Dr. Jennifer Vanderlaan is a nursing instructor and maternal health researcher at Emory University in Atlanta, United States where she investigates the effects of health services on maternal outcomes. Her interest in hydrotherapy as a low-cost method to promote for pain management in labor to promote physiologic birth. Jennifer is working to produce the evidence necessary to identify best practices in hydrotherapy and water birth.
Dr. Priscilla Hall is a nursing instructor and midwife researcher at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. She investigates the emotional experience of physiologic birth, particularly as this relates to women’s empowerment. Recently, in collaboration with a colleague, Dr. Jennifer Vanderlaan, she has begun to research the health effects of water birth as a non-medical strategy for pain management. The purpose of these studies of water birth is to enhance safety and increase access so that women have greater freedom of choice in their labor care.
