Home births are on the rise as more parents wish to deliver their babies without drugs and in a familiar setting. Even as technology improves the efficiency of our lives, advocates of
home births believe childbirth is a normal physiological process, not a medical emergency.
Today, most births take place in a
hospital with a doctor or certified midwife (if you choose a birthing center on hospital grounds). Keep in mind, the selection of either a doctor or midwife delivering your baby will, in most cases, determine the place of birth.
Braxton Hicks are sporadic uterine contractions that some women experience during their second and third trimesters of pregnancy.
Premature births are babies born at least three weeks prior to their due date (37 weeks) and are also referred to as "preemies."
Premature babies suffer from underdeveloped organs that are essential to their survival.
Induced labors are a helping hand to mothers suffering from a prolonged labor that threatens the well-being of either her or her baby. Several methods, medical and natural, can also be used to help stimulate labor if the pregnancy is not proceeding as it should.
Mothers often cower when they hear the word "
breech" during an exam several weeks or days prior to the birth. However, when labor begins 96 percent of babies are in the "vertex" position (head down).
Sometimes even the most carefully crafted birth plans can derail, and during labor, your baby may need a little extra help emerging into the world. In such instances, doctors will turn to a
forceps or vacuum-assisted delivery.
Water birth is the act of delivering your baby into a tub of warm water rather than a having a traditional bed delivery.
More than 20 percent of babies born in the United States are delivered by
cesarean section. A
c-section is the surgical, rather than vaginal delivery of a baby through incisions made in the abdomen and uterus.
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