Skin-to-skin contact easier with water birth: comes WaterBirth

Skin-to-skin contact between baby and mother is a wonderful moment, an exchange of love that seals a special relationship for life. Unfortunately, for various reasons, this approach does not happen all the time and everywhere, but every woman should be aware of the benefits of such close contact with her baby and should be able to ask midwives and gynecologists to make this wish come true.

Skin-to-skin contact is one of the points that Unicef and WHO recommend

Skin-to-skin contact is one of the points that Unicef and WHO recommend for so-called “baby-friendly hospitals,” which are those health facilities that implement all best practices to encourage natural, peaceful birth and to promote breastfeeding. According to the two organizations, mothers who have just given birth should be handed their newborn babies immediately and laid on their chests for skin-to-skin contact.

The two should be left in this position for at least an hour, without interruption. The benefits are enormous. Empathy between the woman and the baby is immediate, the beginning of their relationship has no interference, the newborn gets over the stress of birth faster, can immediately smell mom’s scent and attach to the breast, to start being nursed.

Easier with water birth

With water birth this skin-to-skin contact is even easier because as soon as the baby is born it can be laid on the mother’s body, without even needing to be cleaned. In addition, the warm water in the tub warms him up, and the temperature is the same as the amniotic fluid in which he was immersed for about 9 months.

The latest innovation on the subject of water birth is WaterBirth, an app that makes this mode of childbirth even more pleasant and safer by. It was created by Pharma Mum Italia and has already been published in the App Store. Here’s how WaterBirth works. The woman giving birth in the water wears a smartwatch and, with a very simple tap on the device, can record the beginning and finish of each contraction, also indicating its intensity (high, low or medium).

Obstetrician and gynecologist monitor everything on the smartphone

At the same time, the midwife or gynecologist can monitor on a smartphone the frequency,
the duration and intensity of contractions in real time, without the woman having to leave the
tub. In addition, again thanks to the smartwatch, health personnel can monitor moment by moment
the woman’s heart rate at every moment of delivery, so they can intervene immediately if something is wrong.

A study conducted at the Arnas-Civico in Palermo showed that women who give birth in water have a lower heart rate than those who do not. The research looked at 120 women: of these, 81 went through labor and/or delivery in water, 39 did not. Thanks to WaterBirth, it was found that all of the birthing mothers who were in the tub had a
Lower heart rate than those who gave birth the traditional way.

WaterBirth turning point

This happens because the warm water promotes the release of endorfines, feel-good hormones, which
mitigate the painful perception of contractions. This also lowers the number of heartbeats.
WaterBirth therefore marks a turning point for those who wish to give birth in water because first evaluate
the intensity of contractions of a woman immersed in the tub was not possible.