Medical Questions & Answers

Childbirth is the last and most spectacular act in the drama of pregnancy. In order to explain what is meant by natural childbirth it is first necessary to describe the normal process of birth.
At the end of pregnancy the baby is ripe or mature and is ready to and to start an independent existence. The picture given below illustrates the baby as it lies in the womb or uterus at full time. It will be seen that the baby lies curled up with its head downwards. The umbilical cord or navel string attaches the baby to the placenta or afterbirth, which in its turn is attached to the wall of the uterus. The baby is enclosed in a bag which lines the uterus and is called the membranes: this bag contains a quantity of watery fluid called liquor amnii or/colloquially, “the waters.” The baby can move about in this fluid, but of course it cannot breathe air until it is born. Before birth it breathes and obtains nourishment from the mother’s circulation through the placenta and umbilical cord.
Labour is the name generally given to the process of childbirth by which the baby, placenta and membranes are expelled from the mother’s body. The birth of the baby is brought about by three main processes. Rhythmic hardening or contraction of the muscle of the uterus drives the baby’s head down into the mother’s vagina and so to the outside world. At the same time the mother’s passages stretch or dilate to make room for the baby. Towards the end of labour the contractions of the uterus are helped by the muscles of the abdomen and chest, which participate in automatic bearing-down efforts synchronized with each contraction of the uterus to expel the child.

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