Baby 39;s Day Out Part 3
Jacinto Dieujuste
During labor and delivery, your baby must pass through your pelvic bones to reach the vaginal opening. The goal is to find the easiest way out. Certain body positions give the baby a smaller shape, which makes it easier for your baby to get through this tight passage.
Abnormal fetal attitudes include a head that is tilted back, so the brow or the face presents first. Other body parts may be positioned behind the back. When this happens, the presenting part will be larger as it passes through the pelvis. This makes delivery more difficult.
The shoulder, arm, or trunk may present first if the fetus is in a transverse lie. This type of presentation occurs less than 1% of the time. Transverse lie is more common when you deliver before your due date, or have twins or triplets.
As your baby passes through the birth canal, the baby's head will change positions. These changes are needed for your baby to fit and move through your pelvis. These movements of your baby's head are called cardinal movements of labor.
Updated by: John D. Jacobson, MD, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, CA. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.
The Office of the Federal Register publishes documents on behalf of Federal agencies but does not have any authority over their programs. We recommend you directly contact the agency associated with the content in question.
Choosing an item from citations and headings will bring you directly to the content. Choosing an item from full text search results will bring you to those results. Pressing enter in the search box will also bring you to search results.
This content is from the eCFR and may include recent changes applied to the CFR. The official, published CFR, is updated annually and available below under "Published Edition". You can learn more about the process here.
The eCFR is displayed with paragraphs split and indented to follow the hierarchy of the document. This is an automated process for user convenience only and is not intended to alter agency intent or existing codification.
A separate drafting site is available with paragraph structure matching the official CFR formatting. If you work for a Federal agency, use this drafting site when drafting amendatory language for Federal regulations: switch to eCFR drafting site.
The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is the official legal print publication containing the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the departments and agencies of the Federal Government. The Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR) is a continuously updated online version of the CFR. It is not an official legal edition of the CFR.
Many parents are afraid to touch these soft spots, but you can rest assured that, despite their lack of a bony layer, they are well protected from typical day-to-day baby handling. Other things to know about the soft spot(s) include:
In addition to molding, a bit of swelling or bruising of the scalp immediately following delivery is not uncommon for newborns. The swelling usually is most noticeable at the top back part of the head and is medically referred to as a caput (short for caput succedaneum). When bruising of the head occurs during delivery, the result can be a boggy-feeling area, called a cephalohematoma.
Laura A. Jana, MD, FAAP, is a pediatrician and mother of 3 with a faculty appointment at the Penn State University Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center. She is the author of more than 30 parenting and children's books and serves as an early childhood expert/contributor for organizations including the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Primrose Schools, and US News & World Report. She lives in Omaha, NE.
Jennifer Shu, MD, FAAP serves as the medical editor of HealthyChildren.org and provides oversight and direction for the site in conjunction with the staff editor. Dr. Shu is a practicing pediatrician at Children's Medical Group in Atlanta, Georgia, and she is also a mom. She earned her medical degree at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond and specialized in pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. Her experience includes working in private practice, as well as working in an academic medical center. She served as director of the normal newborn nursery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire. Dr. Shu is also co-author of Food Fights and Heading Home with Your Newborn published by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Planning for a C-section might be necessary if there are certain pregnancy complications. Women who have had a C-section might have another C-section. Often, however, the need for a first-time C-section isn' clear until after labor starts.
Some women request C-sections with their first babies. They might want to avoid labor or the possible complications of vaginal birth. Or they might want to plan the time of delivery. However, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, this might not be a good option for women who plan to have several children. The more C-sections a woman has, the greater the risk of problems with future pregnancies.
To provide you with the most relevant and helpful information, and understand which information is beneficial, we may combine your email and website usage information with other information we have about you. If you are a Mayo Clinic patient, this could include protected health information. If we combine this information with your protected health information, we will treat all of that information as protected health information and will only use or disclose that information as set forth in our notice of privacy practices. You may opt-out of email communications at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the e-mail.
Increased risks during future pregnancies. Having a C-section increases the risk of complications in a later pregnancy and in other surgeries. The more C-sections, the higher the risks of placenta previa and a condition in which the placenta becomes attached to the wall of the uterus (placenta accreta).
A health care provider might also recommend certain blood tests before a C-section. These tests provide information about blood type and the level of the main component of red blood cells (hemoglobin). The test results can be helpful in case you need a blood transfusion during the C-section.
If you don't plan to have more children, you might talk to your health care provider about long-acting reversible birth control or permanent birth control. A permanent birth control procedure might be performed at the time of the C-section.
A C-section includes an abdominal incision and a uterine incision. The abdominal incision is made first. It's either a vertical incision between your navel and pubic hair (left) or, more commonly, a horizontal incision lower on your abdomen (right).
A C-section requires cuts, called incisions, in both the lower belly and the uterus. After making a cut in the lower belly, the healthcare professional makes a cut in the uterus. Low transverse incisions are the most common (top left).
Anesthesia. Most C-sections are done under regional anesthesia, which numbs only the lower part of your body. This allows you to be awake during the procedure. Common choices include a spinal block and an epidural block.
Once the anesthesia begins to wear off, you'll be encouraged to drink fluids and walk. This helps prevent constipation and deep vein thrombosis. Your health care team will monitor your incision for signs of infection. The bladder catheter will likely be removed as soon as possible.
You can start breastfeeding as soon as you're ready, even in the delivery room. Ask your nurse or a lactation consultant to teach you how to position yourself and support your baby so that you're comfortable. Your health care team will select medications for your post-surgical pain with breastfeeding in mind.
If you have severe mood swings, loss of appetite, overwhelming fatigue and lack of joy in life shortly after childbirth, you might have postpartum depression. Contact your health care provider if you think you might be depressed, especially if your symptoms don't go away, you have trouble caring for your baby or completing daily tasks, or you have thoughts of harming yourself or your baby.
c80f0f1006