Studies show that being in water provides effective pain relief, so whether you soak in your own bathtub during early labor at home or seek out a hospital or birth center with tubs for labor and birth, it’s helpful to understand the benefits of aqua therapy.

Relaxation is the main reason women say they feel better laboring in water. If you can relax when you’re in pain you’ll be less anxious. In turn, your body will release less adrenaline, which it produces in response to stress. Since stress may make your contractions less effective the goal is to avoid the stress response!

When you relax, you pump more blood through your veins and arteries, and the baby gets a boost as more blood flows through the placenta.

The opportunity to ease through a natural labor is what compelled Chicagoland resident Jessica Horwitz to seek a water birth at West Suburban Hospital.

"As my labor progressed, water became an integral part of my birth experience, providing relaxation, relieving pressure and giving me the ability to move with a feeling of weightlessness through contractions, and through every push as my daughter was born,” Jessica says.

“I longed for a birth that would be peaceful and intimate and I truly believe laboring in the water and delivering my baby in the tub ensured I had the birth that I hoped I would be lucky enough to experience.”

Aqua Therapy

By the time you reach term, you may be carrying as many as 25 to 30 extra pounds, and water helps you feel weightless as it eases the strain of the extra weight off of your joints. Any pregnant woman who has spent time in water can tell you that weightlessness is bliss, especially in the last months of pregnancy.

Certified nurse-midwife Mary Saracco, of Midwifery & Women's Health at West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park, IL, says most of the women she serves are, like Jessica, seeking unmedicated, low-intervention births. They have uncomplicated pregnancies, choose to be in water for some part of their labor and may even birth in water.

"Pain relief is a chief advantage but added benefits are fewer perineal tears, immediate skin-to-skin contact and early bonding," says Saracco, who birthed her first child in water 5 years ago.

Saracco says using water for pain relief, with intermittent fetal heart rate monitoring, encouraging walking in labor and using birthing balls for positioning has contributed to the very low rate of first-time cesarean births of just 8.9% among women receiving care in Saracco’s practice. Nationally, 19% of first-time moms have cesareans, and among all births, cesareans are now 1 in 3.

Did you know?

You may be carrying up to 30 extra pounds in pregnancy, and water eases the strain on your joints.