Vietnamese woman brings water tank to hospital to give birth

Having happened to see a video of a friend giving birth in the country, Mai Linh, 25, a Vietnamese living in the Philippines, hatched a plan to welcome her own child in a similar way. "A baby born in warm water, not crying, picked up by the father and brought to the mother's arms," ​​Linh said.

To prepare for that desire, she started attending the courses "Breastfeeding" and "Being a parent" to better understand the woman's body, the importance of the moment the child is born, and how the way parents welcome their child affects the child's mind.

In addition, she also learned more about "natural childbirth", referring to many stories of gentle, positive natural childbirth. Linh believes that giving birth is every woman's instinct, if she has enough confidence in her body, combined with a relaxed mind, giving birth will become comfortable and quick.

During her 37th week of pregnancy, Linh discussed with her doctor the decision to give birth in water at a private maternity service room at a hospital in the Philippines. Previously, the hospital had had two unsuccessful water births and both required cesarean sections.

The doctors were quite worried and advised Linh to consider carefully. They asked her and her husband to draw up a birth plan and get the approval of the head obstetrician, deputy head obstetrician and the doctor in charge of the birth. This is a mandatory procedure of the hospital for pregnant women who want to give birth in water.

The plan includes Linh's wishes such as giving birth in water, playing meditation music during labor, choosing a squatting or crawling position for birth, Linh's husband being the one to welcome the baby into the world and cutting the umbilical cord himself, not separating mother and child, not bathing the baby...

After receiving the hospital's approval, Linh and her husband began to prepare equipment such as an inflatable pool, air pump, water heater, water pipes... Everything was ready to prepare for this underwater birth.

In the early morning of August 4, Linh had her first contractions. She decided to sleep for another hour before packing her things and heading to the hospital. At this time, her cervix was already 4 centimeters dilated, and the doctor in charge of the delivery began monitoring her contractions.

Nearly two hours later, when the contractions decreased every three minutes, Linh was taken to the private delivery room. There, there were two doctors and six nurses assisting.

Her husband started pumping air and water into the tub. The water was kept warm at 37 degrees Celsius and circulated continuously. Warm water would help reduce pain and make the mother more comfortable during the process of pushing the baby out.

She slowly stepped into the tub, squatted, knelt, and put her hands down. Following the doctor's instructions, Linh relaxed her body and began to push.

"1,2,3 push", the doctor said rhythmically.

Less than 5 minutes later, the baby girl weighing 3.45 kg was born to the joy of the young couple. According to the birth plan, the father personally delivered the baby and then brought it to the mother's chest, skin-to-skin contact and breastfed immediately. After the procedure of measuring the baby's indicators and removing the placenta, Linh was taken to the room to rest and returned home at 7:00 p.m. the same day.

"I had a smooth and not too painful birth as people often say. Maybe because the excitement of meeting the baby overcame the pain and the faith in my body made me feel more comfortable," Linh shared.