• Contact us
• About us
• A-Z topics
• Symptom Checker
• Service Finder
• Subscribe to newsletters
• Linking to us
• Information partners
• Terms of use
• Privacy

Pregnancy, Birth and Baby is funded by the Australian Government and operated by Healthdirect Australia.

Pregnancy, Birth and Baby’s information and advice are developed and managed within a rigorous clinical governance framework.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Healthdirect Australia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners and to Elders both past and present.

This information is for your general information and use only and is not intended to be used as medical advice and should not be used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any medical condition, nor should it be used for therapeutic purposes.

The information is not a substitute for independent professional advice and should not be used as an alternative to professional health care. If you have a particular medical problem, please consult a healthcare professional.

Except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, this publication or any part of it may not be reproduced, altered, adapted, stored and/or distributed in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of Healthdirect Australia.

Support this browser is being discontinued for Pregnancy, Birth and Baby

Support for this browser is being discontinued for this site

• Internet Explorer 11 and lower

We currently support Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. For more information, please visit the links below:

• Chrome by Google
• Firefox by Mozilla
• Microsoft Edge
• Safari by Apple

You are welcome to continue browsing this site with this browser. Some features, tools or interaction may not work correctly.

Woman giving birth: Live birth video

• Community
• Getting Pregnant
• Pregnancy
• Baby Names
• Baby
• Toddler
• Child
• Health
• Family
• Courses
• Registry Builder
• Baby Products

Advertisement

5:42 min

Video note: Contains medical situations and nudity. If you're in a public place, consider watching this later.

In a natural birth, the mother gives birth vaginally without pain medication (like an epidural). Natural childbirth can be a safe option for a low-risk pregnancy.

If your pregnancy is high risk – if you have a heart condition, preeclampsia, or diabetes; are carrying twins; or your baby is breech – or if there's a chance a C-section will be necessary, a natural birth may not be recommended. Talk to your healthcare provider about your best options for labor and delivery.

Natural births also forgo some other medical interventions, like fetal monitoring, episiotomies, and medications to induce or speed up labor. Your fetus will likely be monitored intermittently using a hand-held Doppler device or a fetoscope (a fetal stethoscope).

One benefit of natural birth is you can move around, exploring different labor positions to find the ones that are most comfortable for you. If you get an epidural, you'll be numb from the waist down, so you won't be able to move around freely. During a hospital birth, you may also have IVs or other equipment that might restrict your movement.

Another benefit of natural birth is that many moms describe it as an empowering experience. It allows you to remain in control of your body and be an active participant throughout labor.

Natural birth isn't without drawbacks, though. It can be very painful and exhausting to give birth without pain medication. If you choose an unmedicated birth, healthcare providers recommend having a support person with you the entire time to help you through it. Midwives often recommend your partner, a close family member or friend, or a doula.

You can also explore natural methods of pain relief, like breathing techniques, walking, yoga and stretching, massage, and warm baths or showers. Water immersion in a Jacuzzi or other hot tub can provide great relief in active labor. Hypnosis and acupuncture are also possibilities.

While it's possible to have a natural delivery at a hospital, women often opt to go to a birth center or have a home birth because of the flexibility these settings provide. One important factor to consider when making your birth plan is to make sure there's a hospital close to your birth center or home that you can transfer to quickly in case of complications during labor. Ideally, your midwife already has a relationship with a hospital and has transferred patients there before.

Learn more:

• Prepare for labor and delivery with our free childbirth class
• Planning a natural childbirth? Find other parents like you.

Advertisement | page continues below

Inside pregnancy: Labor and birth

2:20 min

Positions your baby might be in during birth

3:32 min

My six-word birth story

1:06 min

Live birth: Epidural

8:16 min

Live birth: Epidural (No nudity)

7:48 min

Live birth: C-section surgery

12:56 min

Live birth: Induction

5:17 min

Live birth: Water birth

5:30 min

Giving birth with a midwife

4:16 min

Live birth video: twins

5:29 min

How an upright position can make delivery easier

2:02 min

Vacuum and forceps during birth

3:43 min

Why you might tear or need an episiotomy

2:58 min

My pregnancy week by week

2

weeks pregnant

3

weeks pregnant

4

weeks pregnant

5

weeks pregnant

6

weeks pregnant

7

weeks pregnant

8

weeks pregnant

9

weeks pregnant

10

weeks pregnant

11

weeks pregnant

12

weeks pregnant

13

weeks pregnant

14

weeks pregnant

15

weeks pregnant

16

weeks pregnant

17

weeks pregnant

18

weeks pregnant

19

weeks pregnant

20

weeks pregnant

21

weeks pregnant

22

weeks pregnant

23

weeks pregnant

24

weeks pregnant

25

weeks pregnant

26

weeks pregnant

27

weeks pregnant

28

weeks pregnant

29

weeks pregnant

30

weeks pregnant

31

weeks pregnant

32

weeks pregnant

33

weeks pregnant

34

weeks pregnant

35

weeks pregnant

36

weeks pregnant

37

weeks pregnant

38

weeks pregnant

39

weeks pregnant

40

weeks pregnant

41

weeks pregnant

Advertisement

Late children bring back youth - articles from specialists of the clinic "Mother and Child"

