THE ADVANTAGES OF WATER BIRTH BEL 311 A5

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NURUL HALIZA BT ABDUL RAHMAN NUR FARHANA BT YAHYA NUR SYUHADAH BT ABDUL AZIZ NUR MUNIRAH BT SAFIAY

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Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.

Barbara Kingsolver Everyday babies are born across the globe. The mother who gave birth to the child absolutely will have to endure the unspeakable pain during the labor but god has created women with impressive strength to cope up with the pain. In Malaysia, most women give birth to their offspring normally, that is without surgical procedure. What women in Malaysia do not know, there is an alternative method of giving birth naturally which is known as water birth. This method offers numbers of advantages during laboring period.

Firstly, water birth promotes relaxation to the mother as well as reducing the stress while laboring. The use of hot wet towels or hot shower is the common pain relief practice in most care settings. According to Halina (2011) , the temperature of the water in the birth pool is maintained at 37 C or 38 C and its warmth helps the mother to relax. Thus water brings relaxation by lowering the mothers blood pressure to reduce anxiety. The water also provides buoyancy that helps to reduce the opposition to gravity and give freedom to the mother to maneuver while coping with contraction. Stress can happen during labor. When the mother is in stressful condition, her blood pressure will rise worryingly that eventually leads to birth complication. Therefore, warm water can aid in lowering the blood pressure (Kairil, 1995). Consequently, it will reduce stress and anxiety in the mother.

Secondly, this method of laboring minimizes pain and at the same time curtails the usage of epidural. Epidural mostly requested by women that have on land birth or simply the normal birth. Epidural is a type of pain killing drug that deadens the nerves that are carrying pain signal from the uterus and cervix to the brain. The consequences of using this drug is that the mothers blood pressure will decrease. Besides that, the baby will have a high tendency to be born with the aid of forceps or vacuum. So, this is where water birth plays an important role in alleviating the pain during contraction as the water promotes the production of endorphin. (Supernanny Team, 2007) stated that immersion in warm water triggers the production of pain relieving hormone which is endorphin in the mothers body. Endorphin, the natural pain killing drug produce by pituitary gland will attach to the pain receptor site on nerve cells where it will burn the sensation of pain and thus helps the mother to relax when she is under stress.

Last but not least, the risk of excessive perineum tearing can be receded and episiotomy is no longer needed. Submerging in water will helps the maternal pelvic floor muscles to ease up thus aiding the stretching of perineum and lowering the risk of excessive perennial tearing correspondingly. An excessive tearing may lead to tissue injuries that need weeks of recovery. Similarly, episiotomy, a surgical procedure whereby an incision is made to enlarge the vaginal opening also has the same adverse effects just as excessive perennial tearing. Sometimes the effect could be much worse as there will be chances that the surgical cut could tear down by itself and blood loss could be happening. According to (Baby Centre UK, 2009), the use of episiotomy may also leads to infection and complication to the mother.

In a nutshell, water birth prunes the risk of tearing at the same time reducing the need of episiotomy. Furthermore, it provides relaxation and reducing the stress of the mother as well as reducing pain and the usage of epidural. Even though water birth may not completely alleviate the pain of labor but it has been proven that somehow it could bring comfort to the mother. Hopefully in future, this method of giving birth will be widely recognized in Malaysia and soon to be used in most public hospitals.

References
Babycentre UK. (2009). Pros and Cons of Water Birth. Retrieved December 19, 2011, from
http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/labourandbirth/waterbirth/benefitsandhazards/

Halina Mohd Yunos. (2011). Waterbirth. Retrieved December 19, 2011, from http://barelysupermommy.com/2011/11/13/158/

Kairil Daniel. (1995). The Benefits of Water for labour / birth. Retrieved December 19, 2011, from
http://www.waterbirthinfo.com/benefits.html

Supernanny Team. (2007). Water Babies. Retrieved December 19, 2011, from http://www.supernanny.co.uk/Advice/-/Pregnancy-and-Birth/-/Childbirth-and-you/Waterbabies.aspx