Women give birth child
Woman giving birth: Live birth video
Narrator: Samiyyah is the owner of a day spa in Philadelphia. She is 38 weeks pregnant with her second child.
Samiyyah: With the first pregnancy, I delivered in a hospital, and it was very restricting, you know, being confined to the bed, not being able to, you know, move when I felt my body wanted me to do certain things.
Narrator: For her son Safi's birth, she was given pitocin to speed up labor, an epidural for pain management, and an episiotomy (a surgical cut to widen the vaginal opening).
This time, she's planning a natural delivery -- without pain medication and other medical interventions -- at a birth center.
Samiyyah: Yes, I've been told that I am completely crazy for being, you know, for not having the drugs, but I've been there and I didn't like it, so I figured I would try this. It's healthier for the baby; it's healthier for me. So why not? I mean, women, we were designed to do this.
Narrator: Seven days after her due date, Samiyyah's labor kicks into gear. At the birth center in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, Julia Rasch, a licensed nurse/midwife, performs an internal exam and starts an IV line to give Samiyyah a dose of antibiotics, since she's positive for Group B strep.
Samiyyah is 3 centimeters dilated, 100 percent effaced, and her water hasn't broken yet, which is common in the first stage of labor.
Birth centers offer a more relaxed and intimate alternative to hospitals for women expecting uncomplicated births.
It's important to choose a birth center with nearby hospital privileges in case of an emergency.
Helping her through her first natural birth is her husband, Arvan. Her mother-in-law, Irena, and 6-year-old son Safi are there for support.
Samiyyah: We've talked about, you know, what he's gonna see, we've shown him pictures, and I think he'll be okay.
Narrator: As Samiyyah's labor progresses, her baby's heart rate is monitored every 15 minutes.
Samiyyah: My goal is to remain calm and try to stay level-headed.
Narrator: As her contractions pick up, she starts experiencing painful back labor, typically caused by the baby's head pressing against the lower spine.
Samiyyah finds some relief by trying a combination of slow steady breathing, constant deep massaging and counterpressure, spending lots of time in a heated Jacuzzi, and trying different labor positions.
Arvan: She's doing great. She's doing great. She's really pushing through.
Narrator: Her midwife feels it's time to break her water with an amni hook, since she can feel the amniotic sac bulging. This is a common procedure and usually helps speed up the labor process.
Samiyyah: I thought it would be painful, but it wasn't at all. Actually it was like a relief of pressure.
Midwife Julia Rasch: Large amount of clear fluid. Beautiful.
Narrator: Her contractions now intensify as she starts to feel the urge to push. This is called hard labor or transition. The muscles your body uses to contract are transitioning from dilating the cervix to pushing the baby down and out.
Midwife: The intensity of the contractions is increasing, and just a certain force is now really behind that baby coming.
Narrator: Transition can be the most painful part of labor -- but usually the shortest phase.
Narrator: Though most mothers dilate nearly 8 to 10 centimeters before transitioning, Samiyyah is only 5 centimeters dilated and is having trouble resisting the urge to push.
Arvan: Sam, do not push. Fight it. Fight it.
Samiyyah: I'm trying!
Narrator: Her midwife agrees her body is ready to deliver. Pushing before being fully dilated is uncommon. This is why each caregiver has to manage her patient's labor on an individual basis.
Midwife: Okay now, take a breath and do it again.
Narrator: Her midwife uses her fingers to pull back her cervical opening as Samiyyah pushes.
The midwife made the right decision, listening to her body. With just 11 minutes of pushing, Arvan and Samiyyah's baby emerges.
Samiyyah: [screams]
Arvan: Good job! Good job!
Midwife: There's your baby!
Narrator: Sami Sarrajj, a healthy boy, is placed immediately on his mother's chest.
Midwife: You did it! You did it!
Narrator: Dad cuts the umbilical cord, and the midwife collects some of the cord blood for routine testing.
It's not over yet. The midwife helps deliver the placenta, and a nurse presses on the fundus -- the upper part of the uterus -- to check how much the uterus has contracted.
Applying pressure is a common practice used by caregivers to help expel excess blood.
Samiyyah tore along her previous episiotomy line, and her midwife repairs it with stitches, which takes 15 minutes to complete.
Arvan: You did a hell of a job... Yeah!
Narrator: Samiyyah is now breastfeeding and bonding with her baby. Incredibly, in an hour, she is showered up and savoring some well-deserved fettucini Alfredo.
It was a fast delivery, with just four hours and 11 minutes of labor. Samiyyah's natural birth is a success, and she's ready to try it again.
Samiyyah: One more. We're going to try for a girl. (laughs)
Narrator: Everyone played a supportive part on the birth team… Even big brother Safi got to announce the news that his brother was born.
