A water birth means at least part of your labor, delivery, or both happen while you’re in a birth pool filled with warm water. It can take place in a hospital, a birthing center, or at home. A doctor, nurse-midwife, or midwife helps you through it. Advantages: • Help ease pain • Keep you from needing anesthesia • Shorten your labor A warm bath might help you relax and help you feel more in control. Floating in water helps you move around more easily than in bed, too. Some science suggests that t

Your provider wants to break your water. But YOU haven’t even reached active labor yet. Here’s the truth they might not tell you: YOU have the right to ask questions. YOU have the right to understand the risks. YOU deserve to know that breaking your water artificially can increase infection risk, make contractions more intense, and start a cascade of interventions that may not be necessary. You’ve been told that “doctor knows best” and to just trust the process. But what if the process isn’t alw