Generally speaking, a baby will be born when he or she is just good and ready to be born. While we speak about pregnancy being exactly 40 weeks, and while we talk about a “due date”, the fact remains that babies can be born within a week or two either direction of a due [...]
The majority of women choose their baby’s father to be their labor coach. However, there are a number of situations where that isn’t practical (or desirable). If he’s no longer part of the picture, or is unwilling to be your labor coach, you’ll still want someone to be there to support and help you through [...]
Generally speaking, a baby will be born when he or she is just good and ready to be born. While we speak about pregnancy being exactly 40 weeks, and while we talk about a “due date”, the fact remains that babies can be born within a week or two either direction of a due [...]
Technically speaking, you may begin to have Braxton-hicks contractions starting well before the second trimester. Braxton-Hicks contractions can start as early as somewhere around your sixth week of pregnancy. Having said that, these early Braxton-Hicks contractions are generally so mild that you aren’t even going to be able to notice them. Typically, it is sometime [...]
It’s not entirely uncommon for a woman to feel like she may be in labor long before she actually is. Many new moms will make at least one trip to the hospital, thinking that today is the day, only to find that they’re sent back home. Knowing when labor has begun means not only watching [...]
Part of getting through labor is understanding exactly what to expect. Labor is divided into four specific stages. These stages aren’t hard and fast, and many women may not realize when they’re transitioning from one stage to another. And, because every woman and every pregnancy is different, you may not spend very much time in [...]
Labor is painful. It’s a simple fact of life. Even if you have a tremendously high pain tolerance, the fact of the matter is that you’re not going to feel good. There’s nothing wrong with feeling like you need some pain relief during labor. Today, it’s often assumed, however, that you’re going to want medical [...]
When you’re pregnant, the more you can do to stay fit and help your body get ready for labor and delivery, the easier that whole process will be. That’s not to say that labor and delivery will ever be easy or painless, but the better shape your body is in the less likely you are [...]
Over the past four decades, we’ve seen a steady increase in the number of births via cesarean section. Around a quarter of women will have a cesarean birth in the United States. There is some controversy to this statistic, as the World Health Organization believes that the cesarean rate should, ideally, be around ten to [...]
So much of what goes on during pregnancy is about choices. You need to make the right choices nutritionally in order to make sure you and your baby get what you need. You need to make choices about how to manage side effects like morning sickness. You need to make choices about baby names, about [...]
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