It has been reported that attitudes towards water births are changing in maternity hospitals across Ireland.
A few months ago, the Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda became the third hospital to reintroduce the option of water births for expectant mums.
The hospital had previously discontinued water births for their patients over ten years ago. According to Louth Hospitals Director of Midwifery, Gráinne Milne, five water births have taken place in Drogheda since their reintroduction.
Lady of Lourdes joins Wexford General Hospital and the Coombe in Dublin as the three hospitals offering water births for pregnant women in Ireland. At the moment, 11 of the 19 maternity units in these hospitals have labouring pools, with three of them now accepting water births.
Water births are popular as an alternative pain relief during labour, with expectant mums opting for the natural remedies of warm water.
Last year, the National Maternity Hospital conducted research which revealed that there has been a reduced use of epidurals.
Within that survey, it was noted that between 35% to 47% of the lower epidural rates was because of “the widening of the inclusion criteria for the hydrotherapy pool”.
However, despite the recent progress in water births in a hospital setting, the option is still currently unavailable to mums who wish to give birth at home.
In 2020, the HSE “temporarily paused” home water births, after it received reports of “a small number of incidents”. It is not yet known if, or when, the service will be allowed to resume.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, the Chairperson of the Community Midwives Association, Aisling Dixon, argued in defence of home births.
“There’s a high level of scrutiny of the home birth service,” she explained, adding that they “also want fairness, in that the same level of scrutiny and publicity is extended to adverse outcomes in a hospital setting.”
