
#361 | Is Water Birth Dangerous? Barbara Harper Debunks Fallacies
From Down to Birth by Cynthia Overgard & Trisha Ludwig
April 1, 2026 · 1h 8m · Season 7 · Episode 361
About this episode
Barbara Harper discusses the safety of water birth and debunks myths surrounding it.
Water birth has long been controversial, but more recently, a wave of claims has emerged from the natural birth community that water birth is dangerous for babies and disruptive to the physiologic process of birth. In this episode, we sit down with midwife Barbara Harper, the world's leading expert on water birth and founder of Waterbirth International, to explain the preponderance of evidence supporting the safety of water birth and to dispel circulating fallacies. We talk about the idea tha...
People in this episode
Guest: Barbara Harper
Topics covered
- water birth
- safety
- midwifery
- natural birth
- physiologic process
Keywords
- waterbirth
- birth safety
- natural birth community
- fallacies
Mentioned in this episode
Products: Waterbirth International
More episodes of Down to Birth
- #371 | Mothers in the Birth Space: Should You Have Her There? How Women Decide. · June 10, 2026 · 54 min
- #370 | 43-Week Pregnancy: Jessica and Aaron Researched, Prayed, and Waited · June 3, 2026 · 39 min
- #369 | May Q&A: Postpartum Hemorrhage, RhoGAM, Family Boundaries, Induction, and Placenta Previa · May 27, 2026 · 51 min
- #368 | Kristina's Vaginal Breech Birth at the Eleventh Hour · May 20, 2026 · 43 min
- #367 | Your VBAC Questions Answered by The First Woman to Have One, Nancy Wainer · May 13, 2026 · 52 min
- #366 | Full-Term Stillbirth at 39 Weeks: Penelope's Story · May 6, 2026 · 1h 10m
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Down to Birth podcast page.