The number of women who gave birth to their first child between 30 and 40 years has almost tripled in the last 20 years. In addition, the number of first-time mothers after 40 years has increased by almost 50%. And physicians are forced to reckon with it. Gradually, the offensive word “old-timer” disappeared from their vocabulary, and childbirth in adulthood is no longer considered something out of the ordinary.

Increasingly, women are postponing childbirth while studying or moving up the career ladder. The number of early births (up to 20 years old) in all civilized countries is steadily falling (Russia, however, is an exception).

Numerous studies have shown that pregnancy and childbirth after 35 do not pose such a serious danger as previously thought. The average portrait of a woman in her thirties who is preparing to become a mother has changed a lot lately. As a rule, she belongs to the middle class, is well educated, takes care of her health. Her body is not worn out by numerous births.
It has always been believed that later children are more likely to be born prematurely, gain less weight and get sick more in early childhood. Recent research has cast doubt on this.

American doctors who observed 4 thousand women in labor in one of the hospitals in New York came to the conclusion that a woman over 35 years old, if she is physically healthy and has not had miscarriages, has a chance to give birth to a normal healthy child (even if this is the first birth) almost the same as a 20-year-old.

For a middle-aged woman who has devoted all her young years to a career, pregnancy is an opportunity to try herself in a completely new way. In addition, she is more likely to find support from her husband, since a mature man is psychologically more prepared for the role of a father than a young one.

As you know, psychological readiness for motherhood comes much later than biological. According to psychologists, pregnancy in adulthood is much more favorable than in early youth. A woman perceives her condition more calmly, less prone to stress, less likely to experience internal conflicts. She is more disciplined and lives in harmony with herself. Many consider the birth of a child a gift of fate or a blessing from God.

Older women, most of whom married late, as a rule, stand firmly on their feet, have reached a certain level in their professional activities, and are confident that they will return to work some time after giving birth. All this allows them to look to the future with great calmness and optimism. A middle-aged woman who has devoted all her young years to a career may look at pregnancy as an opportunity to try herself in a completely new capacity. In addition, she is more likely to find support from her husband, since a mature man is psychologically more prepared for the role of a father than a young one. As a rule, middle-aged parents, unlike young ones, devote more time to raising a child. As a result, many "late" children are ahead of their peers in their intellectual and physical development. The secret here is in the atmosphere of love and mutual understanding in the family where the long-awaited baby appeared.

American psychologists conducted a survey among women who became mothers before the age of 20 and between 30 and 40 years. Both were asked to answer the question of whether they would give birth at the same age if they could make a new decision. More than half of those whose children were born before the age of 20 answered “no”, and the majority of older mothers expressed confidence that they had chosen the optimal time for the birth of a child.

Hollywood star Kim Basinger first became a mother when she was already over 40. Actress Beverly D * Angelo, a friend of Al Pacino, gave birth to his charming twins when she was 49. The famous actress Marina Neelova had a daughter when she was 41 years old. And there are many such examples.

Doctors today can help even those women whose reproductive period has ended. Various methods are used for this: hormone therapy, implantation of a donor egg in the uterus. Muscovite Natalya Alekseevna Surkova got into the Guinness Book of Records, becoming a mother at the age of 57. She already had two adult children. Recently, a 66-year-old woman from Romania gave birth to a child. For many years she taught at the University and wrote books for children, but she had no babies of her own before. True, doctors are not particularly enthusiastic about the increase in the number of mothers-grandmothers: the risk of complications and the responsibility of the doctor who “leads” such a woman in labor are too high.

Of course, late motherhood has its problems. Women over 35 are more likely to experience health complications during pregnancy, especially diabetes and high blood pressure. These complications occur in approximately 6% of women over 35 years of age compared to 1.3% in younger women.

Another problem: the "solid" age of the parents increases the risk of developing anomalies in the fetus, the birth of children with severe hereditary diseases. Therefore, all primiparas over 35 years of age are usually offered an amniocentesis in the second trimester of pregnancy - an analysis of amniotic fluid. This allows you to identify about 200 hereditary diseases associated with a violation of the chromosome set.

You can also find out the degree of risk of such diseases using the "triple" test - it is done around the 16th week of pregnancy. For analysis, blood is taken from a vein. Women of older reproductive age do not recover from childbirth as quickly as younger women. For some of them, after decades of taking care of themselves, it can be difficult to get used to the fact that the baby, especially in the first months, requires constant care and attention.