What happens to your body during childbirth
Childbirth is challenging and complications occur, but women's bodies are designed to give birth. The shape of the pelvis, hormones, powerful muscles and more all work together to help you bring your baby into the world - before, during and after childbirth.
How your body prepares for labour
Here are some of the ways your body will prepare both you and your baby for the birth ahead.
Braxton Hicks contractions
In the weeks or days before you start having proper contractions, you may experience Braxton Hicks contractions. This is your uterus tightening then relaxing. These contractions don't usually hurt and are thought to help your uterus and cervix get ready for labour.
Braxton Hicks contractions may become more regular as you get closer to the time of birth, but unlike labour contractions, they don't change the shape of the cervix and are sometimes referred to as 'false labour'. Your midwife can tell you if you're experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions or if you are in labour by doing a vaginal examination to look at your cervix.
Changes to the cervix
As labour gets closer, your cervix softens and becomes thinner, getting ready for the dilation (widening) that will allow the baby to enter the vagina. You may also see a 'show', which is a pinkish plug of mucus, stained with blood.
Engagement
Your baby may move further down your pelvis as the head engages, or sits in place over your cervix, ready for the birth. Some women feel they have more room to breathe after the baby has moved down. This is called 'lightening'.
Rupture of the membranes, or 'waters breaking'
Some women find the sac of amniotic fluid containing the baby breaks before labour, contractions start and the fluid runs (or gushes) out of the vagina. This is referred to as rupture of the membranes, or 'waters breaking'.
Let your maternity team know when your waters have broken and take notice of the colour of the fluid. It is usually light yellow. If it is green or red, tell your maternity team since this could mean the baby is having problems.
If your waters have broken but you have not started having regular contractions within 24 hours, you may need your labour to be induced because there is a risk of infection. Your midwife or doctor will talk to you about this.
How will you know when labour has started?
Movies often show women suddenly being struck by painful contractions and rushing to hospital. In real life, many women are not sure if they have actually started their labour.
You may feel restless, have back pain or period-like pain, or stomach disturbances such as diarrhoea.
Labour officially begins with contractions, which start working to open up the cervix. You should phone your midwife when your contractions start, although you probably won't be encouraged to come to the hospital or birthing centre until your contractions are closer together.
In preparation for labour, your baby may move further down your pelvis as the head engages, or sits in place over your cervix.How the pelvis is designed for childbirth
Your pelvis is located between your hip bones.
Women typically have wider, flatter pelvises than men, as well as a wider pelvic cavity (hole) to allow a baby to pass through.
The organs sitting in a woman's pelvis include the uterus, cervix and vagina, which are held together by a group of muscles. During childbirth, the muscles at the top of your uterus press down on the baby's bottom. Your baby's head then presses on your cervix which, along with the release of the hormone oxytocin (see 'How hormones help you give birth', below), brings on contractions. Your cervix should dilate so your baby can pass through it.
Your pelvis has bones and ligaments that move or stretch as the baby travels into the vagina. Your baby also has spaces between the skull bones called 'sutures', and the gaps where the sutures meet on the skull are called fontanelles. This allows for the baby's head to mould as the skull bones meet or overlap, allowing it to fit more easily as it travels through your pelvis.
How hormones help you give birth
Your body produces hormones that trigger changes in your body before, during and after childbirth.
Here's how they work to help you deliver your baby.
- Prostaglandin Before childbirth, a higher level of prostaglandin will help open the cervix and make your body more receptive to another important hormone, oxytocin.
- Oxytocin This hormone causes contractions during labour, as well as the contractions that deliver the placenta after the baby is born. These post-birth contractions, including more that can occur during breastfeeding, help your uterus shrink back to its normal size. Oxytocin and prolactin are the two main hormones that produce and let down breast milk for your baby. Skin-to-skin contact between a mother and baby helps to release more of these hormones.
- Relaxin The hormone relaxin helps soften and stretch the cervix for birth, while helping your waters break and stretching the ligaments in your pelvis to allow the baby to come through.
- Beta-endorphins During childbirth, this type of endorphin helps with pain relief and can cause you to feel joyful or euphoric.
- 'Baby blues' After birth, your hormone balance can change again, and this is believed to cause the ‘baby blues’ in some women. You may feel teary, anxious and irritable and your mood can go up and down.
When childbirth doesn’t go to plan
Sometimes, complications can occur before or during childbirth that mean things don’t go as expected.
Sometimes, labour needs to be induced or started. There are a few ways to induce labour, including the mother being offered synthetic prostaglandin. This is inserted into the vagina to soften the cervix and start contractions.
