The Stages of Labor

Onset of labor, the first stage, is heralded by contractions of the uterus felt as cramplike pains in the abdomen or lower back that recur at intervals of 10 to 30 minutes and last about 40 seconds; they increase in frequency until they occur at about 2-minute intervals. With each contraction the cervix, or neck of the uterus, dilates until it becomes wide enough, about 4 in. (10 cm), to permit emergence of the baby.

In the second stage of labor the baby passes through the birth canal, most commonly head first, and is born. The effectiveness of uterine contractions in this stage is enhanced by the bearing-down abdominal contractions of the mother.

The third stage of labor, which occurs about 15 to 30 minutes after the child is born, is characterized by the separation of the placenta from the uterine wall and its expulsion. The total time of labor averages 13 to 14 hours in women pregnant for the first time and 8 to 9 hours in women who have previously borne children.

Methods of Analgesia

The pain of childbirth can be relieved with a variety of analgesic and sedative drugs, including morphine, barbiturates, and chloroform. However, many drugs that relieve pain also slow the uterine contractions or dangerously depress the baby's respiratory system. Spinal anesthetics, injected directly into the spinal cord, while not dangerous to the child, are difficult to administer accurately and are therefore potentially dangerous to the mother. Hypnosis has also been used experimentally.

Natural Childbirth

In recent years so-called natural childbirth has come into wide use; the advantages are that the child is born undrugged and the mother can be conscious at the moment of birth. Natural childbirth emphasizes the ability of many women to give birth with a minimal amount of pain-killing drugs or none at all. The Dick-Read method, formulated by the British obstetrician of that name, emphasizes maternal understanding of the birth process as an aid to relaxation, and exercises to strengthen muscles and encourage proper breathing. The Lamaze method, or psychoprophylaxis, is of Russian origin; it uses breathing exercises as a conditioned response to uterine contractions.

Complications of Childbirth

Birth often cannot proceed normally because of a defect of the cervix or weak uterine contractions; breech births, in which the feet or buttocks emerge first, and transverse births, in which the child is positioned across the uterus, usually require obstetrical intervention, such as forceps delivery, manually turning the baby, or performing a cesarean section. About 10% of pregnancies terminate in deliveries that are too early, producing (after at least 200 days of gestation) premature infants requiring special care. Birth of a fetus prior to about 200 days of gestation is termed a miscarriage; birth within the first three months, an abortion. Stillbirth is the delivery of a dead child.

Complications of childbirth affecting the newborn include infant blindness attributable to gonorrhea infection, now largely eliminated by routine administration of silver nitrate to the eyes; retrolental fibroplasia, a type of blindness common for some years in premature infants that was found to result from administration of high concentrations of oxygen and is now largely avoided; and erythroblastosis fetalis, or Rh disease, which can often be prevented. Puerperal fever, an infection of the mother's genital tract once common following labor and delivery, has now also been largely eliminated by preventive hygiene, especially in labor, and by antibiotic therapy.

See pregnancy; obstetrics.

An infant born with a weight of less than five pounds (2,500 grams) at birth is classified as a low birth weight infant. Babies with low birth weight were either born prematurely or are small for their age because their growth was restricted in the womb. Poor maternal health and nutrition may cause low birth weight. Risk factors include inadequate prenatal nutrition, smoking during pregnancy, and infection during pregnancy. Low birth weight infants face a higher risk of death within the first year of life and have higher rates of disability and disease than other infants. Low birth weight is a leading cause of infant mortality throughout world.

Amy N. Marlow

Birth is the process in animals by which an offspring is physiologically expelled from the body of its mother. Different forms of birth are oviparity, vivipary or ovovivipary.

Two words used to describe human offspring while in utero are embryo and fetus. Their meanings refer to earlier and later stages of development.

Medical meanings

• Childbirth is the process at the end of a human pregnancy that results in a baby being born.
• Natural childbirth is the technique of minimizing medical intervention, particularly anaesthetics, during childbirth.
• Unassisted childbirth (UC) is birth without the aid of medical or professional birth attendants. Also known as Freebirth
• Multiple birth is the birth of two (twins), three (triplets), four (quadruplets), etc., babies resulting from a single pregnancy.
• Birth canal is the term used for the vagina during birth, as it is the route through which the infant passes during a vaginal birth.
• Caesarean section or C-Section is surgical birth through the wall of the abdomen.
• Birth pangs are the pains felt by the mother during labour, resulting from contractions of the uterus and pressure on nerves and organs.
• Lotus Birth is the practice of leaving the umbilical cord uncut after birth so that the baby is left attached to its placenta until the cord naturally separates
• Afterbirth is the delivery of the placenta following the delivery of the infant.
• Birth control methods are devices, medications or behavior patterns to reduce the probability of pregnancy.

Complications

• Infertility treatments are devices, medications, or behavior patterns to increase the probability of pregnancy.
• Premature birth is the birth of an infant before the full term of pregnancy.
• Birth defect is a physical or mental abnormality present at the time of birth.
• Stillbirth is the birth of a dead fetus or infant.
• Birth trauma is a theory in Pre & Perinatal psychology and natural medicine that the baby experiences extreme pain during the birthing process and that this pain influences the child later in life.
• VBAC is a Vaginal Birth after a Caesarean Birth.

Legal meanings

• Birthday is a day to celebrate that the person has lived a certain number of years. It is an annual event based either on the anniversary of a person's date of birth, or on astrological birthtime calculations.
• Birth certificate is a legal document describing details of a person's birth.
• A nuclear family comprising the father, mother, brother or sister, is an institution where the members are related by birth.
• In some countries a person is considered of illegitimate birth if the child is born of parents not legally married to each other.

Spiritual meanings

• Astrology is based upon the belief that an individual's life is influenced by the geocentric positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets in the sky or below the horizon at the moment of birth; a natal chart is calculated using the exact time, date, and place of birth in order to try and interpret these cyclical influences on a person's life.
• Virgin Birth of Jesus is the Christian doctrine that asserts that Jesus Christ was born to a virgin, and thus that His conception was carried out without an earthly father.
• Born again, a term used primarily in Protestant Christianity, is associated with salvation, conversion, and spiritual rebirth.
• Rebirth is a belief that a person is born again after their death based on the karma of their previous births.

Metaphorical meanings

• Stellar evolution is the field of study that deals with the birth of stars and their lifecycles.

See also

• Childbirth
• Death
• Fertilisation
• Home birth
• List of oldest birth mothers
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• Storks