Posts Tagged ‘active labor’

• How do you know you are in labor?

  Date: 2010.09.02 | Category: Pregnancy | Response: 4

  Most women who are pregnant for the first time, and some who are pregnant after having given birth before, wonder how they will know they are in labor. The most common answer to this question is simply – “Trust me, you’ll know!”. What if this answer does not satisfy you, and you would prefer to get some more detailed information? What do contractions feel like? How can you distinguish labor contractions from the Braxton Hicks contractions you have been having all pregnancy long? How do you know your water has broken? And how can women who have weeks or prodromal labor tell that they are finally experiencing active labor, and are about to give birth?

  

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• Laboring at home for a hospital birth

  Date: 2010.08.25 | Category: Hospital Birth | Response: 0

  Have you decided to have a hospital birth, but are determined to avoid too many medical interventions? A great way to achieve a natural hospital birth is staying home for as long as possible during your labors. Many mothers head for the hospital as soon as they are sure they are having contractions, or when their waters break. Unfortunately, restrictions are often placed upon laboring mothers immediately upon arrival at the hospital, and many hospitals have policies about the time women are “allowed” to labor on their own before interventions such as pitocin are started. A labor that is slowly progressing might quickly be proclaimed a “stalled labor”, and medical interventions become extremely hard to refuse. Here are some reasons to labor at home for as long as you feel comfortable.  Read the rest of this entry »