Today is:

Toward the end of your pregnancy, you eagerly await the arrival of your child as the culmination of nine months of careful planning and preparation draws to a close. If this is your first child, you may feel a mixture of excitement and nervousness when you think about the delivery. This jumble of emotions is completely normal and natural. As your due date draws near, you'll want to know exactly when labor will start and when your baby will be born. But although the process of labor is well understood, no one knows exactly why it starts, and your health care provider won't be able to predict either the start of labor or how long it will last.

When you notice the first subtle early signs of labor, you should begin to finalize plans for the care of other children, arrange your transportation to the hospital, and call your health care provider for last-minute instructions. Because admission procedures can be time consuming, pre-registering at your place of birth before you go into labor can greatly cut down the time it takes in getting admitted. For most women giving birth for the first time, labor will usually last between 12 and 24 hours, with an average of 14 hours. However, for women who have given birth before, labor usually averages only 6 hours. Even though every labor is different the stages and phases of events remains the same.

Despite best laid plans for the "perfect" labor and delivery, sometimes medical intervention is needed when complications arise. It's important to be familiar with some of these interventions because even though you may never need them, you can maintain a sense of emotional control by asking questions, challenging assumptions about routine procedures, and openly sharing your hopes and fears with your partner and your heath care provider.

Even when you think you've mastered the art of breathing, practiced various labor positions and are relatively free from the fear of labor, being knowledgeable about medications used for labor pain is a must. Whatever medication you decide to you, if any, depends on your informed preferences, your health care provider's recommendations and what is available at your medical facility. Be sure that you remain flexible in regards to pain medication in labor because you may need to change your mind if things don't go as you intended.

Recovery from labor depends on the length of the labor, whether medications were used, if a surgical birth was needed and on how well the mother coped with labor. Usually within a few hours after the delivery of the baby, you will be moved to a postpartum unit in a hospital or released from a birth center. The firmness of your uterus is checked, your lower abdomen will be massaged, the amount of blood loss will be monitored and your temperature and blood pressure will be routinely checked. Since breastfeeding is usually initiated in the delivery room, breasts and nipples will be checked and breastfeeding will begin in earnest. If a surgical birth was used, pain medication is given usually the first 48 hours to help the mother cope with having major surgery on her abdomen.