KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 — A medical expert has backed the government’s ban on water births, saying that the technique poses significant health risks for newborn infants.

Foetal medicine specialist, Dr Tan Niap Hong, also cast doubt on the supposed comforting properties experienced by mothers who have undergone the water birthing delivery technique as opposed to other conventional methods.

"I agree with what the Health Ministry said, I think contamination will be an issue because the mother in labour will excrete faeces, urinate and ooze blood and the water will not be sterile anymore.

"There will also be mucus secretion from the anus, making the water unclean and when the baby comes out, it can be infected,” the Prince Court Medical Centre specialist told Malay Mail Online, pointing to lung infection owing to the ingestion of faecal substance as a possible risk.

Dr Tan, who has 20 years of experience treating problems related to female reproduction as well as high-risk pregnancies, said that infant drowning is another high possibility if water birthing is used.

This, he said, is possible, especially when a mother’s umbilical cord is too short.

Yesterday, Health Ministry Director-General Datuk Noor Hisham Abdullah said that the ministry is looking into drawing a guideline for hospitals offering the water birthing delivery option.

He said that a 2013 meeting with experts in the medical field to review the water birthing technique found that there is also no significant benefit for those who choose the option, adding that there were, however, concerns of increased complication during child labour.

"Furthermore, there is a significant gap in the local setting as water births are not part of the local training curricula of the advanced diploma in midwifery, nor in the training of obstetricians and gynaecologists in Malaysia,” Noor Hisham added.

Noor Hisham’s statement came after Putrajaya banned water births pending an official guideline for the procedure.

Health Deputy Director-General (Medical) Datuk Dr S. Jeyaindran said one private hospital in Kuala Lumpur has been informed to cease its water birth activities, and that other hospitals would be similarly advised should they be found to be conducting water births as well.

Water birth is the process of giving birth in a tub of water, and supporters argue that is a gentler process for the child.

Dr Tan, however, said that the notion that water birthing is much gentler is also subjective, as it may only be a mere psychological deduction.

"Of course, mothers who want it say it reduces the pain. I don’t know how much is true? Is it psychological? It’s purely subjective and we don’t know how true is it,” he added.

Dr Tan said that conventional child labour is still a safer option as one of its benefits included the reduced risk of anaemia or lack of iron in a baby’s blood.

He said this is possible via the delayed cord clamping technique.

"Delivery on land allows the benefit of delayed cord clamping, which means clamping the cord at least half a minute to one minute after delivery.

"The benefit is that the baby can get extra blood from his or her mother’s placenta. So, it reduces the possibility of anaemia and iron deficiency,” he added.

Delayed cord clamping is a practice in childbirth, where the umbilical cord is not clamped or severed until after pulsations have ceased, or until after the placenta is delivered.

"Obviously, you can’t do that in water birth,” Dr Tan added.