Use water birth tech to reduce labour pain, avoid ceasarean: Expert

New Delhi, May 2: Water birth, a technique used for the first time in India recently, could play a crucial role in reducing labour pain for women during normal delivery and avoid ceasarean section, according to Dr Urvashi Sehgal, a gynaecologist who arranged it.

Dr Sehgal, an infertility expert who arranged water birth for British national Charlotte Walter at a private hospital, said that the technique not only improves the chances of normal delivery but also removes the use of any painkiller and other drugs required in the conventional method. It also prevents chances of any infections to the new born and mother. [What is water birth?: Explained]

Stressing the need for emulating the water birth experiment, Dr Sehgal said that it has many benefits as water helps provide relief to women in labour and facilitates child birth. Immersion in warm water raises the body temperature and causes the blood vessels to dilate, resulting in increased blood circulation thereby lowering blood pressure of a labouring woman and decreases any fluid retention or swelling. It also ensures more blood and oxygen reaching the labouring uterine muscles.

The hydrostatic pressure of water relievs the discomforts of contraction while easing muscular tension and enhances relaxation during and between contractions. A relaxed body stimulates the release of endorphins, the body's natural pain killers. Moreover, warm water immersion in labour helps in diminishing stress hormones, catecholamine and adrenalin, which are responsible for release of oxytocin and slowing down labour. With the easing of mental tension and muscle tightness that many labouring women feel, the sensation of pain is greatly diminished, she explained.

The technique, which was first used in France in 1803, is quite popular in Western countries as doctors feel that it not only makes deliveries more comfortable for women but also prevent any infection or complications, she said and called for popularising it in India also. It could go a long way in reducing caesarian whose incidence is increasing in the country due to increasing tension, fear, anxiety and stress level, she said and added that Charlotte's two older kids have been water birthed in the United Kingdom.

However, application of water birth technique required a far greater rigour than the conventional deliveries as it takes more time and one has to arrange huge amounts of processed water of the highest quality and the medical practitioner must be highly motivated to tread a different path, she added.

UNI