NOW!
Especially for Dads!
UNDERWATER BIRTH - The Ultimate Alternative
By Binnie A. Dansby
PRE-
AND PERINATAL PSYCHOLOGY, An Introduction, Chapter 10
Edited
by Thomas R. Verny, M.D. (1984)
Human
Sciences Press, Inc. 72 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y.10011--8004
It is my personal belief that underwater birth is the ultimate alternative available in birthing practices at this time.
In early 1980, in a supermarket in Pacific Beach, California, I saw a newspaper with a picture of a baby underwater. The mother's body was half submerged. On close inspection I could see that this was birth, and my whole self said YES! I purchased the newspaper and read for the first time about Igor Charkovsky and his research in Russia.
My personal journey to that supermarket began in 1966 when I read BIRTH WITHOUT FEAR by Grantly Dick-Read. During labour I tried to follow his instructions, but the more I relaxed the more fear surfaced. Each contraction brought more pain, and finally I asked to be drugged. It was a terrible experience - 12 hours of excruciating pain and then unconsciousness. I felt disconnected from my baby and a frustration that I could not identify. It just made me sad and angry. I declared to my husband as we were leaving the hospital. "There has to be a better way to birth a baby. We know too much about ourselves. I am going to find that way or I am not going to have another child!"
Two years later, in 1968, I gave birth in the same hospital, with the same doctor and the same husband. This time the experience was drug free, painless, and very real work. I experienced an orgasm when my second son, Robert, presented. In the two intervening years I had read every book I could find on the psychology and physiology of birth, breastfeeding and parenting. I became pregnant after I was told about psychoprophylaxis, the Lamaze method. I spent a considerable amount of time with women who had given birth using this method. With little or no support available in the medical community in that time and place. I knew I must take full responsibility for my birth experience. I was convinced before I began the training process that we would have a successful outcome.
Although I returned to my career in fashion design, I was still fascinated with and continued research in birth and birthing practices, as well as studies in psychology, parapsychology, and my own spirituality. In 1975, I met Leonard Orr, the creator of the rebirthing process and philosophy.
Rebirthing is a personal process utilising the breath as a tool for the surfacing and release of physiological stress and thought patterns from previous life experiences. Those who have been rebirthed report remembering and reexperiencing their births. Through this process it is possible to eliminate primal trauma and transform the subconscious impression of birth into a gentle and awakening event. Rebirthing supports the experience of safety, innocence, and trust. It is practised both in the water and on dry land.
I studied with Leonard Orr, and in my own rebirthing process, among a myriad of benefits, I released my fears of birth and of water. I realised that birthing and being birthed are so interwoven in thoughts and feelings of mother and child that this rebirthing process would be invaluable for a woman who is pregnant. She could release prejudice and fear, which cause contraction, stress, and pain in labour. If a woman could retrieve birth and in utero experiences of her own, she would be more certain of her power to influence her child's personality and experience. I became determined to be a fine rebirther and counsellor; and to work with pregnant couples to strive to create the gentlest anxiety- and violence-free births possible.
Enter Igor Charkovsky.
Charkovsky believes that unlearning the genetic fear of water is the key
to the continued mental and physical development of the human race.
"Human
development has been at a standstill for many thousands of years; has reached an
impasse. A life in the water offers
new possibilities for development" (Sidenbladh,
1982). Water
is the cradle of life. We must note
that although we have evolved to our present stage over the more than 3 billion
years since life originated in the oceans, we still create our bodies through
all the stages of evolution in water, in the womb.
Charkovsky believes that the step from water onto land created a duel
between living creatures and gravity that has lasted millions of years.
In water the effect of gravity is lessened greatly.
The need for oxygen decreases by 60 to 75 percent.
The body's energy can be more efficiently utilised for healing and
development. Charkovsky says: "Not
until I had done thousands of experiments with animals did I begin to understand
what kind of problem I was attempting to solve.
Up to then I hadn't really realised how deep down in the unconscious mind
of all land animals ----including man --- the fear of water lies.
I could never have dreamed of the complex view which exists between
different sides of the problem, of the subtleness with which our
"forefathers and mothers" control our way of viewing the world, of the
forces which take part in the battle between old and new in our way of thinking
(Sidenbladh, 1982)
When I saw that it was possible to give birth in water, it began to make sense that a woman allowed to move freely and relax in warm water during labour would be more in control and would be better able to communicate with and receive communication from her baby. I knew that a woman who was unafraid would dilate and release her baby more easily in the comfortable and buoyant water atmosphere. She would naturally communicate safety to her baby, as well as security and well being. Joan Liedloff states in THE CONTINUUM CONCEPT (1977) "What a baby encounters at birth is what he/she feels the nature of life to be. After a typical hospital birth the baby knows life to be unspeakably lonely, unresponsive to his/her signals and full of pain." In my experience as a rebirther, countless people have described those feelings of danger and alienation interwoven throughout their lives. Instead of life on planet Earth being full of potential and a safe place to be, everything and everyone is to be feared on some level of consciousness.
