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An Unspoken Risk of Vaginal Birth

C-sections absolutely carry risks (and are hardly a walk in the park), but vaginal births do as well. Tears can drastically affect one’s quality of life. Luckily, they are associated with factors that can often be managed: prolonged labors, assisted deliveries and previous tears. Many medical groups, including the World Health Organization, also advise against routine episiotomies because they increase the likelihood of a large tear. Encouraging new technology is available that uses M.R.I. scans of a pregnant woman’s pelvis to determine her likelihood of a problematic vaginal birth. This could help at-risk women to consider planned C-sections, which are safer than emergency ones.

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 Vaginal birth comes with risks too – so should it really be the default option?

When it comes to childbirth, vaginal delivery is often assumed to be the best thing – women have, after all, done it for thousands of years. But natural birth actually comes with risks, including tearing, haemorrhage and incontinence for the mother and injuries to the baby during labour. So why is it that the vast majority of pregnant women are only being warned about the risks of caesarean sections?

 Your Ultimate Guide to a Vaginal Birth

Women have been having babies for, well, ever, but here’s what to expect if you’re having a vaginal birth today.

Articles of Interest

An Honest Conversation About Your Vagina After Childbirth

In the days that followed, things started to gradually get better. After two weeks, the intense pain I’d felt disappeared. But even now, five months later, I still can’t touch my vagina or vulva, even in the shower. She’s a stranger to me. We have lost contact. And although my boyfriend reassures me that everything looks the same as before and that she’s at least as tight (how is that even possible?), I am continuing to ignore my friend for the moment.

Benefits of Vaginal Delivery: A Comprehensive Exploration of the Most Preferred Childbirth

The process of childbirth is an awe-inspiring journey, with a vaginal delivery standing out as the most common and preferred method due to its inherent benefits of vaginal delivery and relatively low risks for both the birthing person and the baby. This comprehensive exploration delves into the intricate details of vaginal deliveries, shedding light on its stages, risks, benefits, and the myriad questions surrounding this transformative experience.

Caesareans or vaginal births: should mothers or medics have the final say?

The risk of vaginal birth is often underestimated, so the comparison is skewed. This is because researchers do not always account for emergency caesareans as an outcome of attempted vaginal births. In fact, many older studies lump in the emergency C-section risk with the risk of all other caesareans, despite the fact that they are clearly more dangerous and almost always the result of a vaginal birth not going to plan. As Nice makes clear, ideally, studies would compare people planning a C-section with those planning a vaginal birth, but this information is rarely available.

Mothers Are Told That Natural Childbirth Is Best.

The natural-parenting movement, like the anti-vaccine movement, relies on our forgetfulness about what life was like before the innovations that it denounces. Having a baby without medical help may be natural, but so is obstetric fistula and hemorrhaging to death. It’s a miracle of modern medicine that over the course of the 20th century, America’s maternal mortality rate declined by almost 99 percent.

The Benefits to Be Gained from Vaginal Delivery

Vaginal delivery can be broken down even further into subtypes. They include vaginal delivery with epidural block, vaginal birth after Cesarean (VBAC), vacuum extraction, forceps delivery, and natural delivery. All of these methods are considered vaginal delivery methods, but with a few differences among them. Under certain circumstances, depending on the specific pregnancy case, one of these specific options may be required; however, each offers the same benefits for both mother and baby as a normal vaginal delivery.

Toward an Ethically Responsible Approach to Vaginal Birth After Cesarean

Determining approach to delivery after prior cesarean is among the most contentious areas of obstetrics.

Vaginal birth after caesarean increases the risk of serious perineal tear by 20%, our large-scale review shows

Pregnant women who previously birthed by caesarean section are presented with a choice: whether to try for a vaginal birth, or book in for a repeat caesar. Those mulling over a vaginal birth are counselled at length about the risk of a rare but nasty outcome – the uterus rupturing while labour is in full flight. But new research looking at 130,000 births over five years has uncovered an increased risk of another outcome women deserve information about: extensive tearing around the vaginal region during birth.

Vaginal birth vs. C-Section: Pros & cons

A 2018 review in the journal PLOS Medicine found that women who delivered vaginally were more likely to experience urinary incontinence (and leak urine when they cough, sneeze or laugh) and to have pelvic organ prolapse, which is when one or more organs slip into the pelvis, compared with women who delivered via C-section. A vaginal delivery may also cause lingering pain in the perineum, the area between the vagina and anus.

What You Should Know About Vaginal Delivery

The thought of pushing an eight pound baby out of a tiny opening may make you feel woozy. However, vaginal births are natural and have been performed since the beginning of time. If you’re pregnant, there’s some things you should know before you enter the hospital for your baby’s arrival. A vaginal delivery isn’t a walk in the park, but could be your best option for a safe and healthy delivery.

When You Give Birth, Your Body … Rips. That Might Suck a Little Less if We Talked About It More.

It’s ridiculous how many expectations and conventions exist around childbirth and parenting. But over the course of writing two books about this time of life, I’ve come to appreciate that there are some things you simply cannot anticipate: things people don’t talk about, sometimes because they are sad, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes just plain weird. I think we should talk about them—and, more than that, we should use data to really understand them.

Why childbirth is so dangerous for many young teens

It's a precarious moment to give birth. It's not uncommon for girls to face obstructed labor "because their pelvis is not developed enough to accommodate a vaginal delivery," said Dr. Sarah Prager, an obstetrics and gynecology professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Going through with a vaginal birth could cause lasting damage to a teen's pelvic area and rectum. So, teenage childbirth often ends in cesarean section, causing uterine scarring that almost guarantees she will need to give birth via cesarean section if she has more children.

Your Vagina After Birth: 13 Things that are Totally Normal

Ever wondered what happens to a vagina after birth? The reality is that vaginas don't magically snap back into place after delivery. They've gone through a major ordeal that usually involves hours of labor. So what actually happens? Will your vagina bleed? How long will it hurt for? When can you have sex? We talked to leading gynecologists to find out exactly what to prepare for. Ahead, discover 13 things to expect from your vagina after birth.

Resources

StatPearls

Vaginal delivery is safest for the fetus and for the mother when the newborn is full-term at the gestational age of 37 to 42 weeks. Vaginal delivery is preferred considering the morbidity and the mortality associated with operative cesarean births has increased over time.