What I Learned From the First Hospital Birthing Pool

by Michel Odent

© 2000 Midwifery Today, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The first hospital birthing pool happened in the 1970s in a French state hospital. At that time France had some similarities with California. Following the student revolution of May 1968, the watchword was, "It is forbidden to forbid." It was a time for audacity and creativity. In such a context, we one day dared to transform a conventional delivery room into a homelike birthing room. In the same context, we bought a piano and invited the pregnant women to meet in the maternity unit on Tuesday evening and sing together. We also took into account that, when in labor, many women seemed to be attracted by water. Some wanted to have a shower, others a bath. That is why I eventually bought a blue inflatable garden paddling pool. This was the beginning of the history of birthing pools in hospitals.

Issue 54: Waterbirth Read more articles about waterbirth in Midwifery Today Issue 54.

As soon as the birthing pool was installed new strategies became possible. When a woman in hard labor was expressing an imperative demand for painkillers, we had something else to offer other than a shot of Demerol (the most popular painkiller of the 1970s). We could introduce the mother-to-be into the aquatic birthing room so that she could watch the beautiful blue water and hear the noise of the water filling the pool. The room had been painted blue, with dolphins on the walls. From that time on the question was not, "When will you give me a painkiller?" It was more often than not, "How long does it take to fill the pool?" The first lesson was about the importance of the time when the woman in labor is anticipating the bath: The dilation of the cervix can already progress dramatically before water immersion…if the aquatic environment is associated with privacy. It is as if some brakes are suddenly released. We were the witnesses of one of the many aspects of the magic effects of water on human beings, a magic power that cannot be easily explained with the language of physiologists.

At the time of the paddling pool (that is, before we installed a pool in hard material), women were not influenced by the media or by what they read in books about childbirth. Their behavior was unpremeditated. This phase of the history of childbirth was ideal to learn about the genuine effects of a watery environment. One of the most typical scenarios (with many possible variations) was the case of a woman entering the pool in hard labor at around 5 centimetres, spending an hour or two in the water and then feeling the need to get out of the pool at a stage when the contractions were less and less effective; going back to dry land was often a way to induce a short series of irresistible and powerful contractions so that the baby was born within some minutes. From the time when such a scenario became common, the pharmacy bill of the maternity unit started to drop dramatically. In other words, we learned that the birthing pool can replace drugs. This was the second lesson.

"The Use of Water for Labor and Birth" (video)

One day a mother-to-be had not been in the water for long when suddenly she had two irresistible contractions, and the baby was born before she could feel the need to get out of the pool. While giving birth, this woman was really "on another planet." It was obvious that in that particular state of consciousness associated with hard labor she miraculously knew that her baby could be born safely under water. There was no panic. It is as if a deep-rooted knowledge could express itself as soon as the intellect was at rest. Occasionally, similar stories happened again. We had learned the third lesson: A birth under water is a possibility. A newborn human baby has powerful diving reflexes and is perfectly adapted to immersion.

From that time many journalists, reporters and photographers were fascinated by the particular case of babies born in water. They were indifferent to what I personally considered important in the context of the 1970s: the great number of babies who could find the breast in the birthing room. We were just discovering that when the first contact between mother and baby is not disturbed at all, the human baby is as if programmed to find the nipple during the hour following birth. Young readers of Midwifery Today must realize that before 1980, very few people had heard of "the early expression of the rooting reflex." After a short period of surprise and even frustration, I concluded that good journalists are experts in human nature. They know how to attract the attention of their readers or their viewers. They have this intuitive knowledge that there is a special relationship between human beings and water.

I learned a lot about the media….

Michel Odent, MD, founded the Primal Health Research Centre in London and developed the maternity unit in Pithiviers, France, where birthing pools are used. He is the author of 10 books published in 19 languages. Two of them—Birth Reborn and The Nature of Birth and Breastfeeding—were published originally in the United States. His latest book is The Scientification of Love (available for $19 through Midwifery Today).

Related information:

• "A Midwife's Perspective: Labor and Birth in the Water" by Jill Cohen
• Question of the Quarter: What is your favorite waterbirth story?
• "The Use of Water for Birth and Labor" (videotape)
• "Birth Into Being: The Russian Waterbirth Experience" (videotape)

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