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

Neanderthal gene in women boosts infertility

It is still unclear why some women go into labor for long periods, and some face a high risk of childbirth. Also, some women fall pregnant quickly, while others may take years before they conceive. The answer may be due to a gene inherited from the Neanderthals, an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago.

31 May 2020

Study reports a low prevalence of COVID-19 in pregnant women

New data from two studies show the prevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection among pregnant women is low, but they still need to take extra precautions.

29 May 2020

Researchers study the effect of major life events on wellbeing

Major life events such as marriage, death of a loved one or bankruptcy all affect our wellbeing. Now, for the first time, researchers have compared the differing impact of these events on the happiness and life satisfaction and how long that impact lasts.

28 May 2020

New strategy promotes healthy lifestyle behaviors in obese, overweight women

When researchers asked prospective study participants who they would like to see in videos promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors, the answer was unequivocal: They wanted to see themselves - that is, other mothers living in low-income households who were overweight or obese.

21 May 2020

Universal testing of asymptomatic pregnant women may not be necessary, study suggests

A study conducted by investigators at Cedars-Sinai suggests that universal testing of asymptomatic pregnant women in labor may not be necessary at every hospital.

20 May 2020

Researchers highlight the need to revise the protocol for detecting ZIKV infection in placenta

Shortly after the explosion in microcephaly cases caused by Zika virus in Brazil in 2015-16, several scientific studies were published with evidence that the pathogen is capable of crossing the human placenta, the organ that keeps the fetus connected to the mother's body during pregnancy.

20 May 2020

Born into a pandemic: Virus complicates births for moms and babies

Mallory Pease's contractions grew stronger as her husband, Mitchell, drove her to Oaklawn Hospital in Marshall, Michigan, to give birth to their second child. It had been a routine pregnancy, but she told her doctor she'd recently developed a sore throat, aches, coughing and shortness of breath — symptoms her provider knew could indicate COVID-19.

24 Apr 2020

UK engineers develop low-cost Field Ventilator to treat COVID-19 patients in poorer countries

A UK team of academic and industrial engineers, manufacturers and clinicians have developed a potentially life-saving ventilator to treat coronavirus patients in poor and remote parts of the world.

24 Apr 2020

Study: 40% of women who suffer postpartum psychosis do not become ill again

A new research result from iPSYCH shows that forty per cent of the women who suffer a psychosis after giving birth - known as postpartum psychosis - do not subsequently become ill again.

20 Apr 2020

Policies increase childbirth in health facilities

Women with health insurance were 15 percentage points more likely to have facility-based childbirth.

20 Apr 2020

Study highlights factors that may affect fertility projections

Most Russians would like to have two children: a boy and a girl. The others fall between the two extremes of either wanting no children (at least for now) or planning to have three or more. Having a large family is often associated with affluence.

17 Apr 2020

Evolutionary biologists see menopause as a genetic anomaly created by human behavior

As mothers continue having children later in life, it is inevitable that menopause will be delayed, and possibly cease to exist altogether, say researchers at McMaster University.

17 Apr 2020

Vegetable intake before pregnancy reduces risk of preterm birth

A new study shows that women who eat vegetables regularly before becoming pregnant have a significantly lower risk of premature birth. The new study from the University of Queensland titled, "Prepregnancy dietary patterns and risk of preterm birth and low birth weight: findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health," was published in the latest issue of the journal The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

15 Apr 2020

Women born by cesarean have greater risk of obesity and diabetes

A new study published in the open-access journal JAMA Network Open in April 2020 suggests that women born by way of a Cesarean section are at higher risk of developing obesity as well as type 2 diabetes mellitus in adult life.

13 Apr 2020

Vaccine skeptics may process information differently than people

In 2000, the measles virus was declared eliminated from the United States. Despite cases coming in from outside the country, there were few outbreaks because most people were vaccinated against measles. And then 2019 happened.

12 Apr 2020

Magnetic stimulation of rectal nerves could help treat fecal incontinence

An ongoing study by the Medical College of Georgia on the role of magnetic stimulation of the rectal nerves to achieve better bowel control in patients with fecal incontinence is showing early promise. The technique is called translumbosacral neuromodulation therapy, or TNT.

2 Apr 2020

Pilates helps control blood pressure in young obese women

A new paper published in the journal American Journal of Hypertension in April 2020 shows that Pilates could work well when it comes to improving cardiovascular health and controlling blood pressure in young obese women. This group of patients is at high risk for high blood pressure and weak blood vessel health.

2 Apr 2020

Women with postpartum psychiatric disorders less likely to have further children

Women who suffer from psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, mania and schizophrenia following the live birth of their first child are less likely to go on to have more children, according to the first study to investigate this in a large nationwide population.

30 Mar 2020

Women who experience postpartum psychiatric disorders less likely to have a second child

Women who experience postpartum psychiatric disorders after the birth of their first child are less likely have more children.

30 Mar 2020

Teeth record past stresses in life, study finds

Teeth can do more than just masticate. A new study has found that the teeth serve as one's archive in life, recording biological events, from tooth formation to death.

29 Mar 2020