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All expectant mothers should be offered the chance to have a water birth because it provides the safest form of pain relief, says the British Government's health watchdog.
A birthing pool is not necessary and climbing into a bath at home or in hospital during labour can be just as effective, says the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
The institute says extending the use of water births could improve the experience for thousands of women.
A spokeswoman said: "Getting into a warm bath is a very effective method of pain relief and there are no side-effects as with drugs or gas and air. You can do it at home or in hospital."
Giving birth should be a normal process which ends with a spontaneous vaginal delivery where mother and baby are healthy afterwards, the guidelines say. But too often, it has become a medical procedure because doctors and midwives and mothers become anxious about letting nature take its course.
"In some cases women have had medical interventions they did not need. This guidance is about putting together best practice to ensure it is as normal as possible," the spokeswoman said.
The number of caesareans has doubled in a generation and more than half of births now involve some form of intervention with forceps, ventouse (suction) or other instrumental delivery. Doctors, midwives and women's groups have become alarmed that mothers are being denied a natural birth.
Health Minister Alan Johnson pledged to increase the number of midwives. He said: "We initially planned an extra 1000 midwives by 2009. If birth rates continue to rise we will need to train more."
The institute says women should receive one-to-one care during labour and clinical intervention should be avoided if labour is progressing normally.
Women should be warned about the risks and benefits before being given an epidural and instrumental birth should be undertaken with "tested effective anaesthesia". Women should also be given the choice of a home birth.
Maureen Treadwell of the Birth Trauma Association said: "There is no 'right' way to give birth ... However, where women receive excellent support, good information and feel in control of what is going on, and where analgesia for medical procedures is adequate and effective, then a complicated birth need not be a traumatic one."
The Royal College of Obstetricians said it supported normal birth but warned complications could occur in as many as 30 per cent of first-time mothers assessed as low risk.
- Independent
