CHICAGO, April 19, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Waterbirth International announced today that its fourth International Waterbirth Congress, "Embracing Birth Together", will get underway April 22-25 at the Chicago Hyatt Regency Oak Brook. The four-day event will feature presentations from some of world's leading waterbirth practitioners, including:
-- Dr. Lisa Stolper, director of the OB Department at Cheshire Dartmouth Medical Center in Keene, N.H., where they celebrated their 1000th waterbirth in March.
-- Dianne Garland, director of Research for the Collaborative UK Waterbirth Project, who will present the results of more than 2,000 waterbirths in the UK.
-- Dr. Daniel Fang, representing the Chang Ning Maternity Hospital in Shanghai, China, where they have just published the results from the world's first randomized controlled trial of waterbirths.
-- Jose Luis Grefnes, MD, medical director of Plenitud, in Guadalajara, Mexico, who will report on the growing adoption of waterbirth in Mexico in recent years. Grefnes led the expansion of his hospital to include a waterbirth wing, and today some 50 percent of the births at the hospital occur in water.
-- Dr. Zina Bakhareva, a pediatrician from Vladivostok, Russia who has attended over 500 home waterbirths and will report on their "whole-family" approach.
Laboring in water allows many expectant mothers to enter a state of relaxation. The water's buoyancy changes their physical chemistry to allow the labor process to become more efficient, reducing the need for pain medication or medical intervention in birth. Water labor results in better outcomes for babies and mothers.
"Waterbirths, and particularly water labor, are a growing trend in the United States. Our mission is to ensure that waterbirths remain a viable choice for women in all birth settings. We are bringing some of the top experts in the world to this Congress to discuss waterbirth outcomes," says Barbara Harper, RN, executive director of Waterbirth International. "Our hope is to create an Internet-based international waterbirth research database that will serve as a collaborative audit of all the waterbirths around the world."
Waterbirth International will hold a press conference to announce major research findings on Friday, April 23, from 1 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. in the Hyatt Regency Ballroom.
The waterbirth conference is open to parents, midwives, nurses and doctors and maternal educators daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Admission is $325 for the full three days or $100 for a one-day session. For more information, call Waterbirth International at 1-800-641-2229 or 503-673-0026.
About Waterbirth International
Founded in 1988, Waterbirth International, a nonprofit public benefit organization, was created to facilitate maternity care reform by helping parents and practitioners institute policies for the use of warm-water immersion during labor. Its chartered purpose is to ensure that waterbirth become an "available option" for all women in all birth settings by 2015. The organization's founder, Barbara Harper, RN, is a childbirth advocate, midwife, video producer and author of Gentle Birth Choices (1994 Inner Traditions). For more information, visit www.waterbirth.org.