Everything you need to know about the birth of your baby

Birth is defined as the physiological process with which a woman ends her pregnancy at term, this occurs between 37 and 42 completed weeks.

Its onset is spontaneous and guarantees the passage of the newborn through the birth canal, from the mother's uterus to the outside, thanks to uterine contractions and powerful abdominal contractions or maternal pushing that propel it slowly and progressively down the uterus. channel . But also the birth can be defined as the process of extracting the baby from the uterus through an abdominal surgical procedure known as cesarean section.

The course of labor is influenced by factors:

Biologicals specific to each woman and baby

psychological

Cultural

environmental

Most healthy women, with proper care and support, and with a minimum of medical procedures, can give birth without risking their safety or that of their baby.

It is important to take into account some of the characteristics of the baby during this birth process:

In uterine life , the baby is immersed in amniotic fluid , this is a warm fluid with a constant temperature between 36 and 37°C that protects it, cushions it and fills its airway. 

While the baby is in the uterus and during its passage through the birth canal there is no breathing, since oxygen is taken from the maternal blood through the placenta and the umbilical cord, so it is important that the mother is very well oxygenated and that the placenta does not suffer any detachment and the umbilical cord does not suffer any type of obstruction so that the baby's heart and circulation remain in very good condition.

The birth canal is narrow , this is due to the shape of the maternal pelvis, so the baby will suffer a pressure in his body that at the moment in which his head appears and leaves the canal, it allows him to evacuate the liquid that is in the respiratory tract. to start taking oxygen from the air on its own.

This pressure and narrowing of the channel is also transmitted to the skull whose bones are not fused and both they and the baby's brain must undergo a process of accommodation, deformation and molding that allows the channel to cross without suffering any damage.

All these changes in the baby's body prepare it physically and hormonally to face the change from the intrauterine environment to the extrauterine environment.

When the birth is by caesarean section , some of these processes do not take place, which can later generate adaptation difficulties from the respiratory point of view in the baby, since as the pressure of the channel and the contractions on its thorax do not occur, the liquid that there in the lungs is not expelled completely.

From an emotional and affective point of view, birth is that first direct face-to-face contact between the mother and her baby in which a deep impact is generated in both of them that will last for the rest of their lives. This is why it must take place in an intimate, warm and loving environment, ideally with the presence of the father or that significant companion that the mother chooses.