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.

Heel Prick Test / Guthrie Test

What do Contractions Feel Like?

Benefits and Risks of Forceps (Ventouse) Delivery

Active management of the third stage of labor

What is a Transverse Baby?

The External Cephalic Version Process

Evidence for Having a Water Birth

Lithotomy Positioning

Assisted Birth: Forceps or Vacuum Delivery

Complications of the third stage of labor

What Happens When your Waters Break?

See more featured articles »

Water Birth Safety

Signs Labor Has Begun

Natural Childbirth

Anal Sphincter Injury During Childbirth

Making a Birth Plan

How to Relieve Pain During Labor

Latest Childbirth News and Research

Microbes found to play a key role in shaping early brain development

New research from Michigan State University finds that microbes play an important role in shaping early brain development, specifically in a key brain region that controls stress, social behavior, and vital body functions.

13 Aug 2025

Love hormone oxytocin found to be critical for the formation of friendships

A new UC Berkeley study shows that the so-called love hormone, oxytocin, is also critical for the formation of friendships.

12 Aug 2025

Experts say rural emergency rooms are increasingly run without doctors

There was no doctor on-site when a patient arrived in early June at the emergency room in the small hospital at the intersection of two dirt roads in this town of 400 residents.

12 Aug 2025

Gut bacteria may connect pregnancy diet to childhood autism

Unhealthy maternal diets may alter gut microbes, impacting brain development and increasing autism risk in offspring. Study the microbiome's influence.

8 Aug 2025

Positive emotions and self-belief ease childbirth fears for expectant mothers

Up to 60% of women experience some fear about giving birth, especially for the first time, but a new study shows why some women are more likely to stay calm and confident in the lead-up to childbirth.

6 Aug 2025

Group prenatal care improves health outcomes for mothers and babies

Women who attend prenatal care visits in groups are more likely to continue with their care and have better health outcomes at birth and beyond, according to a University of Michigan study.

31 Jul 2025

Single injection of gene therapy at birth may offer lasting protection against HIV

A new study in Nature shows that delivering a single injection of gene therapy at birth may offer years-long protection against HIV, tapping into a critical window in early life that could reshape the fight against pediatric infections in high-risk regions.

30 Jul 2025

New study links surrogacy to higher risk of mental illness

People who are gestational carriers (or "surrogates") appear more likely to be diagnosed with a new mental illness during and after pregnancy, according to new research from ICES, McGill University, and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre.

28 Jul 2025

Study finds continued use of risky antiseizure drugs during pregnancy

Despite evidence of the risk of malformations at birth, or birth defects, use of some antiseizure drugs during pregnancy has persisted, according to a study published on July 23, 2025, in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

24 Jul 2025

Ultrasound descriptions may shape how parents view their unborn children

Most parents can think back to the first ultrasound image they saw of their unborn child, and may even be able to remember what impression that image had on them.

22 Jul 2025

Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy linked to lower breastfeeding rates

Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (HDP) - like chronic or gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and eclampsia - are among the leading causes of maternal and infant death in the United States.

18 Jul 2025

New method expands access to patient-specific amniotic stem cells

Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have discovered that amniotic fluid stem cells can be safely collected from vaginal fluid after childbirth rather than relying on more invasive methods that can pose some risk to the mother and fetus.

16 Jul 2025

Targeting vasopressin neurons alleviates postpartum depression

Researchers at Nanjing University's School of Life Sciences, in collaboration with colleagues from Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and the Peng Cheng Laboratory, have identified a specific brain circuit that eases depressive-like behaviors in a mouse model of postpartum depression, providing a promising target for future treatments. This work addresses how sudden drops in estrogen after childbirth can trigger mood disturbances.

15 Jul 2025

Hepatitis C treatment gaps persist for children and new mothers

As the opioid epidemic has worsened in the United States, prevalence of hepatitis C has also increased. Hepatitis C is a bloodborne virus that damages the liver.

11 Jul 2025

Early skin-to-skin contact boosts breastfeeding in premature babies

More premature babies who had early skin-to-skin contact with their mother were being breastfed at the time of discharge from hospital and for up to one year afterwards. However, this is far from the only benefit.

10 Jul 2025

Doulas, once a luxury, are increasingly covered by Medicaid — even in GOP states

As a postpartum doula, Dawn Oliver does her best work in the middle of the night.

10 Jul 2025

Training boosts skin-to-skin contact between parents and newborns

Targeted training interventions for both health professionals and parents significantly increase the amount of skin-to-skin contact between newborns and their parents in the first 48 hours after birth. The proportion of babies who received nearly 24 hours of skin contact over the first 24 hours increased from 33 per cent to 58 per cent.

8 Jul 2025

Long periods of parental leave after childbirth associated with higher risk of unhealthy behavior

A new study by the University of Vienna shows that particularly long periods of parental leave around the birth of a child are associated with a higher risk of unhealthy behavior - specifically smoking - in the long term.

30 Jun 2025

Investigating the role of ultra-processed foods in the inheritance of autism and ADHD

In a recent publication released by PubMed, American scientist Dr. Renee Dufault at the Food Ingredient and Health Research Institute, provides a peer-reviewed protocol for determining the role ultra-processed foods play in prenatal heavy metal exposures and changes in the expression of the zinc dependent MT-1 (metallothionein) gene that impact child neurodevelopment.

27 Jun 2025

Postpartum hemorrhage linked to increased cardiovascular problems years later

Women who experience severe bleeding after giving birth face elevated risks to their cardiovascular health that can persist for up to 15 years – a new analysis of data from over 9.7 million women across Europe, North America and Asia shows.

25 Jun 2025