It’s not clear why a 24-year-old German woman agreed to give birth amid the deafening knocks and thuds of an MRI machine. But doctors were psyched to gain real-time insight into how babies are born.
Family MattersPregnancy
childbirth
Family MattersPregnancy
Why Women Who Fear Childbirth Spend More Time in Labor
Women who fear childbirth just got something else to worry about: a recent Norwegian study found that women who were scared of giving birth ended up spending more time in labor, about 8 hours versus 6.5 for women who weren’t afraid.
Family MattersParenting
No Mother’s Day? Why Model Christy Turlington Burns Wants a Boycott
Turlington Burns is calling on mothers to honor “No Mother’s Day” instead, to raise awareness of the 358,000 mothers who die worldwide from pregnancy or childbirth complications each year.
Family MattersPregnancy
Why France Pays for Postpartum Women to “Re-Educate” their Vagina
In France, Social Security funds la rééducation périnéale, up to 20 sessions of physical therapy intended to firm and tone the postnatal pelvic floor. The humiliation is apparently worth it.
Family MattersPregnancy
Dad Raps About Wife’s Labor Contractions: Can Humor Ease the Pain of Delivery?
Rap improv during labor? Maybe this dad knows that laughter can help relieve stress and ease pain.
Family MattersPregnancy
Why Abortion Is Less Risky than Childbirth
Abortions are considered high-risk, but new data suggest that the procedure is considerably safer than childbirth.
Family MattersPregnancy
Deep Fear of Childbirth Drives Some C-Sections
The mere idea of pushing a fully grown baby into the world the natural way can give even the bravest expectant mother pause. But a small number of women are so terrified of childbirth that it dramatically raises their odds of …
Sleeping Position in Pregnancy Linked With Stillbirth Risk
The Lost Art of Doctoring
The baby was just not coming out. Not a very big problem — not in a birthing room in a world-famous obstetric hospital, where nurses, midwives and aides, and doctors, lots of them, were packed in cheek-by-jowl. The major …
Family MattersPregnancy
Having an Abortion Doesn’t Lead to Depression
Having an abortion has got to be an excruciating decision, no matter where you fall on the abortion-rights spectrum, but a new study shows it does not increase the likelihood of mental-health problems.
Fewer women dying during pregnancy, childbirth
A new study published online earlier this week by the British medical journal The Lancet suggests that the number of women dying during pregnancy or childbirth has dropped by more than one third in the past three decades, from half a million annual deaths in 1980 to 343,000 as of 2008. The study, sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates
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Do dads belong in the delivery room?
Many new fathers are nothing short of awe-stricken by the birth of their child, and cherish their baby’s first moments shared with the mother in the delivery room. In fact, ever since Dr. Robert Bradley introduced the concept of husband-coached childbirth in the early 1960s, fathers have been routinely encouraged to be present at their
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