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.

Breeched Birth: Caesarean Section or Vaginal Delivery?

Breech presentation is common in about 15% of pregnancies at 29 to 32 weeks. Although breech position is common in the first two trimesters of pregnancy when the baby is more mobile, it is considered abnormal during late pregnancy.

Natural Childbirth

What is a Transverse Baby?

Anal Sphincter Injury During Childbirth

Active management of the third stage of labor

Heel Prick Test / Guthrie Test

Lithotomy Positioning

Evidence for Having a Water Birth

Water Birth Safety

What Happens When your Waters Break?

Assisted Birth: Forceps or Vacuum Delivery

Benefits and Risks of Forceps (Ventouse) Delivery

See more featured articles »

What do Contractions Feel Like?

Signs Labor Has Begun

Complications of the third stage of labor

Making a Birth Plan

How to Relieve Pain During Labor

The External Cephalic Version Process

Latest Childbirth News and Research

COVID-19 may exacerbate mental health symptoms among pregnant and postpartum women

Though childbirth is often anticipated with optimism and enthusiasm, approximately 10 to 20 percent of pregnant individuals also experience mental health challenges during the weeks immediately before and after birth.

1 Dec 2020

Iron infusion highly effective to treat anemia in low-income settings

Over 1 billion people globally are affected by iron-deficiency anemia. In sub-Saharan Africa, anemia is a major public health concern with roughly 60% of the population suffering from anemia.

25 Nov 2020

Children born via Cesarean section may face increased risk of infection

According to the results of a new study, children born via cesarean section may be at an increased risk of hospitalization due to infection in their first years.

19 Nov 2020

Care pathways for pregnant women with COVID‐19

A recent review published in the journal Global Challenges in October 2020, sums up what is currently known about the treatment of COVID-19 during pregnancy and offers recommendations for how healthcare professions might better manage pregnant COVID-19 patients in the future.

16 Nov 2020

Improved diet and more physical activity during pregnancy modifies infants’ DNA

A new study has shown pregnant women with obesity could reduce the health risks for their infants through improved diet and more physical activity.

6 Nov 2020

Infection prevention practices during COVID-19 result in shorter hospital stays for moms, babies

New infection prevention practices implemented during the coronavirus pandemic have resulted in significantly shorter hospital stays for mothers and their babies, according to investigators at Cedars-Sinai, with no changes in the rates of cesarean deliveries, complications or poor outcomes.

3 Nov 2020

Sphincter injuries associated with higher risk of future fecal incontinence

The risk of subsequent fecal incontinence and intestinal gas leakage is significantly higher among women who, during childbirth, have suffered a sphincter injury and consequent damage to the anal sphincter muscle, was shown in a new study from the University of Gothenburg.

2 Nov 2020

Researchers identify distinct link between autism and brain cell abnormalities

Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report that new experiments with genetically engineered mice have found clear connections among a range of autism types and abnormalities in brain cells whose chemical output forges platonic (non-sexual) feelings of love and sociability.

30 Oct 2020

Simple diagnostic can help deliver urgent treatment to people at risk of dying from rapid blood loss

Engineers at Monash University in Australia have developed a fast, portable and cheap diagnostic that can help deliver urgent treatment to people at risk of dying from rapid blood loss.

29 Oct 2020

Bangladesh women living in poorer households reluctant to use maternal health care

Women living in poorer households of Dhaka, Bangladesh are unwilling to give birth at maternal healthcare facilities.

23 Oct 2020

Study looks at childbirth experiences during COVID-19 in the USA

A new study by Elizabeth Mollard at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Amaya Wittmaack from the University of Virginia School of Medicine published on the preprint server medRxiv in October 2020 reveals that pregnant women may feel less supported during their childbirth experience due to the changes in maternity unit practices related to the pandemic.

22 Oct 2020

Supportive nursing care during labor and after childbirth increases breastfeeding rates

New parents who receive attentive, supportive nursing care during labor and immediately after childbirth are more likely to exclusively breastfeed their newborn when leaving the hospital, finds a study published in MCN: The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing.

15 Oct 2020

Doctors propose ways to reduce obstetrical complications in women with endometriosis

A team of doctors from RUDN University with their Italian colleagues had studied the data of existing studies on the effect of endometriosis on pregnancy and childbirth and suggested ways to reduce obstetrical complications in women with this condition.

15 Oct 2020

Epidural analgesia during childbirth does not increase infant's risk of developing autism

The Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology,the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine aim to clearly reassure pregnant women that the article "Association Between Epidural Analgesia During Labor and Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders in Offspring," a new retrospective database study published in JAMA Pediatrics on October 12th, 2020 does not provide credible scientific evidence that labor epidurals for pain relief cause autism.

13 Oct 2020

Women living in least restrictive states are more likely to give birth to low-birth weight babies

American women living in states with less restrictive reproductive rights policies are less likely to give birth to low-birth weight babies, according to a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier.

13 Oct 2020

Report: Nearly two million babies are stillborn annually

Nearly two million babies are stillborn every year, with 84 per cent of cases occurring in low- and lower middle-income countries, says an 8 October report by WHO, UNICEF and partners.

12 Oct 2020

COVID-19-positive mothers rarely transmit the virus to their newborns

Mothers with SARS-CoV-2 infection rarely transmit the virus to their newborns when basic infection-control practices are followed, according to a new study by researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital.

12 Oct 2020