Module 4 Fertilization to Birth

Reflect and Connect

Did you find out your birth story? Hopefully, you were able to gain an understanding of the events surrounding your birth. Jamie Lee Curtis, the actress, had a ritual of having her mother tell her the story of her birth every year on her birthday. Young children love hearing over and over about how they were born. The events of yours or anyone’s birth story are memories that most people want to keep, and some even video tape the process.

Going Beyond

With every birth there is a possibility of conditions arising that are not typical; that is to say that there is always a chance that the birthing process will not go exactly according to the ‘plan’. See what you  can find out about what some of the following terms or phrases mean in relation to childbirth:

1. Effacement
2. Mucus plug
3. Braxton Hicks contractions
4. Latent phase
5. Malpresentation of the fetal head
6. Being born in the caul
7. Epidural
8. Breech
9. Episiotomy
10. Apgar score

Research how various Aboriginal cultures dealt with childbirth.

Lesson Summary

Parturition, or labour, is divided into three stages, although the events are a continuous process.  Labour is separated into the dilation stage (uterine contractions begin), the expulsion stage (delivery of the fetus), and the placental stage (the discharge of the placenta). 

Labour is initiated and sustained through nervous and hormonal control. Oxytocin and prostaglandin stimulation works through a positive feedback mechanism to promote further uterine contractions.  Uterine contractions force the fetus down to the cervix, and out through the birth canal. They also cause the placenta to be expelled from the body after birth. If a normal vaginal birth is not possible, it is common for delivery of the fetus to occur through a Cesarean section (C-section).

Once the fetus is delivered, it can no longer rely on its mother for air, food or the elimination of its own wastes. All of the baby’s body systems that perform these functions now begin working independently of the mother’s support. For the infant to acquire nutrition it needs to begin to breast-feed or suckle.  The hormone prolactin causes the production of breast milk, and the release of oxytocin, along with the suckling stimulation, causes the mammary glands to secrete breast milk.

The desired end result of this reproductive process filled with development and change is the glowing face of a healthy newborn baby.