Thursday, February 20, 2014

Getting Ready to Give Birth

Preparing for Your Labor and Delivery in a Spartanburg Birth Center

Despite all the thorough preparations couples do for a childbirth, the labor and delivery experience usually ends up intense. A mixture of powerful emotions starts to swathe the porches of hospitals in Spartanburg and Greenville whenever an expecting mother is in labor. This is actually normal as birthing is a painful yet fulfilling experience. However, a simple mistake due to lack of preparation can lead to complications that a couple might regret for the rest of their lives.

How, then, do you prepare for labor and delivery? While this phase of the entire pregnancy normally takes less than a day to finish, preparing for it may involve some overwhelming tasks. Aside from keeping healthy practices in check throughout the prenatal period, you should start planning how the delivery should go. Consult your practitioner for options basing on your condition. Prenatal appointments are crucial as they help your practitioner monitor your health.

Decide where you want to give birth. A recognized Spartanburg birth center can be ideal if you want to be handled only by medical experts specializing in pregnancy and childbirth. This will increase your confidence on the result of the delivery. The facilities in a child birth center offer just the right environment for childbirth and they are fortified with the necessary equipment that can aid in the delivery should complications occur.

If you’ve been performing the regular exercise recommended by your doctor, particularly the Kegel exercises, you have a greater chance for safe and less strenuous delivery. This exercise will strengthen your pelvic floor and vaginal muscles, preventing trauma in the abdominal area of your body.

Increase your knowledge about pregnancy and childbirth, including your understanding of the signs that the baby is about to come out. Also, knowing what to expect during a typical labor will reduce your anxiety over the discomfort you will be experiencing. Less anxiety leads to normal birthing, and is therefore vital in the entire labor and delivery process in a Greenville birth center.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

The Midwife Effect?

From the moment you decide to have a baby, it is important to start considering the kind of care you would need throughout the pregnancy and during the birth. While the majority of expectant mothers rely on doctors, there is a growing minority who opt for midwives to be their primary care provider as can be the option in a Spartanburg birth center.

In a scientific review published December of last year, The Cochrane Library links positive outcomes to pregnancies with midwife-led care. The review identified 13 studies involving over 16,000 women who saw midwives all throughout their pregnancy.

Several benefits were identified for the women who favored midwives to care for them during their pregnancy. There were fewer instances that required epidurals, episiotomies and instruments such as forceps during delivery. The review also showed the reduced risk of the mothers going into preterm labor or losing the baby before 24 weeks.

An important discovery in the review is the marked similarity of outcomes between low-risk and higher-risk pregnancies. This is a notable development because it means that something about having continuous midwife care helped the more high risk pregnancies have more positive outcomes.

All over the country including Spartanburg, midwifery is seeing increased interest. This is all good news for women everywhere. As more information is being brought forward, the more choices are given to mothers-to-be. With continued research, more and more women could benefit from a more personal and natural approach to childbirth with the assistance of a midwife resulting in greater benefits and fewer interventions.