Labor and Delivery

You have many options when it comes to where and how you give birth.  The information below will help you make informed choices.

A woman in her first pregnancy often does not know the signs of beginning birth labor and does not understand the labor and delivery process.  Since this can be an especially emotional and frightening experience unless you are prepared for it, the best thing to do is to talk to your health care provider but you can also educate yourself in other ways.

Knowing the signs of labor and learning about the different options available for giving birth will help you feel more confident and comfortable.

The most frequent signs of true labor can include contractions at regular and increasingly shorter intervals that also become stronger in intensity, lower back pains, your water breaks (the embryonic sac is broken), you have a a bloody mucous discharge, and your cervix begins dilating (opening up).  For more detailed information visit the link labor and delivery.

It is also important for you to know and understand the options available for where and how you will have your baby, including a home delivery, or giving birth in a birthing center or at a hospital. For additional information about pregnancy and labor and delivery as well as birth plans and birth options, episiotomy and an epidural, information on child birth procedures, pain in labor and delivery, sex during pregnancy, pre-natal tests and prenatal care, pregnancy symptoms including morning sickness, and much more, please click on each highlighted link.

One of your birth options may be to have a C-section or a vaginal delivery.  When a cesarean section is necessary, it can be a lifesaving technique.  However, the International Cesarean Awareness Network believes that the cesarean section rate is alarmingly high and the World Heath Organization indicates that approximately 50% of the C-sections performed are unnecessary and may  expose the baby and mother to problems.

For additional information about a C-section, please visit the link Cesarean Section on the website PregnancyAndChildren.com.

Child Birth Options is an excellent website for a birth mother who wants to consider some of the options to more traditional physician hospital based child birth and delivery. Other general sites that will help a birth mother with child birth options are Childbirth.org and Birthcenters.org.  The government website Labor and Delivery Issues and Managing the Pain may also help you.