After nine months of pregnancy, the much-anticipated delivery of the baby arrives. A woman and her doctor choose the type of delivery, with things like beliefs about childbirth and the health of mother and baby taken into account. Many pregnant women develop an idea of what they envision for the birth of their baby before the actual event, though sometimes complications during labor make a change of plans necessary.
Natural Delivery
Natural delivery, also referred to as natural childbirth, happens when delivery occurs with minimal medical intervention, explains the Nemours Foundation. Instead of using medication to manage pain, a woman giving birth naturally will use breathing techniques, relaxation exercises, self-hypnosis or other non-medical methods to handle the sensations of labor and delivery. In natural childbirth, the baby arrives vaginally, through the cervix and vaginal canal. The woman may choose to have a natural delivery in a variety of settings, such as at home, at a birth center or at a hospital in case complications should arise. One option for natural delivery that has been growing in popularity is water birth, the act of delivering the baby in a tub or pool of water with minimal intervention.
Medically Assisted Delivery
In a medically assisted delivery, the woman delivers her baby vaginally but utilizes medical techniques or drugs to make her delivery more comfortable or less risky, according to the Cleveland Clinic. For many women, this simply involves pain relief such as an epidural or spinal block. Others, especially those with high-risk pregnancies or problems that crop up during labor, may use medical assistance in the form of induction drugs to start or speed up labor, forceps or vacuum extraction to help pull the baby from the birth canal. They may also use episiotomy to enlarge the vaginal opening, rupture of the membranes to begin labor or fetal monitoring to assess the health of the baby during labor and delivery.
Cesarean Section
The Mayo Clinic explains that a Cesarean section, or C-section, may take place when the mother cannot or chooses not to give birth vaginally. Ideally, a Cesarean section only occurs in cases where there is a danger to the mother or baby otherwise. Some situations where this might be the case include instances of high blood pressure in the mother, a breech baby, fetal distress, problems with the position of the placenta or umbilical cord, a detachment of the placenta from the uterine wall or a premature rupture of membranes. In a Cesarean section, the woman receives a general or local anesthetic, the doctor cuts an incision in the abdomen and the baby comes out through the incision.
