the mother's fourth. The mother had been in labour for about 2.75 hours and had been in the bathtub for about an hour before the birth. A registered midwife and a nurse had assisted with the delivery. The baby had been born into water heated to 37deg. and.had then been put in a washbasin, where he had floated for 10mm to 15min. The baby had been alert and aware and had been relaxed in the water. Both the mother and the baby

would stay at the centre for several days and would then live in the area. Water births were becoming increasingly popular throughout the world. A pioneer in the water-birth technique, Dr Michel Odent, a Frenchman, would conduct a seminar on the subject in New Zealand in September. Explaining the birth process, Miss Myers said that the mother lay in the water during birth and the baby rose to the surface. The umbilical cord was then cut and the baby was reimmersed. The baby retained its automatic reflexes from the womb and held its breath under water. Within hours, babies born under water swam by themselves, coming to the surface every 2min or 3min to breathe like dolphins. When babies were delivered, they went from a world of weightlessness to one of gravitation. But putting them back into the water, a state of near weightlessness, they could conserve energy and could be introduced to the world of gravitation slowly. It was now known that a baby's skin was burnt by the temperature change involved in leaving the warmth of the womb. The water, which was kept at body temperature, avoided this burning.

Not much was known of exactly what babies experienced' at birth but many experts said that babies ex-

perienced immense heaviness, because of gravity, as they left the womb. This’ was why a baby’s oxygen consumption increased about four-fold after birth. Apart from the reduced trauma of birth, under-water babies did many things that conventionally born babies found impossible to do. They stood for minutes after two months to three months and walked at six months. Experiments show that under-water babies lacked any fear of water, .were more confident, lacked aggression, and were more intelligent than babies born conventionally. The advantages were not solely for the baby. Women who had given birth under water described it as a “fantastic experience." Mothers were more relaxed because the water supported their weight, seeming to make the birth quicker and almost painless.