Labor, Birth and the Postpartum Weeks

Candace Cooley has delivered babies and has worked in hospitals as well as in offices, and this index collects the entries on labor, birth and the weeks that follow. Labor is described in stages. The NHS explains that in the latent stage the cervix softens and starts to open, often the longest part; that established labor begins once the cervix has opened to about 4 centimeters and contractions grow stronger and more regular; and that full dilation comes at about 10 centimeters, usually 8 to 18 hours after established labor begins in a first pregnancy.¹

Pain relief has its own evidence. The American Society of Anesthesiologists describes the epidural as the most common anesthetic for labor, given through a thin catheter in the lower back, leaving the mother awake and alert, and states that there is no credible evidence that it slows labor or leads to cesarean delivery.² Watching the baby changed late. A history of fetal heart assessment records that methods stayed essentially the same for about 150 years until the first commercial monitor suitable for clinical practice was sold in 1968.³

The five entries are The Stages of Labor, Epidural Analgesia in Labor, Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring, Cesarean Birth and The Postpartum Period.