Water born

A new study shows that birth pools can ease the pain of labour. So why, asks Janet Balaskas, are some women denied access to them?

Wednesday January 28, 2004

The Guardian In the late 1970s most women labored in large consultant units, semi-reclining in bed, strapped to electronic fetal heart monitors and subject to an avalanche of routine obstetric interventions. Of course, any sensible woman is only too grateful for modern obstetric care when there are problems. But we only have to look at our hospitals today where, in 2002, 22% of babies were born by caesarean section, to see that there remains a complete misunderstanding of the nature of birth physiology and the kind of environment and care women need to support it.