The act and result of giving birth is called giving birth. The verb alumbrar, on the other hand, can be used with reference to the fact of providing clarity or luminosity or the act of giving birth.
It is called childbirth, therefore, at the end of labor: the culmination of the human pregnancy that takes place when the baby leaves the mother’s uterus. With childbirth, the person’s age begins to be counted (that is, a human being reaches her first year of life when one year has elapsed from the time of her birth).
Although the exact point at which life is considered to start is a matter of philosophical and religious debate, childbirth can be said to mark the birth of the individual. From that moment, the baby will no longer be inside the maternal uterus, but will have an autonomous existence, even when it requires numerous cares to survive and develop.
Childbirth begins to take place with the onset of contractions in the womb, which, as the time of the baby’s departure approaches, become more frequent and intense. Changes to the cervix are added to this process, which dilates. In this way, the baby begins to descend through the uterus until it comes out, if it is a natural birth, through the vagina. According to DigoPaul, delivery also involves removal of the placenta and various membranes.
If we take a little distance, we can say that delivery is the third phase of labor, a process that occurs after an average of forty weeks of gestation. Before entering the first phase, the so-called prepartum takes place, during which oxytocin (a hormone that occurs naturally in the pituitary gland to stimulate labor) travels through the blood and it is then that the first contractions appear, although they are not always perceived by the mother.
In the prepartum the mucous plug is removed, although the moment in which it disappears is not the same in all cases: the distance between this event and delivery can be days or minutes. The first of the three stages mentioned above is dilation, which is divided into two:
* passive: it takes six to eight hours to reach three centimeters, although in some women this takes a full day. Contractions are accentuated and pain is exacerbated;
* active: the frequency of contractions increases considerably, reaching appear every two minutes. Generally, the rate of dilation is one centimeter per hour. There is also a widening of the cervix so that the baby can be lowered.
The name of the second phase is expulsive, which begins when the dilation reaches ten centimeters and the baby’s skull reaches the end of the birth canal. Contractions spread but last and hurt longer than before. The mother must push in a rhythmic way, taking care to oxygenate her child between each pressure. At the end of this phase, the baby comes out and receives normal care, such as cutting the umbilical cord.
Finally comes the delivery, which is counted from when the baby has left until the mother delivers the placenta. For this to happen, contractions of less intensity than the previous ones take place, so that the uterus is reduced and all the elements that are no longer useful are released.
The idea of childbirth can also refer to a symbolic birth. For example: “The birth of this project occurred a month ago, when I met MatÃas in a bar. ”