Strategies for Providing Low-Cost Water Immersion Therapy With Limited Resources

Nurs Womens Health. 2015;19(6):526-32. doi: 10.1111/1751-486X.12247.

Abstract

At our university-affiliated medical center, a major renovation of the women's health and birthing unit resulted in the temporary loss of the permanent tub used for water immersion therapy during labor. Because 40 percent of the women in the nurse-midwifery practice utilize hydrotherapy, we undertook a rigorous search for an interim solution. We developed a safe and cost-effective strategy that can be easily replicated and utilized by others to provide hydrotherapy for laboring women.

Keywords: hydrotherapy; labor and birth; pain management in labor; water immersion.

MeSH terms

  • Baths
  • Delivery Rooms / economics*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Hydrotherapy / economics*
  • Hydrotherapy / nursing
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Midwifery / economics
  • Natural Childbirth / economics*
  • Natural Childbirth / nursing
  • Pain Management / economics
  • Patient Positioning / economics*
  • Patient Positioning / nursing
  • Pregnancy
  • Social Support