If you were running a marathon, you’d train and prep for race day. Your body does something similar during pregnancy to prep for its big day.

Braxton Hicks contractions, also called “false labor” or “practice contractions,” are your uterus’s way to warm up for delivery. Named for the English doctor who first described them, Braxton Hicks contractions are usually weak, don’t follow a regular pattern and can come and go.

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Want to have an old-fashioned vaginal delivery? Tough luck if you’ve had a Cesarean section in a previous delivery. Hospitals, doctors and insurers have been loathe – or flat-out refuse – to allow vaginal births after C-section (known as VBAC).

But new medical guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) may change that. According to that organization, hospitals should respect women’s preferences about the kind of birth they want and not strong-arm them into repeat C-sections.

That’s good news for moms-to-be who don’t want to go under the knife again, especially since risks associated with VBACs are much lower than previously thought.

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Between fatigue, heartburn and stocking up on baby supplies, many women wait too late to research their birthing location. A new study suggests that might be a mistake.

HealthGrades, a leading independent health care ratings organization, looked at more than 1,500 U.S. hospitals. Their findings: The better the hospital, the less likely there was to be complications with births.

The best-performing hospitals boasted 51% fewer complications among women giving birth vaginally, and 74% fewer C-section complications, compared to poorly performing hospitals. Infants were also more likely to survive in a top hospital.

Of course, this study only looked at hospitals, which is where most women give birth. According to a Wiser Pregnancy survey, 93% of women polled gave birth in a hospital. And 99% of doctors we asked had their own babies in a hospital.

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There’s no doubt about it – labor and delivery hurt.  A lot. 

That’s why just over half of women choose to have an epidural, according to a Wiser Pregnancy survey. 

Not into the epidural? There are other pain relief options to choose from:

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Very few people choose surgery, especially if there’s a non-invasive, cheaper treatment around. Yet when it comes to pregnancy, plenty of women opt to go under the knife.

More women in the U.S. have been having Cesarean sections than ever before, despite the risks involved. In fact, 32% of babies born in 2007 were delivered via C-section – an all-time high.

 A Wiser Pregnancy survey bears this out. Of more than 1,500 women surveyed, 26% of them have had one previous C-section; 12% have had more than one surgical delivery. 

Of women who have had a C-section in the past, only 16% successfully delivered vaginally (VBAC) in a subsequent pregnancy.

Why are so many women having C-sections?
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Have you had a Cesarean section and are interested in a vaginal delivery for your next baby? You may have a tough time convincing your hospital or doctor.

The number of women who undergo vaginal birth after Cesarean (VBAC) has plummeted since the 1990s, according to a panel of experts at a national conference on the procedure. And many times it’s the hospital that says no.   

The panel found that one-third of babies are delivered by C-section in the U.S., and nine out of 10 of women who have one C-section have a repeat surgical delivery in future pregnancies.

A Wiser Pregnancy survey supports this. More than 90% of women choose to give birth in a hospital, and of the 1,510 U.S. women polled, 23% of respondents have delivered by Cesarean section, and 16% of women who have had a C-section in the past delivered vaginally in a subsequent pregnancy. 

So why are C-section rates high and VBAC rates low?  Read the rest of this entry »

Group B strep isn’t just something that strikes adults – it can also be passed to babies during labor and delivery.

Group B strep is a common bacterium that naturally lives in the gastrointestinal and genital tract of about 40% of healthy adult women. It’s generally harmless in adults but can be life-threatening to newborns. 

Once upon a time, group B strep was the leading cause of infant death in the U.S. But it’s now a public success story: Nearly 85% of women get screened for group B strep, up from lessthan 50% in the late 1990’s.  Fewer babies die from group B strep disease as a result.

That’s why your doctor will likely suggest screening for group B strep in the third trimester.  The test involves swabbing the vagina and rectum for samples, which are then tested in the lab.

According to a Wiser Pregnancy survey, 7% of women tested positive for group B strep during pregnancy. 

If you test positive for group B strep at some point during pregnancy, your doctor will likely recommend antibiotics during delivery to keep your baby free from group B strep.  Most women (87%) decide to take antibiotics. 

