If you're pregnant and healthy, consider having a water birth

A waterbirth is as safe as standard care for healthy mums and their newborns. — TNS

Water births provide “clear benefits” for healthy mums and their newborns, with fewer interventions and complications during and after the birth than standard care, as well as higher levels of satisfaction for the mum, finds a synthesis of the available evidence, published in the open access journal BMJ Open.

A water birth involves using a birthing pool to achieve relaxation and pain relief, either exiting the pool for the birth, so the newborn can emerge into air to breathe, or remaining in the birthing pool for the birth, bringing the newborn to the surface to start breathing.