-
Learning terms of labor can help you cope - Centimeters, pluses, minuses
and percentages: That's how a woman's progress in labor is measured.
Learning these terms can help you understand and cope with what's
happening to you before and during labor.
- Stay alert to the symptoms of preterm labor - Any woman can go into labor
prematurely, but certain factors make it more likely in some women than
in others.
- False labor: How can you tell? - It is often hard to tell the difference
between false and true labor. There are clues that can help you determine
which it is.
-
If your water breaks you'll be in labor soon - Generally, rupture of
membranes (water breaking) occurs when you go into labor. In reality,
few pregnant women experience ruptured membranes in a public place.
-
Induce labor for medical reasons only - Inducing labor should not be done
merely for convenience. There are risks involved. There are four ways
to induce labor.
-
Stage one labor: There's no telling how long it will last - Early labor
is often a time of waiting while your body prepares for the work of active
labor, which ends in the urge to push.
- Labor stages two and three: After a lot of work, prepare for joy - After
the active labor of the first stage, you will move into the second stage,
pushing baby out, and the third stage, expelling the placenta or the afterbirth.
-
Childbirth's last phase: The afterbirth - The placenta, which was so
key to your baby's health in utero, is expelled after the birth, signaling
the last phase of labor.