While childbirth is often a joyful event, it rarely unfolds exactly how we think it will. This causes disappointment among some women, and leaves a small proportion with a diagnosis of postnatal PTSD.
Many women in African countries who are medically required to have caesarean sections aren't able to access them due to weak health systems and a lack of resources.
Woman in labor, shown with monitors. Via Shutterstock.
From www.shutterstock,com
Childbirth in the U.S. can be dangerous and dehumanizing. An ob/gyn who traveled recently to India to review childbirth there says the U.S. and India fall short in similar ways.
The mode of delivery has a big impact on an infant’s microbiota, the bacteria that live in the gut.
Martin Valigursky/Shutterstock
The particular makeup of a newborn’s gut microbes is important as it has been shown to affect their risk of developing certain diseases later in childhood and adulthood.
Would you like a caesarean or a forceps delivery?
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The reduction of childbirth to a 'choice' between surgery and vaginal birth with interventions comes from patriarchal views about the fundamental failure of the female body.
We don't know much about fear during childbirth and its effects on outcomes for women and their newborns in the United States.
A new study has found birth education and complementary therapies such as yoga and acupressure can reduce caesarean rates.
from www.shutterstock.com.au
We've come a long way from the first documented successful caesarean. In 1500, Swiss farmer Jacob Nufer operated on his wife after a labour of several days. She went on to have five more vaginal births.
With c-sections becoming so common, it’s time that we started to investigate what that means for child health.
Baby via www.shutterstock.com.
As more and more babies are delivered by cesarean section, we need to start investigating what that means for their long-term health.
Any information about birthing women are exposed to influences their expectations long before they directly receive maternity care.
Raphaël Labbé/Flickr
Medical intervention in birth is normalised by both maternity care providers and all kinds of media. Our research shows information about the benefits of natural birth help women make better choices.
There is a substantial literature on labour and childbirth in medical, midwifery and social scientific research. But we still don’t know much about how labouring women experience that pivotal time when…
When the movement to promote evidence-based healthcare began in the late 1980s, it started in the field of child birth. So it might be expected that by now, nearly a quarter of a century later, there would…
Many hospitals are carrying out caesareans before 39 weeks despite official guidelines.
Wikimedia Commons/Mediajet
Hospitals provide much-needed medical care and treatment for women who run into difficulty in childbirth. But many women and babies have medical intervention and treatment without good reason. We’ve become…
Infants born by C-section had twofold higher odds of developing obesity.
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A study recently published in the British Medical Journal (project Viva) has found that children born by caesarean section have a higher rate of obesity at age three than children born naturally. At first…