When creating a birth plan document, you can elect multiple choices for your baby in addition to the choices you have made for your delivery. Below are the most common choices for interventions immediately after delivery and during your stay to ensure you ...
Among one of the major concerns of people planning vaginal delivery is the potential for perineal or vaginal tearing. Tearing is separate from an episiotomy – which can be read about at here. Episitomies are no longer performed unless there is emergent...
Welcome, and congratulations on reaching the milestone of the 20 week anatomy scan. This can be a scan filled with anything from anxiety to joy or a mixture of several emotions for many people, so if you are having difficulty with what to expect, have ques...
There are many an old wives tale, a friend or family member who swears by "it", internet top 5, even providers who are old school who suggest all kinds of things to 'naturally induce labor' but there are no 100% ways to induce labor at home just yet. In as...
This is a multi part series on labor preparation
If you want to go directly to the post about learning the possible signs that you are going into labor soon, click here
If you want to read about how to know when to go to your delivery place while in labor ...
Ask a friend, a coworker, a family member, a parenting group "How will I know I'm in labor?" and you will inevitably hear "Oh - You'll KNOW." Frustratingly, the conversation usually ends there as if that's supposed to be the only thing you'll need. Here, w...
Welcome to the inexact signs of labor coming soon. Soon is a relative term, and as such each sign will have it's approximate time window of when it may occur as a lead up to labor. The most important thing to remember about any sign of labor, is that excep...
Something most people aren't ready for when they deliver is the supplies needed to manage their recovery after birth. Some of these supplies will be provided by your birth location – however they are not always the most practical, comfortable or ergonomic....
When most people think about labor, they think pain - screaming, life altering, worst pain of your life PAIN. Many of our societal images and depictions especially in the United States that that labor is nothing but pain to be endured. Labor however, is a ...
IUGR, FGR, SGA? Which is it?!
It's all of them. All three terms have been used in literature, diagnosis' and by doctors of differing eras to name a condition in which is a fetus below the 10th percentile of growth, but growing in correct proportions. All t...
Welcome! If you have ended up here and have not read the post about the NIPT test found here please consider reading that article first and circling back. A 'positive' NIPT test can be exceptionally scary, and so that post will be a primer for the more in-...
One of the more often asked questions, what do I pack for the birth? Things to consider are things like a weekend trip, you are usually in the hospital for 2-3 days and unless you know you will be there longer, don't overpack. I only suggest more for peopl...
A subchorionic hematoma or subchorionic hemorrhage - SCH - can be an alarming event and diagnosis that usually occurs in the first trimester of pregnancy and rarely may continue into or occur in the second trimester. By definition, the term describes what ...
Both sides of the placenta are vital to it's proper function, and when issues arise it may be with either side, and each complication below will describe which side of the placenta the issue affects. Another vital area of understanding the placenta and pre...
Placenta Accreta/Increta/Percreta are the same issue but at differing levels of severity. All indicate an amount of placental infiltration into the uterus beyond the lining that connects the placenta to the blood supply of the pregnant person. This is a di...
Placenta Previa is a pregnancy condition diagnosed at differing stages of pregnancy at regular prenatal ultrasound scans. If you imagine your cervix which is the bottom part of your uterus as a exit hatch that must be kept clear at all times, and the place...
Placental abruption is a rare complication that can occur during pregnancy, typically defined as after 20 weeks gestation and possibly during delivery. A placenta is interwoven with the inner surface of the uterus via a complex network of blood vessels tha...
Around the globe, non-invasive prenatal screening tests – NIPT’s or NIPS – have become an unregulated standard of for-profit screening tests to offer pregnant people, typically in their first trimester. Sold with claims as high as 99% accuracy and suggesti...
During labor and delivery, there may be some situations that require a localized numbing prior to a procedure that may cause pain such as an episiotomy, manual removal of the placenta, or prior to an epidural placement. While most hospitals do not provide ...
One of the most widely ranging applications of anesthesia is known as "General Anesthesia" and belongs in the category of global pain relief. Global anesthesia can have mild effects from dulling pain throughout your body to extreme sedation that requires a...
One of the strongest forms of regional pain relief options in labor is known as the epidural. While the process is roughly understood, and many people have heard about them, the details are often hazy at best. To begin we will go over what the procedure en...
- # Introduction to Pitocin - what is it and what is it used for?
Pitocin has numerous roles and uses in the course of labor and delivery and this post will cover the primary three – Induction, Augmentation and Postpartum Hemorrhage Control. If you have no...
More and more pregnant people are being offered elective inductions and also undergoing medically necessary inductions. This post covers the general outline of a US hospital based induction from the time of admission until the pushing stage of labor so tha...
On the top of the list of questions that is usually frequently wondered about but rarely asked is "How do I push?" And this is a multifaceted answer, because pushing comes in 3, technically 4, main camps. Once you choose what camp you think you'll like, it...
In the United States, the current national average of cesarean section births is just about 1 in 3 births. This varies state to state, county to county and even hospital to hospital when just across the street. Every surgeon has their own c-section rate ti...
Up until the last decade, episiotomies were practically reaching the point of 100% practice with every birth, regardless of true need as they were considered "better" than risking a natural tear, and for the roughly 40 years prior, studies had not really s...
During the majority of spontaneous labors and any induced labors, the amniotic sac is often intact when the pregnant person arrives at their delivery facility. The likelihood of the amniotic sac breaking as the first sign of labor (as often portrayed in fi...
Known most commonly as a "Membrane Sweep", "Stripping the Membranes" or a "Stretch and Sweep" the procedure itself is fairly straightforward, but its outcomes are not nearly as clear or positive as they are often presented. A "Cervical Massage" may be offe...
One area of delivery that is often not spoken about or given much discussion is management of the third stage of labor - delivering the placenta. Often, most birthing people don't notice the delivery of their placenta or are only passively aware of it's oc...
Interventions to induce or augment labor can happen during spontaneous labor or to begin a planned induction of labor. There are specific methods and medications used in both scenarios and typically occur in a predictable order. Depending on your facility,...
Beginning routinely as early as 36 weeks, the cervical check has become a standard in modern western obstetric medicine to monitor supposed labor readiness, and during labor, your progression.
Many people are familiar with the term and idea of dilation of...
One of the very first things that you will be told is happening upon admission is an IV line. In practice this is generally a very good idea to have a line available for emergencies, however unless you are having difficulty keeping fluids down and your int...
Often seen as a mainstay of your labor process, monitoring of the baby's heart rate can be done multiple ways with varying levels of inconvenience. There are two types of monitoring, external (passive) and internal (invasive). We will be covering both with...
It sounds like a great idea, on the face of it, doesn't it? You go in for your regular 36 or 37 week appointment, everything looks great and the doctor ever so casually says "Alright, we'll just go ahead and get you scheduled for induction at 39 weeks!" Th...