Water Birth at Geneva Woods Birth Center
Warm water is an effective pain management tool in natural birth.
Water birth is becoming increasingly popular throughout the US, and with good reason! Warm water is soothing and comforting, and quite effective as a pain management tool in natural birth.
Our Birthing Rooms
At Geneva Woods Birth Center, we have three private birthing rooms, all of which have showers, and two of which have tubs. We encourage all women to experience the soothing effects of warm water in labor, whether in the shower or the tub or both. Women who wish to give birth in the tub or shower are welcome to, and our patients have safely birthed many hundreds of babies in our tubs since 2002.
Laboring vs. Birthing Tubs
While all three major hospitals in Anchorage have at least one tub if not more, they are strictly for laboring only, and women are prohibited from giving birth in them. Therefore a birthing center or home birth are the only places in which a woman can have a water birth in Anchorage.
The American Association of Birth Centers Data
A birthing center or your home are the only places where you can have a water birth in Anchorage. At Geneva Woods Birth Center, all laboring women have access to a birthing tub and warm water.
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Water birth is a safe, evidence-based option. The American Association of Birth Centers collected and analyzed data on water births at birthing centers between 2007 and 2010 and found the following:
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Newborns were transferred to hospitals at lower rates with water births (1.5%) than with non-water births (2.8%).
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Overall rates of postpartum and neonatal transfers from the birth center to a hospital were slightly lower for births in water.
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Rates of adverse newborn outcomes were below 1.0% in water births. The total rate of respiratory issues was 1.6% among babies born in water, vs. 2.0% among those not born in water.
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There were no incidences of newborns breathing water info their lungs associated with birth underwater.
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“Midwives practicing in birth centers are trained, anticipatory water birth providers, so data generated by midwifery care provides the most accurate view of the safety of water birth.”
Oregon State University Water Birth Safety Study
In 2021, Oregon State University conducted the largest study of water births to date and found that water birth was associated with better overall outcomes than non-water birth. It was also associated with lower risks for several other maternal outcomes, including 64 fewer hemorrhages per 10,000 births, and 28 fewer hospitalizations in the first six weeks.
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Read more about the study here.