Does my water need to be broken to birth?
Artifical Rupture of Membranes (AROM) is a very common practice to "speed up" (augment) labor. Studies are showing a number of risks and very little benefit to this practice. From a biological standpoint, your water never HAS to break for baby to be born. This is called "en caul". : )
Artifical rupture of membranes increases the risk of cord prolapse (which is VERY dangerous for baby), increased risk of infection, increased risk of being pressured for an unneeded c-section, increase pain level for mom, increased chance baby will become malpresented (baby will not be able to move easily with contractions into a good position for birth, they are stuck in whatever position they were in when the water was broken), increased chance of baby going into distress (the waters are there to act as padding during contractions), increased pressure to use continuous fetal monitoring (which does not increase a baby's APGAR score, but drastically increases mom's c-section rate!).