Birth and What to Expect

For nine long months, you’ve endured round ligament pains, morning sickness, and even sleeplessness. You’ve done all you can to prepare for that magical day when your baby arrives and now it’s time to bring a baby into the world. When it comes to birth, just as no two pregnancies are alike, much can be said about each woman’s experience with birth.

While some may opt to go without pain management, some will choose an epidural or other form of pain control. While some female bodies allow them to give birth vaginally, some experience complications that will require C-Sections. There are so many choices and decisions to make that it can almost seem overwhelming. Thankfully, we’ve put together a birthing guide on what to expect from giving birth and how to create the birth plan that can help make sure your experience goes as well as possible.

For most women giving birth vaginally isn’t an issue, but sometimes complications do arise and you may be forced to have a C-Section for the safety of both baby and the mother. What causes women to need C-Sections? In some cases, mothers aren’t able to dilate fully which is when the cervix widens far enough to allow baby to pass safely through the birth canal and sometimes they just get stuck even when they do.

There are numerous issues that can arise and result in a baby being born via C-Section. For those who do, the mother will be prepped and given an epidural in which a team of skilled and experienced surgeons along with your doctor will make an incision and remove the baby that way.

For those who are having a vaginal birth, there are still the options of various forms of pain relief including an epidural, or the more natural way without pain relieving medications. With an epidural, and anesthesiologist will come in and place a catheter with a numbing pain medication between vertebrae in to the spinal area which will in turn numb the mother from her waist down allowing for a pain free birth. The catheter that stays attached to the needle allows for more medicine to be administered if need be.

A birth plan prior to giving birth is a great thing to discuss with your doctor as it can entail who cuts the cord once baby is born, who will be allowed in the room, pain management (or none) choices, or if you want to breastfeed or maybe you want to formula feed. All these major decisions can be included in to your birth plan and discussed with your care provider to see what your options are. Keep in mind that each hospital comes with different rules and some requests may not be possible to do. Try to be flexible, but if it’s something feasible then don’t allow the staff to not cater to your wishes.