Water for labour & birth

The use of birthing pools during labour and birth is a meaningful non-pharmacological pain relief option and should be readily available within all birthplace settings where there is access to sanitation and hot running water. The birth pool should be large enough that birthing women and people can move freely and without restriction. Maternity professionals should be equipped with the skills and health services with the infrastructure to offer birthing pool use during childbirth.

The use of birthing pools has been a longtime personal, clinical and research interest; fortunate to be taught by excellent birth centre midwives and Dr Ethel Burns, a world-leading waterbirth expert. More recently, working alongside Dr Ethel Burns and the OxMater research group at Oxford Brookes University, we - an international interdisciplinary research group - have been involved in a number of related projects.

Within this page, there are links to research papers, book chapters, insights for maternity professionals and media from my research in this area. Most of this content is free to access but do get in touch should an item be behind a paywall.

Publications