Another disadvantage of late childbirth is that parents have to limit themselves to one child or have a second one when the first one is still very small - after all, the time allotted by nature for acquiring offspring is not unlimited.

Should I do a Caesarean section?

In women over 30-40 years of age, childbirth can be more difficult and protracted than in younger women - this is the generally accepted opinion. In fact, any experienced obstetrician can testify that in many cases, older mothers do an excellent job with minimal medical help. Often and, by the way, not always justified, at this age they offer a caesarean section. This does not raise questions if there are medical indications for surgery or a woman managed to get pregnant only with the help of doctors. Then, trying to eliminate any risk to the baby and taking into account the aggravating factors, the doctor makes such a decision.

Recent studies have shown that, on average, the duration of labor for older mothers exceeds the duration of labor for young mothers by only 45 minutes. And at 40, you can not be afraid of difficult childbirth if you are well prepared for them physically and psychologically.

Where to start?

If for some reason you put off the birth of your child, you should prepare in advance for his possible birth.
Try to get rid of bad habits if you have them. By the age of 35, we have time to experience a stronger impact of adverse environmental factors than by the age of 20.

Should we add to them the harm from smoking and alcohol? Watch your health, do not start even trifling, at first glance, diseases. If you treat a cold rather than endure it on your feet, you are much more likely to keep your kidneys and heart healthy, organs that take a lot of stress during pregnancy.
Control your weight and maintain muscle tone. Go in for sports or exercise. Excess weight creates additional problems during gestation.

It should be borne in mind that after 35 years, the ability to bear children gradually decreases. Experts believe that at this age it may take 6-12 months to conceive instead of four. Before you decide it's time to start procreation, visit a therapist. Sometimes a woman is being treated for infertility for years, during which time she develops various ailments. These diseases may not cause much concern, but they can interfere with the normal course of pregnancy.
During pregnancy, you will need to be more attentive to yourself than younger women, to strictly monitor your diet and regimen.

It is worth taking seriously the choice of a doctor and a maternity hospital. It is desirable that the clinic be equipped with everything necessary in case you need urgent help for a newborn.

"If you want to preserve beauty, have a child at forty," say the French. If a woman is healthy, during pregnancy she blossoms. In this magical way, estrogens act - female sex hormones, the production of which increases several times. In addition, the eggs of a pregnant woman are not "spent", so aging seems to be suspended. Menopause in women who have become mothers in adulthood may come later. Raising a baby provides a unique opportunity to turn from a middle-aged woman into a young mother.

Such parents usually go through the so-called midlife crisis painlessly - they just don't have time to delve into their problems. Not soon they will have another test, which psychologists call the "empty nest" syndrome - when children grow up and leave their father's house.

As you can see, "late birth" is a rather arbitrary concept. Today, a woman has the opportunity to choose for herself at what point in her life to devote herself to a child. And if nature gives a chance to experience the happiness of motherhood in adulthood, is it worth it to refuse?

Kurbatskaya O.N., obstetrician-gynecologist, head of the department, candidate of medical sciences

How they gave birth in Rus' - Iris, Chelyabinsk

A pregnant woman has always been surrounded in Rus' with special respect. Even the grumpy mother-in-law and the strict husband during this period did not touch her, but gave her the best piece at the table, removed her from dirty and hard work. What other traditions were associated with the birth of children among our ancestors?

In Russia until the 18th century, both obstetrics and gynecology were at a lower stage of development than in many other countries, and were not even divided into different branches of medicine. In pagan Rus', pregnant women called on the help of the gods, making sacrifices to them, cast spells, believed in omens and the miraculous power of plants. The most “strong” amulet, by the way, was considered to be overpowered-grass. According to some sources, this is a white river water lily, according to others - St. John's wort, and according to others - a plant from the genus of euphorbia.

Things were a little better when Russia had already adopted Christianity: a pregnant woman could only count on the help of the oldest and most experienced woman in her family or a midwife. Here is what the harsh rules of Domostroy prescribed: “Healing should be done by God’s mercy, yes, true repentance, yes thanksgiving, and forgiveness, and mercy, and unfeigned love for everyone.” That's all, and no doctors! At the same time, Russian women continued to devoutly believe in pagan signs, and, oddly enough, modern medicine confirms the correctness of some of these beliefs to one degree or another.

