When a woman gives birth in the movies, the doctor stands at her pelvis ready to guide the baby into his arms and there is nary an electronic or piece of equipment in sight. In real life, the labor and delivery room is filled with monitors and machines ready to go at a moment's notice.
Take our quiz and see just how familiar you are with these tools of the delivery trade.
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If you're past your due date, then you'd probably like to give your baby a gentle reminder that he or she must have missed a very important memo to c'mon down. Unfortunately, that's easier said than done. But before the doctor starts talking meds or induction, there a few natural methods of moving labor along that are worth trying out. Click through and see what might be a good fit.
And if we missed a technique that did the trick for you, then please let us in on your secret!
Does it seem like today's childbirth stories are a bit more dramatic than those of our parents and grandparents? While it may feel like a natural side effect of our oversharing generation (back then, no one was tweeting or Facebooking labor updates to their social networks), according to a recent study, women actually are spending significantly more time in labor today than they were 50 years ago.
The National Institutes of Health reports that the average duration of the first stage of labor has increased by 2.6 hours compared to data from the 1960s.
While the reasons for today's longer labors aren't entirely clear, and the authors of the study called for additional research to determine its causes and implications, these five factors were proven to play a part:
5 Factors That Have Led to Longer Labors
How do the findings of the study compare to your birthing experience? Did anything strike you as drastically different as compared to labor stories that you've heard from previous generations? Share your stories!
When Australian tourist Rachel Evans unexpectedly went into labor at Vancouver International Airport last Summer, some three months before her due date, the baby's health and well-being were the immediate concern for the new mom and dad John Kan. After the baby, Piper, was born, she needed 90 days of neonatal care, and while the couple took out travel insurance and extra coverage, they did not realize that the policy wouldn't cover the birth of the baby.
The total cost of the bill that they recently received? According to Canada's National Post, $726,000. And while this is certainly not the norm, it also wasn't a clerical error or typo. "It is very uncommon for an out-of-country family to require a long stay at BC Women’s and not have those costs covered by insurance," Jan Christilaw, the hospital's president, said.
While the chance of your receiving a nearly million dollar hospital bill is highly unlikely (thank goodness!), you'll want to at least have an idea of what you're in for in terms of the costs associated with a new baby before the big day arrives. While flowers and balloons are welcome in the delivery room, sticker shock is not!
Keep reading to see how much it will really cost you to have a baby.
World Doula Week is underway right now (March 22-28), and its purpose is to empower doulas worldwide to improve the health (mental, physical, social, and emotional) of women in the birth and postpartum period. The word doula translates from Greek to mean "women's servant." But what does that encompass in today's society? Test your knowledge of what exactly a doula does, as compared to a doctor or a midwife.
Get ready to meet your lil one! In the final days of pregnancy, expectant mamas have a lot on their minds. But as the nesting instinct sets in, take advantage of the downtime to read up on what lies ahead. Before heading to the hospital, check out our guide of things every mom-to-be should know.
Just call them the baby catchers! While many moms-to-be agonize over who will be with them when they deliver their baby, others also put a lot of thought into who will be the first person to touch their tot when he is born — or who will "catch" their lil one. While millions of viewers watched Kourtney Kardashian pull baby Mason out by herself, others have assigned spouses, parents, and dear friends with the honor. Take a look at who caught these eight Hollywood parents' newborns.
We're excited to share this post from our partners at BabyCenter! Every week, we will be bringing you the best parenting and lifestyle stories from the experts at BabyCenter, including this post from Nancy Johnson Horn about tips for easing labor pain.
I remember going into labor over 6 years ago with my first child. When my water broke 11 days early I couldn’t remember a thing, other than "pick a focus point on the wall" and breathe.
Related: No, I'm Not Trying For a Girl
But there’s more you can do to make labor go a little smoother. Recently, I spoke to Hope Garland, an Affiliated Bradley Instructor, www.blossombirth.net, who recommended these amazing tips. So, if you’re weeks or days away from childbirth — don’t panic, just print out (or bookmark it on your smartphone) this post so you can reference it when you go into labor.
Do you have any tips to make labor a little easier? What did or didn’t work for you?
More great stories from BabyCenter.com:
Quantity or quality time: Which matters more?
Five reasons you need the Origami Stroller — now!
The three greatest dangers for baby are . . .
Seven ways to spread the love this Valentine's Day
What do you say to pushy parents?
Source: Flickr User bradleygee
Ready or not, here he comes! Regardless of whether or not you had a written plan for your lil one's birth, when baby's ready to come, there's little mom can do to stop him!
Such was the case for Rabita Sarkar of Harrison, NJ, who thought she was feeling false labor pains and decided to use them as an opportunity to do a trial run to test her route to the hospital. Soon after boarding the PATH commuter train into New York City, the contractions turned real and within minutes, the expectant mama gave birth to a son — while sitting on the train! She said:
He decided to come and that was it. Nothing could stop him. Nothing could keep him inside for longer. I don’t think anybody could actually dream of such a delivery.
We've heard of plenty of women who didn't know they were pregnant until they were in labor, and I've even had a friend who gave birth in her car outside of the hospital entrance, but were you so surprised by your labor that you gave birth in a strange place? If so, tell us!
Source: Flickr User Remy Sharp
Forget push presents; what wealthy pregnant women from around the world really want postchildbirth is US citizenship for their lil one. Hence the rise and booming popularity of birth tourism — where foreign women with substantial financial means come to the US to have their babies. The US is the only developed country, other than Canada, that grants jus soli, or birthright citizenship to any individual born here. Like parents everywhere, these women want the best for their children: for them, that means access to American schools, universities, and jobs.
Expectant mothers generally enter the country on a tourist or business visa — it's illegal to refuse entry to a woman on the sole grounds that she's pregnant — a few months before her due date. Once here, she needs somewhere to stay and help navigating the system. This is where the industry comes in: from the southern coast of California to the suburbs of New York City and everywhere in between, Americans are catering to this specific group of women, setting up birth tourism centers where women can rent rooms and receive help obtaining their babies' passports and social security numbers.
Birth tourism isn't a new idea — it's been going on for decades — but a recent move by Congress, which if passed will put up significant roadblocks for women hoping to deliver on US soil, has brought the topic to the forefront of the immigration debate.
What do you think about birth tourism? Should it be illegal?
