Vaginal Birth

• Vaginal births are the most common birthing methods and the most natural. Vaginal births can take only a few minutes once labor is induced or experienced, the same as most C sections. They can often take many hours as well. Vaginal births require the mother to use abdominal and vaginal muscles to push the baby from the body, causing it to be ejected from the body. Vaginal births will cause the uterus to become soft afterwards and most times bleed for about 3 weeks after birth. Walking after vaginal birth is encouraged to help build the muscles back up.
  
  

Cesarean Section

• Cesarean section is a common surgery to help deliver a baby. The baby is removed through the abdominal wall, but as with all major surgeries, risks are present. Delivering healthy babies is usual from this surgery, but with one in three women having babies through C section, the risks are still present. According to the Department of Health and Human Services the healing process takes longer with a Cesarean section than with a vaginal birth. Reasons for C sections include placenta or umbilical cord troubles, breech babies, distressed baby, or previous C sections as well as multiple births, heart problems or HIV in the mother.
  
  

Water Birth

• Water birth will speed up labor as well as reduce blood pressure and promote relaxation. When in labor, a mother is immersed in a shallow pool of warm water which frees her from the gravity commonly felt. During highly stressful and painful situation such as giving birth, a woman's body will produce stress hormones which will increase the amount of pain a woman feels during labor. A water birth reduces the amount of stress a woman is under during labor which will reduce the amount of pain she feels. During a water birth the baby is vaginally delivered, immediately retrieved from the pool by the mother and medically checked immediately.
  
  

Home Birth

• Home birth is not as common as in years past with medical technologies abounding. Some still choose midwives for home birth though. Clinical courses must be passed and certification earned for the midwife to be able to participate. These women and men are not a substitute for a physician, but are able to help vaginally deliver a child in the comfort of home with few medical interventions. Drugs to help with pain are not given, as an anesthesiologist is not present to monitor effects. Natural childbirth is normally practiced with home births.
  
  

Birthing Chair

• The birthing chair is one of the oldest aids used by laboring women. Made especially for birth, the low height of the chairs allows a woman to squat more than sit and move the pelvis freely so comfort can be easily achieved. Some physicians even turn the chair into a delivery table using some of the more elaborate chairs. These chairs do inhibit movement to an extent and some women have tearing of the perineum due to the squatting position and pressure on the pelvis.