Can you fire your nurse? Snack during labor? Check out these surprising facts about giving birth in a hospital. Wondering how your labor and delivery will go? If, like most women, you're planning on a hospital birth, you probably learned some basics in your parenting class or on your hospital tour. But that doesn't mean the experience isn't without its share of surprises. Here are some things you may not know about giving birth in a hospital.
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If you're like a lot of pregnant women, you have a general idea as to how you want your labor and delivery to go. In that birth plan, it's important to note whether or not you want to give birth sans clothes. It's seems like such an insignificant detail, but what you wear when you give birth actually matters.
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Rabia is cradling her newborn baby, just days after giving birth at a small hospital in Nangarhar province in Afghanistan's east. It was horrible," she says. In a matter of weeks, the birthing unit Rabia delivered her baby in had been stripped down to its bare basics. She was given no pain relief, no medicine and no food. The hospital sweltered in temperatures topping 43C F - the power had been cut and there was no fuel to work the generators.
Some women choose to give birth using no medications at all, relying instead of techniques such as relaxation and controlled breathing for pain. With natural childbirth, the mother is in control of her body, usually with a labor assistant gently guiding and supporting her through the stages of labor. For many moms-to-be, having a natural childbirth isn't about being "brave" or a "martyr" — it's about treating labor and delivery as a natural event. Many women find the experience, despite the pain, extremely empowering and rewarding. Natural childbirth is a "low-tech" way of giving birth by letting nature take its course. This may include:. Many women with low-risk pregnancies choose to go au natural to avoid any possible risks that medications could pose for the mother or baby. Pain medications can affect your labor — your blood pressure might drop, your labor might slow down or speed up, you might become nauseous, and you might feel a sense of lack of control.