As the possibility of alleviating undue stress in birth became clearer to me, I realised that learning potential could be dramatically effected. Learning is more difficult when tension and stress are the underlying state of being. All forms of creativity are less available to the anxious person. In THE MAGICAL CHILD, Joseph Chilton Pearce (1977) says "Intelligence grows by moving from the known to the unknown and referring back to the known. No new experience can be accepted and interpreted unless it has at least some similarity to past experience." A new being moving from water to water, from mother's womb to mother's arms, while encountering countless new experiences could become a more centred and relaxed person for whom effective problem solving, artistic expression, and service to others are natural and effortless.
My friends Patrick and Jia Lighthouse were equally excited about the potential and possibility of birthing a baby into water. Jia became pregnant within a month of reading about Charkovsky's work, and we began to prepare for what would be the first documented underwater birth in the United States. Both Patrick and Jia were rebirthed regularly, often in water. Preparation also included hypnotherapy and writing affirmations to clear out negative thoughts and fears. Jia gave careful attention to nutrition. Three to 4 weeks before the birth they rented a fibreglass hot tub, scrubbed it with germicides, and filled it with distilled water, adding salt to make a normal saline solution (0.9% sodium chloride). Other preparations were the same as for any home birth.
Our inner conviction that
"this is the right thing to do" never wavered, although we encountered
opposition from the doctors and most midwives whom we asked to attend.
Patrick's attempts to correspond with Dr. Charkovsky brought no answers,
and we were unaware of Dr. Odent at that time.
Jia has said, "the
greatest motivational force behind our decision to create a water birth for our
child was love. We loved this new
baby so much we wanted to give him the gentlest, easiest, most heart-warming
welcome into this world that we could."
The people who were to attend the birth gathered as a group three times to clear fears and doubts and to align as a group to create a supportive ambience. Babies are vulnerable to all the thoughts around them at birth. We wanted this baby to be greeted by unhurried, joyful friends, not by fear and indifference. I believe that the way we bring forth new life is an expression of how we view life itself. In order to have peace around us, as we all say we do, we must first find safety and trust and peace within, and give birth to our children and our projects from that state of being. Jeremy's birth was awe-inspiring for everyone. It was a highly spiritual celebration of life.
This labour was 2 hours in length, as opposed to 48 hours the first time. Jia very naturally turned to hands-and-knees position to deliver 10 and1/2 pound Jeremy. Patrick supported his son's entry into the world and often comments that it was he who had the opportunity to lift his son for his first breath. Water babies are not shocked or startled, nor forced to take a first breath. While still receiving oxygen and nutrients through the umbilical cord and being held in mother's arms, they play with the air.
Jeremy stayed underwater for 20 minutes. Patrick was holding the cord, and Jia, in tune with her body and her baby, sensed when the placenta was about to detach. Jeremy was then brought to the surface to learn to breathe gently. About 30 minutes after he surfaced I was holding Jeremy while Jia was being checked. He was breathing well, and the cord had not yet been cut. As I held him close, I noticed he began a breathing rhythm that duplicated the way I had often instructed Jia to breathe in rebirthing sessions. It was a rapid connected breath. I thought, but did not say, OK, now let's take a deep cleansing breath, ---Jeremy did just that. He took a deep breath and looked right into my eyes. I could only say "Thank you!" and greet my old friend. Jeremy's birth was the most peaceful event of my life up to that point.
In subsequent births where I have participated, the mother has brought the baby to the surface within3 to 5 minutes. Once the baby has let go, relaxed after the stress in the birth canal, the next step ---surfacing --- can take place. I assisted one father in catching his son. I was deeply moved as I felt the baby's release in the warm, familiar surrounding ---like feeling a flower unfold.
In a dream prior to Jeremy's birth, one of several dreams that dealt with preparation for the birth, I was instructed to saturate the first receiving blanket he was wrapped in with apricot kernel oil. I now ask each mother to decide what nurturing oil she feels her baby wants. Each has been different.
On the day Jeremy was born, 28 October, 1980, in La Jolla, California, Estelle Myers was meditating with a group of people on a beach across the ocean in Australia. Their focus was communication with the dolphins. Estelle is known in Australia and New Zealand as the "Dolphin Lady". She received a telepathic message that day saying that from now on babies should be born into water on planet Earth.