If contractions slow down or stop during labour, the mother may be offered synthetic oxytocin from a drip to increase the contractions. In both these cases contractions can come on strongly and more pain relief may be needed. Your maternity team should explain the benefits and risks of this with you before you agree to it.
The baby could be in a posterior or breech position, not ideally placed above the cervix before the birth.
Your maternity team may need to use forceps or a vacuum to help turn the baby or help the baby travel out of the vagina. Sometimes a caesarean is needed.
In rare cases, a mother may experience cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD), which is when the baby’s head is too big to fit through the pelvis. A diagnosis of CPD is usually made when labour hasn’t progressed and synthetic oxytocin has not helped. A caesarean is usually the next step.
More information
If you have any questions about childbirth or pregnancy, you can call Pregnancy, Birth and Baby on 1800 882 436, 7 days a week, to speak to a maternal health nurse.
Learn more here about the development and quality assurance of healthdirect content.
At what age do Russian women give birth?
Rosstat takes into account not only fertility statistics, but also related data: for example, at what age do Russian women give birth. Such information has been collected annually since the early sixties. We looked at how the situation has changed over the past decades and how different regions of the country differ from each other in this regard.
When are the first and subsequent children born more often
In total, 1,436,514 children were born in Russia then. Three were born to mothers under the age of 13, 363 were born from women over 50. The birth rate among minors is declining, and among older Russian women it is growing, but such situations are still rare. Interestingly, scientists are not interested in the age of the fathers: it is more difficult to establish reliably, plus it is not so important for the demographics of the country.
The average age of a woman at birth was 28 years and 7 months. It is important that this is the average age of all mothers, without division into those who gave birth for the first time, for the second, third or subsequent times: the media is sometimes confused about these indicators. In two out of three cases, newborn Russians already had an older brother or sister by mother.
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How much does it cost to give birth in Moscow
First-born Russians most often give birth at the age of 24-25 years.
The mean age was 25.9of the year. This is later than in the ideal scenario of the Russians: according to opinion polls, the Russians consider the optimal age for the birth of the first child to be 25 years old. But men believe that it is better to have a first child when the partner is 19-24 years old, and women say that the optimal age for this is 25-29 years.
Birth rates by mother's age and birth order, Center for Demographic Research
The second child is born at an average of 32 years, the third - at 34. This does not mean that the average mother gives birth to two children in three years: women who decide to have a third child give birth to their first child 2.6 years earlier.
What influences the age at which children were born
In the distant past, the age at which the first child was born was determined almost entirely by the age of marriage: in traditional societies, sex was approved only after the formalization of the relationship. Now the “wedding night” rarely becomes the first really: 67% of Russians consider sex before marriage to be normal.
Among citizens of "marriage" age - from 18 to 34 years - there are even more of them: 84%. Perhaps that is why the average age of marriage has increased since the mid-nineties of the last century: from 19up to 25 years - in women, from 23 to 27 - in men.
And many Russians have a child without formalizing the relationship at the registry office: in 2020, 21.6% of Russian babies were born to unmarried women. But half of these children were registered "on a joint application of the father and mother", that is, the parents, most likely, maintained a relationship.
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Rights in civil marriage
In today's society, the age of marriage still has a strong influence on the time of the birth of the first child. However, with the spread of contraceptives, the desires and plans of women themselves became more important. One of the main factors today is how many children a woman wants to have in principle.
If she plans to be a mother of many children, she starts giving birth earlier. Therefore, in regions where traditionally large families and the highest birth rate - for example, in Chechnya and Tuva - the first children are born early, on average at 23.4 and 23.7 years, respectively.
They also give birth early in Dagestan: at 23.5 years. In terms of the birth rate, this region is only in eighth place in Russia, and demographers explain the early age of birth here by cultural norms. But traditions and the spread of having many children in the environment where a person lives are very important: according to Rosstat polls, the more brothers and sisters a woman has, the more children she wants to have herself.
The youngest people give birth in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Sevastopol: the average age of birth of the first child here is 28.1, 27.8 and 26.9years respectively. In these regions, other traditions play a particularly important role.
According to demographers, in the cities young women devote most of their time to work - voluntarily or forcedly.
To find a good job, they must be educated. Women with higher education marry later and, accordingly, have children later. They also have more time between marriage and the birth of a child: 17.2 months versus 8.8 for women with a secondary education.
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How much do you earn compared to colleagues of the opposite sex
How did the average age of birth in 60 years
From 1960 to 1994 in the USSR and Russia, as well as in other countries of the Soviet bloc, the average age of birth of the first child was constantly decreasing, mothers were getting younger. At the same time, there was a different trend in the West.
