Many women are expressing a wish fo

Many women are expressing a wish for more autonomy in their birth experiences, and some are choosing to use water immersion during labor and birth. The actual number of water birth in the United States is unknown because documented statistic in state birth registries for the type of birth option are not recorded nationally. As of 2001, at least 143 hospitals in the United States were providing water birth
History of Water Birth
The history of water birth is fascinating in its global reach and the pervasive thems that exist as to why women choose this method of birth. The first documented water birth occurred in France (Embry,1805). The first reported “water baby” in the United States was Jeremy Light-house, who was born in 1980 in his parents’ SanDiego hot tub (Cassidy, 2006).
The water birth movement gained traction with the publication of “Birth Without Violence” (Leboyer,1975). Providers’ observations from thousands of births noted that laboring women are attracted to water for the benefits of relaxation, comfort, pain relief and control over their birth (Odent,1983;Ponette,1996;Rosen-thal,1991).