Labor: Expert Guides and Resources

Whether you’re in labor, being induced, or having a cesarean delivery, you need to be admitted to the hospital’s labor floor. If you preregistered earlier in your pregnancy (ask your practitioner about the process), your records are already on the labor floor when you arrive, and a hospital unit number is assigned to you.

Most delivery rooms are sterile-looking places because, in fact, they have to be germ-free. However, that doesn't mean that you can't do something to enhance the atmosphere while you're delivering your baby. You won't be allowed to light candles in a hospital, but you can tape some photos to the wall, bring a boom box to play some background music, and even spray a favorite scent into the air.

It’s one thing to know, plan for, and write a birth plan based on a scheduled cesarean birth; it’s quite another to get into labor — sometimes nearly all the way to the end — and then find out you need to have a C-section. Most of the time, an unscheduled cesarean isn’t an emergency. In that case, you have a chance to ask questions and make your wishes known about who will be in the operating room with you and whether you want to have your baby with you right after birth (as long as neither you nor the baby has life-threatening complications requiring immediate care).

One of the best ways to get yourself ready for childbirth is by exercising during your pregnancy. Anyone who tells you that childbirth is a breeze isn't being very honest with you. Childbirth is hard, and you don't want to approach it without being physically ready. Having a less complicated delivery Several research studies have shown that women who exercise have fewer complications during delivery, including instances of fetal intervention because of abnormal fetal heart rates, forceps deliveries (in which a large tong-like tool helps the baby come out), and cesarean deliveries (in which the baby is surgically removed from the uterus).