It is reported that an Oregon couple is suing a medical center in Vancouver, Washington over injuries suffered by their child during a “water birth.” A water birth is a procedure during which the mother is immersed in a bath device and the baby is delivered into water. In this case, the parents claim that the baby suffered irreversible brain damage and cerebral palsy when he was deprived of oxygen for part of the procedure. They claim that they were not given adequate information about the risks and dangers of water birth.

An articles states that “the theory behind water birth is that since the baby has already been in the amniotic fluid sac for 9 months, birthing into a similar environment is gentler for the baby and less stressful for the mother” and reducing the stress of labor and delivery will reduce fetal complications.

Water birthing is done more often when midwives are involved and is usually done in non-hospital birthing centers. Few conventional hospitals offer this option to patients, in part because there have been few studies regarding the risks of water birth. “Some studies in Europe have shown similar perinatal mortality rates between water births and conventional births,” according to an article about this procedure, but a publication by the Royal College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists noted that “there might be a theoretical risk of water embolism, which occurs when water enters the mother’s blood stream.”