These educational online birth videos illustrate the process of giving birth in an effective birth position. They are extremely useful in helping women to understand what birth should look like when evidence-based practices are used.
In the first selection, the mother is using a birth stool to give birth in an upright position. This is one of the most effective birth positions in that it uses gravity to reduce the effort of pushing and reduces the stress and strain on both the mother's and baby's body so that the chance of trauma and tearing are reduced.
The next selection shows a rare occurence - a baby born en caul, or one that is born with its amniotic sac still intact. There is no reason to routinely break a woman's water as the baby can easily born with the sac intact. Due to the impatience of modern obstetrics, most babies have their sacs broken to "speed things up". The research shows this to be of no benefit. There are, however, many benefits to leaving the bag intact, including an easier labor for mom (the waters act as a cushion against the contractions) as well as for the baby (the waters cushion the baby's head from the mother's pelvic bones). It also reduces the risk of infection. Up to 80% of all women's waters would not break until the baby was crowning if left alone. Despite this evidence, nearly 100% of women will have their waters artifically ruptured if they do not break on their own by about 4 centimters dilation, for no evidence-based reason.
For more real-life birth videos of women giving birth naturally, please visit the other galleries.
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Page Last Modified by Catherine Beier, MS, CBE
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