How can I have my baby?
There are different ways you can have a baby: natural, normal with painkillers, and C-section, also known as Cesarean.
The natural method could be very painful as you would be taking no medication to help with the pain, but many mothers successfully use this method by employing deep-breathing techniques, sitting in a tub of water, and other relaxation techniques.
The vaginal (normal) birth using painkillers is another option. When you get real close to your due date (unless the baby is premature), doctors recommend getting to the hospital only if you are in real pain, and the contractions are a few minutes apart. Else, they might send you back home (Bummer!).
I have heard stories where babies were born before the dad had time to park the car, and before the mother could even get a bed! But assuming that your delivery is going to happen on a hospital bed and not in a car, here goes…
If your labor pains are intense, and/or your water breaks, you will be admitted and will start pushing right away.
It is also possible that you don't get any labor pains. If your doctor checked you the week you were due, and felt that the placenta was getting calcified (meaning your baby will not get enough nutrition if it stays too long inside), she might ask you to wait for a week more and then induce labor. Meanwhile, you will be taking stress tests that measure the heartbeat and general health of the baby. After you are induced (could be done in two stages: cervical and intravenous), you might go into labor real soon or only start feeling contractions that could go on for a day. I don't mean to scare you, but some women have had 36 hours of induction time plus labor.
Once the cervical induction is removed, you will have time to take bath and eat something. It is very important to eat well before your IV is given so that you will have enough energy during labor. It is also important to eat well even before arriving at the hospital. Eating after the IV is administered is not allowed because the stomach is compressed by the uterus and makes digestion difficult. You might just throw up whatever you eat.
After the IV is started, the contractions can get painful. If possible, have your partner or someone close to you nearby for support. Getting through each contraction is a milestone in itself. The finish line is not far off!
There are painkillers (tablets) that you can take, the maximum is two tablets. The first is usually more effective than the second. Don't wait too long to ask for them, else it may be too late if you are dilating fast. The only other painkiller you can get after these tablets is the epidural. It is possible that the anesthesiologist who renders the epidural is busy with another C-section and you may have to put up with the pain longer till he becomes available. It might be a good idea to ask the nurse to get the anesthesiologist ready when you are just taking the first painkiller tablet.
After the epidural is injected into your spine, its pain free. You don't feel anything. Your body is numb hip down. If the contractions are stronger and you still feel pain, you might get additional painkillers through the IV. While the painkillers help with the pain, they don't really let you judge how forceful your pushes are. You might be straining your back muscles and bones which are already flexing to help the baby come out. Delivery could be prolonged as there is no pain.
In some cases, epidural is associated with back pain long after delivery. If that is the case, talk to your general practitioner.
Ok. You have pushed all you can and the baby still isn't able to come out or it slips back in. If you are lying down, you could try sitting up a bit to let gravity do its job.
If nothing works, the OB might use vacuum or forceps. There are risks associated with using these method, one of which is cerebral palsy also associated with autism. The doctor knows best as to whether it is advisable to continue with vaginal delivery or if the baby's heart rate is dropping, to do an emergency C-section. Scalp wounds and conical skulls are possible (though babies delivered normally have conical skulls too as the baby's skull is pliable to help ease the way out of the birth canal). The nerves on the skull could tighten but loosen to normalcy within a few days after birth. There are some theories that babies delivered using vacuum latch poorly, clamp down on the mothers' nipples and hence don't breastfeed well. They are also tense, and have tight-fisted hands and fish-lips. The validity of these theories is unknown.
An episiotomy may be done in combination with the vacuum/forceps where the opening is cut to create a bigger outlet for the baby, and sewn immediately after delivery.
The third option is to have a C-section. You schedule a date and the doctor delivers your baby. It is a surgical procedure.
During normal delivery, the after-birth (placenta) and any other fluids are removed after the baby is born. Hence there is no fluid retention.
But with a C-section, all the fluid cannot be taken out, so it could either accumulate near the stomach or move down to the legs. That said, I've seen many mothers who've had C-sections get back into shape faster than those that have had normal deliveries.
C-section is preferred mostly when the baby is in a breach position. This means that the baby cannot move down the pelvis and into the birth canal as it normally should, and there is no possibility of a normal delivery. A C-section is also done when the umbilical cord is wound around the baby, or when the baby's head is too large to have a normal delivery.
Good luck with whichever method you choose!
