Immerse Yourself in Water
Women laboring and giving birth in the water did not come about in the USA until the early 1980s. I was teaching a childbirth class in 1981 when a couple came to the class and asked to watch a television program depicting women in the Soviet Union giving birth in the water.
It showed Igor Charkowsky assisting women in labor and giving birth in the water. It looked wonderful!! All six couples in the class said “That’s for me,” and asked me to assist them in having a water birth.
To obtain information about water births, I tracked down three unassisted water births that had occurred in California. I also interviewed a French obstetrician, Dr. Michel Odent, who had a childbirth clinic in Pithivier, France, where he had helped women have water births. I also did my own research to confirm that this could be SAFELY done.
After that, I traveled to Moscow and the Black Sea, where I worked with Igor Charkowsky in assisting water births.
I spoke at the First Underwater Birth Conference in Tutukaka, New Zealand, and eventually compiled all my research and experience into my book, WATER BIRTH: A MIDWIFE’S PERSPECTIVE.
I continue to assist women in having their water births and still marvel at how women and babies completely relax in the water. Charkowsky teaches babies to swim in the Black Sea. While there, I learned from him and will instruct parents to swim their babies.
“From the moment I decided to have a child I knew I wanted to have a water birth…Susanna’s website was one of the first I came across. She seemed to have the most experience of all the midwives, having pioneered water births in the States, written a book and with many deliveries under her belt . When I first met her, I knew almost instantly she was the midwife for me. She was warm and bright. And I could tell she had passion for what she did. It was a match made in heaven”.
