Thursday, August 18, 2011

Swing birth

The conversation began simple enough, about children's innate ability to swim.  It was swimming day.  All of our children came completely prepared with life vests and tubes for all.  No one would EVER drown on our swim days there are so many floating devices. One of my coworkers said she'd heard that if you threw a new born in a water, that because of so much time spent in liquid in the womb, they naturally know how to swim.  This led the discussion into births in bathtubs and how it was becoming more popular with the home-birth movement.   I'd also recently heard a talk on NPR about home births, and why it's popularity was rising.   "My friend from Holland says that everyone has home-births in her country." added my co-worker. "When we found out she wasn't going to the hospital, we were shocked, but she said, no one goes to the hospital unless there's an emergency."
"Cindy, what happens in Korea?" I asked, "Are home births common?"
She explained that they were not common, but did occur. She'd recently heard of this thing she described as a swing for birthing.
"A swing?" we asked
"Yes, you swing while you give birth." she continued.
A quick google search came up with zilch.  So she typed in Korean, and through the miracle of a google translator we discovered, THE ROMA BIRTH WHEEL.
Yes, this thing is real, and is not a hoax, as far as I can tell.  Has anyone ever heard of this or seen this in use before?  Very interesting....

2 comments:

Peter said...

I have never heard of this despite all of my natural birthing reading! Swinging while in labor/giving birth sounds awful. But, looking at some of the positions that the machine can put you in, it seems like it could be helpful. But swinging sounds absolutely miserable.

BTW, I love the picture at the top of the blog! I hadn't seen it yet!

Leslie

Anonymous said...

I've just moved to Switzerland & have been researching birth units etc. it seems quite popular here!