Waterbirth: water temperature and bathing time mother knows best!
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V. Geissbuehler
Abstract
Objectives: The Frauenfeld Clinic for Obstetrics and Gynecology introduced waterbirths in 1991. This work examines whether guidelines for water temperature and bathing are actually necessary.
Methods: This 8-year prospective clinical study follows 10,775 births in a regional women's hospital (non-selected population). Neonatal and maternal body temperature and morbidity parameters were compared between land and waterbirths. A smaller study (n = 47) selectively focused on body temperature differences as influenced by bathing time and water temperature in waterbirths as compared to land births.
Results: Neonatal and maternal birth and perinatal parameters, and body temperatures do not differ between water and land births, except at birth, when waterbearing temperatures were 36.9 °C vs. 36.3 °C on land. Neonatal rectal temperatures did not differ significantly between the two groups. Water temperature increased from the beginning of the bath (35.2 °C) to 35.7 °C, and fell at the end of the bath to 32.9 °C. Water temperature range: 23 °C to 38.9 °C. Bathing duration: 28 min. to 364 min.
Conclusions: Waterbirths pose no thermal risk. The parturient, with her “inborn code of body temperature regulation,” regulates water temperature and bathing duration to ensure body temperatures of mother and child remain within the physiological range. Cumbersome guidelines for water temperature and bathing duration are therefore superfluous.
Copyright © 2002 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG
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- Congress Calendar
Articles in the same Issue
- Editorial
- The odds of delivering one, two or three extremely low birth weight (<1000 g) triplet infants: a study of 3288 sets
- Evaluation of a device for objective determination of cervical consistency: A pilot study of devices validity on uterine specimens obtained by total abdominal hysterectomy for benign uterine disease
- Clinical risk factors for deep venous thrombosis in pregnancy and the puerperium
- Waterbirth: water temperature and bathing time mother knows best!
- Anal sphincter injury during vaginal delivery – an argument for cesarean section on request?
- Doppler sonography of uterine arteries at 20–23 weeks: risk assessment of adverse pregnancy outcome by quantification of impedance and notch
- Cadmium concentration in maternal and cord blood and infant birth weight: a study on healthy non-smoking women
- The effects of oral carbohydrate administration on fetal acid base balance
- Labor induction and meconium: in vitro effects of oxytocin, dinoprostone and misoprostol on rat ileum relative to myometrium
- Catch-up growth in fetal malnourished term infants
- Role of surfactant inhibitors in amniotic fluid in respiratory distress syndrome
- Congenital tuberculosis proven by percutaneous liver biopsy: report of a case
- A case of peripartum cardiomyopathy with a transient increase of plasma interleukin-6 concentration occurred following mirror syndrome
- Bilateral cystic adenomatoid lung malformation type III – a rare differential diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension in neonates
- An unexpected case of primary pulmonary hypertension of the neonate (PPHN). Potential role of topical administration of enoxolone
- Urethral catheterization in neonates – how far is too far?
- Congress Calendar
