Maternal and neonatal effects of water birth. A systematic review

The objective of this literature review is to determine the maternal and neonatal effects of immersion in water during childbirth. A literature review was carried out in the PubMed, Medline, Scopus, and Cinahl databases. The search terms used were: "Water", "Delivery", "Obstetrics", "Labour", "Parturition", and "water birth". A total of 526 results published in the last 5 years were obtained, of which 13 articles were selected according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The studies aimed to evaluate maternal and / or neonatal outcomes after immersion in water during childbirth, although some of them only focus on one of these two aspects. In conclusion, immersion in water provides a reduction in pain and in the duration of labour at maternal level. At neonatal level, no adverse effects are found in newborns. (C) 2020 Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. All rights reserved.