Childbirth

When you are ready to have your baby, you'll go through labor. Contractions let you know labor is starting. When contractions are five minutes apart, your body is ready to push the baby out.

During the first stage of labor, your cervix slowly opens, or dilates, to about 4 inches wide. At the same time, it becomes thinner. This is called effacement. You shouldn't push until your uterus is fully effaced and dilated. When it is, the baby delivery stage starts. Crowning is when your baby's scalp comes into view. Shortly afterward, your baby is born. The placenta that nourished the baby follows.

Mothers and babies are monitored closely during labor. Most women are healthy enough to have a baby through normal vaginal delivery, meaning that the baby comes down the birth canal without surgery. If there are complications, the baby may need to be delivered surgically by a Cesarean section.

National Women's Health Information Center

Childbirth on Wikipedia

'''Childbirth''' (also called '''labour''', '''birth''', or '''parturition''') is the culmination of pregnancy, the emergence of a child from its mother's uterus. It is considered by many to be the beginning of a person's life, and hence the opposite of death. Age is defined relative to this event in most cultures. A woman is considered to be in labour when she develops regular painful uterine contractions, which are accompanied by changes of her cervix, these primarily being effacement and dilation. While childbirth is widely experienced as painful, some women do report painless labours. When the baby is born its birth weight is calculated.

The normal birth

Introduction

Midwifery are experts in normal birth and perceive childbirth as a normal life event for most women, one which is best handled by as few interventions or interference as possible. Midwives are trained to assist at births either through direct-entry or nurse-midwifery programs. Lay midwives are trained through being apprenticed to an experienced midwife. The medical science of childbirth is termed obstetrics and a medical doctor who specializes in managing birth is termed an obstetrician. Obstetricians are surgery, who are trained to recognize childbirth as potentially dangerous event that sometimes requires intervention to ensure a safe outcome for the mother and the baby.

First stage: contractions

A typical human childbirth will begin with the onset of contractions of the uterus. The frequency and duration of these contractions varies with the individual. The onset of labour may be sudden or gradual. A gradual onset with slow cervical change towards 3 cm (just over 1 inch) dilation is referred to as the "latent phase". A woman is said to be in "active labour" when contractions have become ... [ Read More ]

External Resources

Morocco and the Casbah Dance Experience - Researchers of dance traditions in the Middle East and North Africa. Articles on oriental dance and childbirth, floor work, ethics of ethnic.

Wiedel, Janine - Online stock photographs of social issues, education, medical and health, youth, protests, drugs, homelessness, subcultures, prostitution and childbirth.

Journal E - Interactive photo essays on subjects from childbirth and cigar bars to the Watergate decade.

Palmon, Ophir - Collection of life stories focused on people and changes through life, includes weddings, proms, children, childbirth and nudes.

Memoirs of Mary Wollstonecraft - William Godwin, Wollstonecraft's husband, published this biography of Wollstonecraft shortly after her death in childbirth. HTML format, divided into chapters.

mummaness - headscape - linkvortex - Mummaness is me today post childbirth as an artist, musician, thinker. The searcher is also able to go back to another site called teengerl which has my activities on that day between the ages of 13 and 19.

Christ Centered Childbirth - For those desiring Christ to be the center of their experience.

Howard, Ghislaine - Gallery of Ghislaine Howard, painter in oils of maternal subjects, including pregnancy, childbirth, parenthood.

Medigrace - Audio meditation guides for use in medical conditions such as childbirth, AIDS and cancer care, and near death situations, includes product information, practical applications, and training.