Childbirth

Childbirth, also known as labour, delivery, birth, partus, or parturition, is the culmination of a period of pregnancy with the expulsion of one or more newborn infants from a woman's uterus. The process of normal childbirth is categorized in three stages of labour: the shortening and dilation of the cervix, descent and birth of the infant, and the expulsion of the placenta.

Each year about 500,000 women die due to pregnancy and childbirth, 7 million have serious long term complications, and 50 million have negative outcomes following delivery. Most of these issues occur in the developing world.

Signs and symptoms

The most prominent sign of labour are the strong contractile waves that move the infant down the birth canal. The distress levels reported by laboring women vary widely. They appear to be influenced by fear and anxiety levels, experience with prior childbirth, cultural ideas of childbirth and pain, mobility during labour, and the support received during labour. Personal expectations, the amount of support from caregivers, quality of the caregiver-patient relationship, and involvement in decision-making are more important in women's overall satisfaction with the experience of childbirth than are other factors such as age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, preparation, physical environment, pain, immobility, or medical interventions.