I'd start off agreeing that baths on wards are almost certainly far more disgusting. (and if you've worked out effective infection control would you mind telling the rest of the hospital please...*grin). With infection control being one of the reasons the (for want of a better term) 'home-birthing supporters' being so adamant that home-birthing is safer I was interested to see if the commenters who identify themselves as home-birthers would be as equally supportive of water births even if they do occur in hospital. But now I run the risk of sounding snide. More seriously, I have *no* experience of water-birth and so am genuinely interested in what research exists.