Grandma's superstitions

• A pregnant woman should not eat secretly and in a hurry . Based on logic, a pregnant woman will secretly eat if she eats something "forbidden", for example, that can cause allergies. So is eating in a hurry: food is not mechanically processed enough, which means that nutrients are absorbed worse. All this harms the fetus.
• A pregnant woman should not sit cross-legged . Indeed, in this position, blood circulation in the legs is disturbed, which can lead to varicose veins.
• A pregnant woman should not raise her arms and sleep on her back . Doctors confirm this in some cases for late pregnancy: there is a risk of premature birth and complications.
• Pregnant women should not wear jewelry made of gold and silver . Here, medicine does not put absolute prohibitions, but still pregnant women are prone to swelling, and they should put off wearing their favorite jewelry “for later”. Indeed, for many expectant mothers, not only the legs, but also the hands swell.
• Pregnant women should not look at deformities, fires, be present at scandals, fights, funerals . You don’t have to be an expert to appreciate the depth of this folk wisdom: negative emotions are completely contraindicated for the expectant mother. She is prescribed psychological comfort. Even pregnant women were strictly forbidden to slander, steal, drink. This prohibition also does not require separate comments.

At the same time, very tenacious superstitions have survived even to this day, not amenable to any reasonable explanation. For example, why shouldn't a pregnant woman knit, sew and embroider? Or why the expectant mother cannot take care of the dowry for the baby herself in advance?

Ivan the Terrible and obstetrics

In every Russian family, from peasant to boyar, there were always many children, childbirth was repeated from year to year, and therefore was not perceived as some kind of extraordinary event. People rejoiced if the replenishment in the family went well, and they perceived the loss of a baby with philosophical humility. The first attempt to somehow systematize obstetrics was made by the state only at the end of the 16th century.

"The Terrible Tsar" did not leave a good memory among the people. Meanwhile, some of his undertakings can be called progressive for their time. So, it was under Ivan the Terrible that the Pharmaceutical order was created. In fact, it is the first state body that manages the healthcare system, including obstetrics. It was determined that men did not have the right to engage in obstetrics, and childbirth should be taken by a midwife or midwife (from "povit" - to take the baby). This "assistant in childbirth" did not yet have the necessary education, but was already based on her own knowledge and knowledge accumulated in her family and transmitted from generation to generation.

Midwifery

Who could become a midwife? An elderly woman, often a widow, and always a "child". An ancient historian writes: “A girl, although elderly, cannot be a midwife. What kind of grandmother is she, if she did not torture herself? With her, it is difficult to give birth, and the children will not always be alive ... ” The midwife was invited to all difficult births, she always bandaged the umbilical cord, washed and steamed the woman in labor with the newborn in the bath and looked after them for the first days.

The next breakthrough in obstetrics and gynecology occurred already in the middle of the 18th century. In Russia, they began to produce "midwives with a diploma": midwifery institutes and midwifery schools were opened. These special educational institutions trained higher and middle medical personnel in the field of obstetrics. The “midwife” had a higher medical education, in fact she was an obstetrician-gynecologist; The "rural midwife" had a secondary medical education. There were also simply "midwives" - listeners who received a correspondence education. Their work was no longer left to chance, but was strictly regulated by a special charter.

The midwife would begin by changing the woman in labor into a clean shirt, giving her Epiphany water to drink, and lighting a candle in front of the icons. She strictly ensured that all the knots in the house were untied: from the braids of women to the locks on the doors. Say, so the birth will end faster. Regardless of her professionalism, the midwife provided great psychological assistance to the expectant mother, constantly saying that everything would be fine. She tied the umbilical cord to the newborn with a thread twisted with the mother's hair - so that the connection between them remained for life.

Immediately after the birth, the midwife performed actions similar to modern baby yoga: she smoothed the baby's arms, legs, tummy, “rules” the head. If the baby was weak, then the midwife could ... send him to the oven. The newborn was there three times on a wide wooden shovel in the weakest heat. It was a symbolic act: the baby was, as it were, “baked” so that he would grow up healthy and strong.

The most important final action is the bathing of the mother with the baby in the bath. There, the midwife gave the young mother a postpartum massage, that is, she performed the functions of a modern osteopathic doctor, and then poured special water on the newborn, to which she added salt in advance, soaked an egg and a silver coin. At the same time, she would say: “Grandma did not soap for cunning, not for wisdom, she washed for the sake of good health”

Our ancestors couldn't even dream about partnership childbirth, which is so fashionable now. The husband was instructed to stay away from the giving birth wife, but still be within reach. Because if something goes wrong, then it was he who was supposed to pray fervently and go around the house with images.

And only Peter the Great was able to slightly shake the established foundations: during his reign, it finally became possible to admit a male doctor to a woman in labor.

Learn more

• 
  Cub scout how to protect your child
• 
  Overproduction of breast milk pumping
• 
  Newborn baby poop breastfed
• 
  Common complications in pregnancy
• 
  Miscarriage signs bleeding
• 
  How to ease child constipation
• 
  How to foster emotional development in a child
• 
  Baby eyes watery and runny nose
• 
  How to find out your case number for child support
• 
  Postnatal depression for dads
• 
  How to make a scrapbook for your child