Pregnancy Signs & Symptoms, Week by Week Pregnancy Guide

In order to have the best vaginal childbirth that you could possibly imagine, you should gather a lot of information so that you will have a better understanding of the process.

It might be important for you to hear about the experiences of other women to be prepared for your own experience.

Interventions and vaginal birth

There are a lot of women who say that birth is supposed to be a natural process and people shouldn’t interfere with it. However the majority of women have some kind of intervention, such as fetal monitoring, epidural analgesia, IV drip, receiving oxytocin, rupturing the membranes and so on.

Natural birth

The truth about giving birth through the vagina is that about 20% of women have a truly natural birth without interventions and pain killers. However the majority of women who say that they gave birth naturally received some kind of pain medication or some kind of intervention.

Obstetricians

When thinking about vaginal childbirth a lot of women consider the midwives. However, the majority of women, about 77% receive prenatal care from an obstetrician. Midwives offer prenatal care to only 13% of the women and they take part at only 10% of the births.

Labor induction

In case you are interested in vaginal delivery it is good to know that 49% of women receive artificial oxytocin to induce the contractions. There are only few women who work with doulas during childbirth; these professionals received the highest ratings regarding the quality of supportive care.

Epidural anesthesia

59% of the women who choose vaginal childbirth opt for epidural anesthesia. This is because the medication relieves the labor pain but a lot of women don’t know about the risks associated with the medication. 30% of women receive narcotics to make the pain better and a few women receive general anesthesia.

Drinking and eating

During the delivery through the vagina, only 12% of women get to eat something and 31% of women have anything to drink. A lot of women would like to have something to eat or drink, but the majority of the caregivers don’t allow their patients to have anything, not even in this case.

Bed

About 71% of the mothers who had a vaginal childbirth didn’t have the possibility to walk around because they were hooked up to machines, because they received pain medication or because their caregiver told them not to. 74% of women give birth while lying on their back, in a bed.

Fetal monitoring

93% of the women who choose childbirth through the vagina have fetal monitoring at some moment of their labor to make sure that the heartbeat of the baby is normal. In the majority of the cases women only have external monitoring around the belly. Only about 6% of women weren’t attached to a monitor.

You will have to make decisions regarding vaginal childbirth in time so that you will be able to discuss it with your health care provider and with the medical staff so that they will know what to do.