ArticleBMC pregnancy and childbirth2014
Immersion in water for pain relief and the risk of intrapartum transfer among low risk nulliparous women: secondary analysis of the Birthplace national prospective cohort study.
Article in BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Understanding the barriers and facilitators related to birthing pool use from organisational and multi-professional perspectives: a mixed-methods systematic review.Reproductive health · 2023Pooled it
- Immersion in water during labour and birth.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Characteristics of Women, Intrapartum Interventions, and Maternal and Neonatal Outcomes Among Users of Intrapartum Water Immersion: The UK POOL Cohort Study.Birth (Berkeley, Calif.) · 2026Article
- Therapeutic resources used by physiotherapists for the relief of labor pain: a cross-sectional study.Revista brasileira de ginecologia e obstetricia : revista da Federacao Brasileira das Sociedades de Ginecologia e Obstetricia · 2024Article
- Potential Implications of Emerging Nontraditional Childbirth Practices On Neonatal Health.The Journal of pediatrics · 2023Article
- Waterbirth: a national retrospective cohort study of factors associated with its use among women in England.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2021Observational
- Observational
- Risk of complicated birth at term in nulliparous and multiparous women using routinely collected maternity data in England: cohort study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2020Article
- Getting into the water: a prospective observational study of water immersion for labour and birth at a New Zealand District Health Board.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2020Observational
- Predictors of obstetric anal sphincter injury during waterbirth: a secondary analysis of a prospective observational study.International urogynecology journal · 2020Observational
- Neonatal Outcomes Following Delivery in Water: Evaluation of Safety in a District General Hospital.Cureus · 2018Article
- Defining and describing birth centres in the Netherlands - a component study of the Dutch Birth Centre Study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2017Article
- Freestanding Midwife-Led Units: A Narrative Review.Iranian journal of nursing and midwifery researchReview
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundImmersion in water during labour is an important non-pharmacological method to manage labour pain, particularly in midwifery-led care settings where pharmacological methods are limited. This study investigates the association between immersion for pain relief and transfer before birth and other maternal outcomes.
methodsA prospective cohort study of 16,577 low risk nulliparous women planning birth at home, in a freestanding midwifery unit (FMU) or in an alongside midwifery unit (AMU) in England between April 2008 and April 2010.
resultsImmersion in water for pain relief was common; 50% in planned home births, 54% in FMUs and 38% in AMUs. Immersion in water was associated with a lower risk of transfer before birth for births planned at home (adjusted RR 0.88; 95% CI 0.79-0.99), in FMUs (adjusted RR 0.59; 95% CI 0.50-0.70) and in AMUs (adjusted RR 0.78; 95% CI 0.69-0.88). For births planned in FMUs, immersion in water was associated with a lower risk of intrapartum caesarean section (RR 0.61; 95% CI 0.44-0.84) and a higher chance of a straightforward vaginal birth (RR 1.09; 95% CI 1.04-1.15). These beneficial effects were not seen in births planned at home or AMUs.
conclusionsImmersion of water for pain relief was associated with a significant reduction in risk of transfer before birth for nulliparous women. Overall, immersion in water was associated with fewer interventions during labour. The effect varied across birth settings with least effect in planned home births and a larger effect observed for planned FMU births.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.