Babies born during water births are at risk of contracting Legionnaires' disease, a severe and potentially life-threatening form of pneumonia that infected two infants in Arizona last year.
Both infants survived after receiving antibiotics.
Infections among infants born in heated birthing pools are rare. So public health officials in Maricopa County were alarmed when they learned of two cases that had taken place just months apart. They identified "numerous gaps in infection prevention" during the water births, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the Arizona investigation.
In the United States, there...