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.
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