Many women, midwives and doctors acknowledge the analgesic effect of water. Women achieve a level of comfort in the water that in turn reduces their levels of fear and stress. Women's perception of pain is greatly influenced by their levels of anxiety. When labor becomes physically easier, a woman's ability to calmly concentrate is improved, and she is able to focus inward on the birth processes. This is a positive result unknown in hospitals not equipped for water birthing.
Many women report being better able to concentrate once they get into the water.
Doctors and midwives who attend waterbirths find that the mere sight and sound of water pouring into the tub helps some women release whatever inhibitions were slowing the birth, at times so quickly that the birth occurs even before the pool is filled. Often times women get in the pool to labor and the birth happens before they can get out of the pool. H. Surreys Hospital, Ostend, Belgium Another benefit of waterbirth is the elasticity that water imparts to the tissues of the perineum, reducing the incidents and severity of tearing and the need for painful stitches or episiotomies. On the occasion of his 100th water delivery, Michel Odent reported that in the 100 waterbirths he had attended, there were no episiotomies performed and only 29 cases of tearing, all of which were minor surface tears. A 1989 nationwide survey published in The Journal of Nurse Midwifery on the use of water for labor and birth reported less incidents of perineal tearing with less severity.