Opinion | Pregnancy: Labor and Delivery

Giving birth can be both exciting and terrifying for first-time moms. Just as the rest of your pregnancy has differed from others’, your birth experience will be unique to you and your baby. As you think about the big day when you’ll finally meet your little one, you probably have questions about what to expect!

Labor means “a lot of hard work,” a room where there is lots of hard work is called a labor room. Hard work physical as well as mental. It’s a room of a hospital set up as important as casualty or ER (emergency room). My opinion of a Birth room.
A place where the most beautiful creation of Allah{God) takes place, breathes and cries for the first time. A place of hope, desire, happiness, emotion, struggle, strength and most importantly a place of a story of unending love of a child and a mother. During birth a mother goes through a lot physically, mentally and emotionally. The emotion and the pain is undefined. The labor pain is incomparable but it is been said that it’s equivalent to breaking of 20 bones at one single time. Women actually go through a lot during pregnancy, childbirth and post child birth. Be it prepartum, depression, pregnancy related issues, complications, postpartum depression, a lot during birth, Breastfeeding and even during the recovery stage. They need support physically and emotionally.

How does labor work?
As your pregnancy begins to wrap up, your body will prepare for labor and delivery. This is the process through which your baby will be born. Labor is often different for each person. Some have quick labors and some long, difficult labors. Other people may even experience labor that stalls or stops, leading to medical intervention.
The place for birth has shifted during the last 100 years, from women’s home to the hospital. A delivery room within a hospital setting is the most common place for women to give birth in Western countries today. For some women, childbirth is an experience similar to their worst imaginable nightmare and affects them in such a way that they become filled with fear of forthcoming births Although the labour room is structured to provide safe care for women and their babies, it has been criticized as too technological giving the impression of childbirth as a branch of biomedicine rather than an aspect of health. Women can see this as a stressful and fearful environment, which can have a negative impact on their birth experiences, as well as birth outcomes.
( To be continued…….).

(About Author : Dr Shagufta Kazi is Lamaze international lactation counselor and is working as a medical officer in Health Department .)