Learn more about group B strep here.

Have you or someone you know had group B strep while pregnant? What course of action did you take?

Sometimes it feels like the baby is never going to come out. If so, you may be thinking about inducing labor, just to hurry it along. It’s a popular choice: In 2007, for the 11^th consecutive year, the number of C-sections in the U.S. rose, reaching 31.8% for all live births, according to the CDC/National Center For Health Statistics.

However, you may want to reconsider, suggests a new study from the University of Rochester School of Medicine.  

The study found that inducing labor increases the risk that a woman will have a Cesarean delivery, one that she may not have needed if she’d waited to go into labor naturally.  The study found that 1 to 2 out of every 25 induced labors resulted in a C-section. 

Why is this a concern? Because C-sections, as common as they are, are still surgical procedures. As such, they are associated with several risks, including infection, maternal bleeding, blood clots and injury to mother or baby. Of course, C-sections are medically necessary in some circumstances: You have diabetes, high blood pressure and placenta problems; your baby is not growing well; or you’re 10 days past your due date.

However, if those don’t apply to you, the risks linked to being induced and having an unplanned C-section could outweigh the benefits.    

Fortunately, maternal health problems that may require earlier delivery are not common, according to a recent WiserPregnancy survey:

• 6% of women were diagnosed with gestational diabetes
• 5.6% of women were diagnosed with gestational hypertension (high blood pressure)
• 3.8% of women were diagnosed with placenta previa
• 1.1% of women were diagnosed with placental abruption

In many of these cases, doctors decided early delivery was necessary. 

If your condition doesn’t warrant early delivery, why is it better to wait for spontaneous (i.e., natural) labor?  Besides giving your baby more time to develop, women who are not induced avoid the risk that they will need an otherwise unnecessary C-section. 

Have you considered setting a date to be induced?  Why or why not?

What do women worry about most while pregnant?  Concerns about the baby’s health top the list.

A new March of Dimes survey found that the leading cause of worry for moms-to-be is birth defects (78%), followed by concern that stress in their lives might harm the baby’s health (74%) and wondering whether their baby will be born too soon (71%).

If these or other issues worry you, learning the odds may provide some peace of mind.  For example, couples have a very low chance (3%–4%) of having a baby with a birth defect.  Just 2% of couples have a family history of birth defects, according to a WiserPregnancy survey.

If you are concerned that your baby might be born with a birth defect, you can do certain tests to learn if you are at increased risk of having a baby with a problem.  A genetic counselor can help you decide if testing is right for you and make decisions based on your personal values and beliefs.

What else can you do?  Research and talk about your concerns with others.  Learning the facts, hearing a reassuring voice or outlining an action plan can put your mind at ease.  Your health care provider, spouse or partner, family, birthing class instructor or nutritionist can help answer questions and ease your worries.  Read the rest of this entry »

When it comes to picking a delivery location, you might think word of mouth – or even personal experience – is what determines a woman’s decision. Not so, according to a new WiserPregnancy survey.

It turns out that when planning for the big moment, many decision-making factors—cost, personal experience, friend and family member recommendations—fade into the background.  What matters most is a facility’s reputation and expertise.

Just under one-third (28.2%) of expectant moms cited birth location reputation and expertise as the most important factor when choosing where to delivery.  Even women who are already mothers still choose birthing facility reputation and expertise over prior personal experience with a facility.

Other factors that women consider important include:

• Prior personal experience with the facility (17.0%)
• Health care provider recommendation (14.3%)
• Proximity to home and/or work (13.0%)
• Visitation rights of the healthcare provider (12.6%)
• Cost (10.5%)
• Recommendations of family and friends (2.5%)
• Policies for who can attend my birth (1.5%)
• Décor and amenities (TV, music, etc.) (0.4%)

Unsurprisingly, first-time moms are much more concerned with a facility’s reputation and expertise than repeaters. Approximately 34% of first-time moms consider it the most important factor, compared to only 25.2% of experienced moms.

What mattered most to you when you chose a birth location?  If you’re an experienced mom, what seemed important the first time around that didn’t matter as much the second time?