A tiny fraction of American women choose home birth, but that number is inching up. And in some social circles it's downright trendy. One pregnant woman investigates the pros and cons.
A woman's health issues related to pregnancy don't always end at the baby's birth. Scientists say complications from childbirth, such as hypertension or diabetes, increase her risk of heart disease.
A woman had twins in a hospital south of Boston last summer. For doctors aiming to reduce cesareans, the second baby's tricky arrival tested the limits of teamwork.
After a C-section, does swabbing a baby with the mother's microbes reduce the risk of obesity and other health problems later in life? An ambitious study to help answer the question is underway.
There's no benefit to delaying pushing after receiving epidural anesthesia and reaching full dilation. A delay increases the risk of complications, particularly for the mother, a large study finds.
Young women with simple pregnancies can safely ask a doctor to induce labor, a study finds. It doesn't increase their risk of needing a C-section after all and can even offer potential benefits.
Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange, will exclude hospitals from insurance networks if they don't reduce their numbers of C-sections, back scans and opioid prescriptions.
Overall rates of the surgical snip have declined nationally in the past decade. But, despite advice, some hospitals and certain doctors still routinely cut the vagina to ease a baby's birth.
A small study suggests that slathering newborns with their mothers' microbes after cesarean sections could help create healthy microbiomes. Reducing childhood illness later on is the goal.
The British medical system says healthy women with normal pregnancies should give birth at home or in a midwife-led facility. But 99 percent of babies in the U.S. are born in hospitals.
The goal is simple, the techniques easy. Let the mother see her baby being born, if she wants to, and give her the baby immediately following the birth, so they can bond before the baby is taken away.