Estelle believes, as many of us do, that we have much to learn from this gentle, peaceful, intelligent, communal creature, the dolphin. Estelle set out there and then to create the Rainbow Dolphin Centre in Tutulaka, New Zealand, where underwater birth could be supported; and after researching Charkovsky's work, she also encourages water training of the underwater babies. Estelle has encountered opposition on many levels, the medical community as well as the courts. There does appear to be more midwife support so far in New Zealand than we have in the United States. At last report there have been 16 underwater births in New Zealand. Estelle Myers is a remarkable woman of unbounded energy and deserves support and acknowledgement in her quest for peace.
Because underwater births are not yet accepted by the medical profession in the United States, they take place at home. Since Jeremy's birth we have used the bottom half of a fibreglass Float-to-Relax tank for some of the births and now use a tank designed by an underwater father and myself. This tank is 8 feet by 4 feet by 2 feet, and it is portable. It is a frame of plastic piping covered by carpet and vinyl, with a beanbag chair for seated support. Most women deliver in the sit-squat position or on their hands and knees. The baby is "caught" by the father or a midwife and put into the mother's arms for her to bring the baby to the surface at breast level, an ideal position for eye-to-eye bonding. While underwater, the baby is receiving oxygen and nutrients from the placenta via the umbilical cord. Both Dr. Charkovsky and Dr. Odent affirm that as long as the primitive brain controls the baby, the baby is perfectly adapted to immersion. Dr. Charkovsky says that water does not kill; that it is fear that kills. The physical process of birth is slowed down so that the system can adapt more gently. The baby is kept at the same level as the placenta or higher. I have seen only one incident of tearing in all the water births (including the births of two 10 and 1/2-pound boys), and that was a tiny tear that did not even need repair. The circumstance was a fast, intense labour and delivery (1 hour from onset of labour).
Emotionally and spiritually, water birth is a peaceful and gentle entry for the new human being and its mother. Allowed to labour in water, the mother has a maximum amount of comfort and the choice of her bed or the water. The atmosphere is safe, secure, and warm. Familiar people whom she has chosen and who are ready and willing to do what ever she wishes support the labouring woman. All of those present recognise her vulnerability and their own psychic impact on the birth experience. There is the opportunity for the father to participate as fully as he chooses; couples report a deeper bond in their relationship; and fathers enjoy an immediate close relationship with the new baby.
A woman focused on the task of opening an letting go must be assisted and encouraged to overcome her fear and handle her contractions as she chooses. No orders are given. Bradley and Lamaze breathing methods are used, as well as the connected "rebirthing" breath. When a woman is in charge and working to release her child, the experience for the baby is one of pressure and deep massage, as opposed to a mother full of fear and blame, which causes the experience for the baby to be one of constriction and pain. A child born into an atmosphere of safety and ease and welcome will move into life with just that point of view. Memories of shock and the physical pain of conventional birth are retained in the subconscious mind and in the body throughout our lifetime or until those memories are released. A woman who has prepared and comes to the birth experience without negative memories and barriers does not create a negative experience and beginning for her child.
There is strong opposition to this alternative, water birth, from many people, not just the medical community. It is important to honour your fears as long as you have them. Water birth is not for everyone. It must be a step taken on careful consideration and with full trust and responsibility. Recognising the centuries of thought that we in our culture have passed from generation to generation as to the nature of life and how we are supposed to give birth, I feel that preparation is necessary for a successful, gentle birth experience. We must be open to possibilities for growth and change, conscious evolution, before those changes can take place. No matter where they plan to give birth, the people with whom I work prepare with rebirthing, writing affirmations, group sharing and support, values-clarification processes, meditation and relaxation techniques, Bradley or Lamaze training. They view films of underwater birth and gentle home birth, and counsel with couples who have experienced joyous, painless birth and underwater birth. Each individual mother (and her partner as well) has the opportunity to experience a personal transformation in the process of giving birth, thus transferring to the child the thoughts that life is peaceful and pleasurable; that change, while inevitable, is not something to fear; that new beginnings do not create separation; that taking responsibility for the circumstances of being alive in a body does not mean pain or burden. An experience of accomplishment, satisfaction, and mastery is achieved in fully conscious participation with the creative process.
At each water birth I have been reminded again of something that Albert Einstein said:
The
most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of
the mystical. It is the source of
all true science. He to whom this
emotion is a stranger, who can no longer stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a
superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe,
forms my idea of God.
References
Liedloff,
J. (1977). The Continuum Concept. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Pearce,
J.C. (1977). The Magical Child. New York: E. P. Dutton.
Sidenbladh,
E. (1982). Water Babies. New York: St. Martin's Press.