What is a normal birth?

Today women are inundated with mixed messages about the birth experience. Obstetrics, which was once reserved for the complicated labor and birth are now used routinely for the uncomplicated birth. This trend has raised our infant and maternal mortality rates instead of lowering them. Lamaze International has developed a set of tips promoting normal birth which are listed in La Lcche League's book The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.

• Choose a place that supports normal birth, a place where you will be comfortable. This may be at home, in a birthing center or in a hospital
• Choose a health care provider who supports the practices that promote normal birth. Many women find that the care provided by midwives includes more labor support and less intervention
• Don't request or agree to induction of labor unless there's a medical indication for doing so. Allowing your body to go into labor on its own is usually the best sign that your baby is ready to be born. Allow you labor to find its own place and rhythm
• Plan to move around freely during labor. You'll be more comfortable, your labor will progress quickly, and your baby will move through the birth canal easily if you stay upright and respond to the pain of your labor by changing positions
• Consider hiring a doula or other professional labor support person to give you, your partner, and any other support person continuous emotional and physical support
• Ask that your baby's heartbeat be monitored intermittently instead of all the time so that belts, cords, or wires do not tie you to a machine or specific place
• Eat and drink as your body tells you. Drinking plenty of fluids during labor will give you energy and keep you from getting dehydrated
• Use non pharmacological pain management strategies. For may women, warm baths and showers give powerful pain relief. Practice using birth balls, massage, hot and cold packs, aromatherapy, focused breathing and other comfort measures learned in childbirth classes.
• Don't give birth on you back! Upright positions (sitting squatting or standing), on all fours or on your side are more comfortable, increase the effectiveness of your contractions and enable you to work with gravity. Push when your body tells you to, and ask that support persons give only quiet encouragement. Simply work with your body's own cues and rhythm.
• Keep your baby with you after birth. Skin to skin contact keeps your baby warm and helps to regulate your baby's heartbeat and breathing. Staying in the same room helps you to get to know each other, and it lets you respond to early feeding cues and get breastfeeding off to a good start.