Giving Birth Born Baby Pain Breathing Doctors Home

Many babies are born in the United States every day. Most are born in hospitals, where they are "monitored" (watched over) and cared for by a team of doctors and nurses. However, some of these babies are born in the home of their mother without the "aid" (help) of a doctor or a nurse.

In the U.S., one of the biggest birthing "trends" (popular things to do) at the moment is "home birth," or giving birth to a baby inside a person's own home. Some doctors say that this method of birth is more "risky" (dangerous) than giving birth in a hospital, and the mother may feel more pain during "labor" (the process of giving birth, when the baby is coming out of the mother's body).

There are many ways in which a woman can get through the pain of childbirth without the aid of pain "medications" (drugs), though, and many of these involve breathing techniques. One such breathing technique is called "Lamaze." Lamaze breathing involves deep "inhaling" (taking air into one's body through the nose or mouth) and "exhaling" (removing air from one's body through the nose or mouth) to relax the "expectant" (pregnant) mother.

Lamaze may or may not be incorporated into other methods of home birth, such as "water birth." To have a water birth, a woman lies in a tub of warm water, as if she is taking a bath. When the baby is born, it "emerges" (comes out) beneath the water, which is a lot like the water and other fluids it was in when it was inside its mother's "womb" or uterus. Some experts say that this birthing method is the most natural of all, because the baby is born into an "environment" (place) that is more natural and similar to the environment that it had been growing in for nine months.