Labour

Labour or Labor may refer to:

Employment

New Zealand Labour Party

The New Zealand Labour Party or Labour (Māori: Rōpū Reipa o Aotearoa or Reipa for short) is a social-democraticpolitical party in New Zealand, and one of the two major parties in New Zealand politics. The party was formed in 1916, making it New Zealand's oldest extant political party.

Labour most recently formed a government from 1999 to 2008 with Helen Clark as party leader and Prime Minister. Since the party's defeat in the 2008 general election, Labour has comprised the second-largest (in terms of parliamentary seats) political party represented in the New Zealand Parliament; it functions as the core of the Official Parliamentary Opposition.

Labour has had four leaders whilst in opposition to the current Government under the National Party. This turnover has at least in part been due to changes within public media and the political environment during this time. On 18 November 2014 Andrew Little was confirmed outside of Parliament and in a press conference as the new leader of the Labour Party.

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.