THE option of a water birth is now open to women having babies at Abergavenny's Nevill Hall Hospital.

A £15,000 donation from the hospital's thrombosis and research group has paid for a birthing pool to be installed in the midwifery-led unit.

Lili Illman was the first baby to be born in the pool. Mum Lianne, from Abersychan, was presented with a picture of her baby, and commemorative images of the baby's hand and footprints to mark the event.

Birthing pools are a means of natural birth which health chiefs are keen to promote, not least because they have a role to play in helping bring down the number of Caesarian births, which is around one-in-four of all births nationwide.

The birthing pool at the Caerphilly birth unit has proved popular since it opened last year, and a similar project is being planned for the Royal Gwent in Newport.