Help babies make their first splash at the BGH!

The Birthing Pool in the Labour Suite, Borders General Hospital was installed in 1999 and is now nearing the end of it’s life-span.   Borders Midwives are keen to ensure that women in the Borders continue to be able to choose a water birth and have decided to launch a fundraising drive with the aim of raising  £9,000 for a brand new birthing pool.

“Birthing pools provide a relaxed and natural environment for babies to be born in” comments Sarah Horan, Sister Midwife at the BGH. “We are in the process of implementing a Keeping Childbirth Natural and Dynamic programme, which aims to reduce unnecessary medical interventions in the birth process and enable women to have as positive a birth experience as possible. As well as a new birthing pool, we are also introducing additional natural birthing aids such as the birthing couch into the labour suite, to give women as much choice as possible when they are delivering their babies.”

Facts and Figures:
22 babies were born in the birthing pool from April 2007 to March 2008, and so far this year 14 water babies have entered the world in it.

Water births are becoming increasingly popular with women across the UK.   Pioneered by Michel Odent, a French obstetrician in the 1970s, birthing pools provide an excellent form of natural pain relief for labouring women, and allow the most natural birth process possible.