Russian economists explain this by economic factors: under the socialist system, families with children received free apartments faster than those without children, and women who did not belong to the nomenklatura saw no reason to put off having children for the sake of education or work, because they often had no career prospects.
Since 1994, when mothers were at a record young age of 22.53 years at the birth of their first child, the average birth age in Russia has begun to increase. The level of 1960 was surpassed in 2008.
The age of the mother at the birth of the first child, a study by the sociological center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow State University and the Research Institute of Health Organization and Medical Management
This is a global trend that scientists call the demographic transition. To put it in simple terms, with an increase in life expectancy and its quality, young women prefer not to give birth, but to study, have fun and earn money. Including in order to provide better conditions for their future children. They also have affordable contraceptives and, in principle, do not plan to have more than two children.
In most developed countries, the average age of a primiparous woman today is approaching 30 years. They give birth later in Spain and Switzerland: at 31.
2 and 31.1 years, respectively. Russia is still far from this mark, especially since, according to preliminary data from domestic demographers, the average age of mothers in Russia has not been growing in recent years.
What doctors say about the optimal age for having a first child
Olga Kashubina
medical editor T—F
Author profile
from 19 to 30 years old.
During this period, the eggs, as a rule, have a minimum number of genetic defects, and the expectant mother herself is more likely not to have acquired serious chronic diseases that may interfere with the successful conception and bearing of a child. This is also evidenced by the statistics of reproductologists: after 35 years, the chance to give birth to a child without assistive technologies is halved compared to 25-year-olds.
At the same time, a lot of other factors are superimposed on abstract recommendations about the optimal age of motherhood: many women under 30 are not ready for pregnancy for various reasons - and this is normal.
The structure of modern society here comes into conflict with biology: an attempt to meet the "biological" recommendations for reproduction can mean an early unsuccessful marriage, an abandoned education, a failed career, financial problems and, as a result, severe stress from parenthood.
Again, the health status of some women may improve with age due to a more conscious attitude to nutrition, the rejection of bad habits and, conversely, the inclusion of physical education in the weekly routine.
At the same time, modern reproductive technologies are developing year by year - they are becoming safer, more efficient, more affordable, including through government funding.
Therefore, I would advise readers whose reproductive plan is at odds with the recommendations of conservative doctors, not to be nervous because of the notorious “ticking clock”. It may be useful for you at this stage to undergo a full gynecological examination and discuss with the doctor the possibility of preserving oocytes - this will allow you to save good quality eggs for the future, for the moment when pregnancy becomes truly desirable.
Experts explained why Russian women are in no hurry to give birth
The average age of the birth of the first child in Russia is rapidly shifting - now it is already 28 years old. This is due, among other things, to the fact that women are focused on a career, the Ministry of Labor reported. Experts interviewed by Gazeta.Ru also point to other reasons: pressure from society has decreased, people want to live for themselves and prolong their youth due to the late birth of their first child.
The increase in the age at which girls give birth to their first child is associated with a general trend towards careerism and a desire to increase income levels. Family and procreation have receded into the background, Vladimir Dashevsky, a candidate of psychological sciences, family psychotherapist, told Gazeta.Ru.
“It used to be customary to give birth to many children, because they were needed to help in the family household. These social considerations formed stereotypes in society, pushing to give birth earlier.
Now there is no such need, since people do not need to survive, with an increase in living standards, stereotypes have also changed,” he said.
Modern women live more consciously, it is important for them to get an education and develop a career in order to be financially ready for the birth of a child.
“This significant increase in age is partly due to the desire of people to receive higher education and additional skills, as well as the desire for financial stability and securing a job before leaving on maternity leave,” a demographer, professor at the Department of Family Sociology and Demography at the Faculty of Sociology told Gazeta.Ru Moscow State University Alexander Sinelnikov.
But there is also an opposite trend - many women, looking at the "cult of children", fear that they are not ready to bear maternal responsibility and postpone the decision, Dashevsky noted.
“Women ask themselves if they will be good mothers, they look for a maternal instinct in themselves that does not really exist.
And the child-centricity of other people increases the fear of those who have not yet decided on the birth of a child. Therefore, women are starting to create financial insurance, trying to prepare for this, ”the expert clarified.
The second factor is the development of medicine and reproductive technologies, continued Dashevsky.
“Now the so-called “ticking clock” has eased, as women can have IVF or adopt a child – this has become the norm in society, and women feel freer. Thanks to medicine, they can do it later, and at 40 they can be considered a young mother, thus prolonging their youth,” he said.
The third factor is the desire of young couples to prolong a comfortable relationship.
“A child greatly changes the life of parents in everyday, financial terms, not everyone is ready for this and strives to live for each other as long as possible. The childfree movement also played a role: some couples immediately agree that they do not want to have children.
