Natural childbirth means that the birthing mother accepts that she will probably feel pain and discomfort as part of labor and birth. Positive aspects of natural childbirth include no loss of sensation. She will also remain alert during labor and birth.
By choosing natural childbirth, you can move around freely and use whatever positions you find comfortable throughout labor. Many women feel a sense of empowerment or accomplishment after giving birth unmedicated. Even though they had pain, many choose to remain unmedicated for future births.
Most techniques advocated with natural childbirth are non-invasive. Partners and other family members will feel more involved as they help the mother cope and work through her contractions.
Childbirth classes teach techniques to help the mother attain a natural childbirth. These techniques may be practiced before labor begins. By practicing and understanding these techniques, some of the fear and anxiety she may be experiencing is lessened.
Unlike an epidural, these techniques do not remove the pain. They give you means to cope with it. If you still find that you cannot deal with the pain, an epidural or other pain relief can be given in the hospital if you are not too close to delivery.
Getting ready for natural childbirth helps a family prepare for their new baby. First, you develop your birth plan. This is a written plan for you and your caregivers that give them an idea of your wishes during labor and birth.
You can have a natural childbirth without drugs in a hospital, a birthing center or at home. Birthing centers are an option that is family-centered and is a compromise between a hospital and birthing at home. Hospitals are moving towards this design by calling their maternity wards birthing centers, and creating a more home-like environment. Relaxed visitation hours are often employed.
Achieving a natural childbirth can be easier when you use a midwife, a doula or other birth attendant. Midwives are familiar with comfort measures to help you cope with labor pain without resorting to drugs, and can provide a more personalized prenatal care routine than you can get from an obstetrician.
If you have an obstetrician, your labor care will be provided by the hospital nurses. Some nurses have studied natural techniques, but they are only available until their shift is over. You may get assigned a nurse on the next shift whose preferred method of labor management is to repeatedly offer an epidural.
Even if your heart is set on a natural childbirth, it is important to remain flexible. No one can predict how labor will flow, and sometimes interventions are truly needed.
Studies have proven that if a woman has continuous support, they are less likely to need pain medication for labor and delivery than if they are alone or feel unsupported. Partners can learn to do this in childbirth classes, and doulas can be hired to help. Unlike nurses, doulas don't work by shifts... they are there for the duration of the birth.
Studies have also proven that mothers who prepare with certain types of pain management methods before labor are more likely to succeed in having the birth they want. Breathing, positioning, relaxation, hypnosis, acupuncture, massage and hydrotherapy are a few choices a woman may look at when deciding how to prepare for birth.
Did you know that some maternity units actually have more staff available during periods of full moon?
I've always been fascinated by the moon's effect on nature, so when a friend's wife conveyed to me what her midwife had told her during the birth of their daughter, I decided to find out more about childbirth, full moon and a possible link.
On speaking to various medical staff involved in natural childbirth, the first thing I learned was that expectant mothers often experience false signs of labor during full moon.
Contractions known as "Braxton Hicks" -- sometimes noticeable to the mother and sometimes not -- become more pronounced and many travel to the maternity unit in the belief that "it's time". Disappointed -- or perhaps relieved -- they return home, the pains having subsided and with no dilation of the cervix.
While these expectant mothers visiting the clinic with their mistaken signs of labor are part of the reason why extra staff are needed, the major difference is found in the number of women whose amniotic sac -- the water -- breaks.
Just as some women experience false labor pains, in cases where the water breaking marks the start of childbirth, full moon is the time when it's most likely to happen.
In order to discover for myself whether this could be true, I asked several female friends how their births had started. Those who responded with "the water breaking" were then asked the date of the birth. On checking this against a moon phase chart, I discovered that almost all had given birth on, or very close to, a full moon.
The theory is that the moon's gravitational pull effects the amniotic fluid in much the same way as it effects the water in the sea, rivers and even the water that's otherwise found in our bodies.
As a woman's body prepares for natural childbirth, the amniotic sac becomes distended so the point where it will easily burst if put under pressure. Under normal circumstances, the pressure of labor contractions bursts the sac. During a full moon, the pressure caused by the moon's effect on the water inside the sac can cause the same things to happen, but without the accompanying contractions.
When this happens, natural childbirth doesn't always move forward and with no other signs of labor present, the obstetrician may decide to induce the birth. During my own study of this phenomenon I found that of 8 women whose births started with the water breaking at full moon, 5 of them had no accompanying contractions.
A coincidence? Perhaps. But surely midwives wouldn't prepare themselves for an increase in natural childbirth activity if there wasn't some truth in this?
One midwife told me that when it comes to planning childbirth, full moons should always be looked for around the time of the expected delivery. If there's one within a few days either side, the chances are your baby will be born on that day.
Both Carol Stack & David Rose are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Carol Stack has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, Fishing and Fitness. Get more information about and other health issues at