Dear Glenni
I would be interested to know if you find any research on breastfeeding and waterbirth.
I am an independent midwife and some of the women I attend choose to give birth in water.  All babies in my practice are breastfed, regardless of where they are born.  Of course the ones born at home have no narcotics or other chemicals to dope them, they stay in close skin contact with mother at least until after the first feed, physiological management of Third Stage is usual practice, there are no routines that separate mother and baby thereafter.  

Occasionally a woman decides to wean early for whatever reason, but most are exclusively breastfed for about 6 months, then continue breastfeeding while receiving other foods.

The latest edition of MIDIRS Midwifery Digest (March 1998) has an article by Michel Odent, *Use of water during labour - updated recommendations*.  Anyone interested in waterbirth should read it.  A letter to the Lancet is quoted "A 3700g baby girl was born at term in a hired birthing pool at home.  After an uneventful birth the mother remained in the pool with the baby for 30 minutes then came out of the pool.  Ten minutes later the card was clamped and syntocinon was given followed by the rapid delivery of the placenta.  After two days the baby was transferred to hospital because she was slow to breastfeed, sleepy and hypotonic.  She was diagnosed severely polycythemic, with a packed cell volume of 80% and haemoglobin level of 27g/dl."  The baby recovered well.  The interpretation of this case is interesting.  Of the thousands of waterbirths, this is the first published case of neonatal polycythaemia linked to birth under water.
MIDIRS has a website www.midirs.org  but I have not checked if the articles can be accessed that way.

Best regards
Joy Johnston
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-----Original Message-----
From:   C. Keith Lorick [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Wednesday, April 01, 1998 2:43 AM
Subject:        Bf and water birth

Does anyone have any information or know of any research regarding the
effects of water birth on bf?  If possible, I need sources I can access via
Internet..... it's pretty hard to find journals in English here (at least I
haven't figured it out yet!)  There will be a seminar on water birth here
in May, and my midwife asked me to look into this area as a possible area
of presentation.

Thanks so much
Glenni Lorick, BSE, IBCLC
Lima Peru
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