How Your Baby Is Born

To celebrate the 1st anniversary of our website, we are giving away Dr. Amy's book How Your Baby Is Born as a free download.

To download the book, click How Your Baby Is Born.

The book is a large PDF file and will take several minutes to download. You can read it with Adobe PDF Reader. If you don't already have a copy of Adobe PDF Reader, you can down load it here.

Or, if you prefer, you can read the individual chapters below.

Introduction

Part 1-Pregnancy

• The First Trimester
• The Second Trimester
• The Third Trimester
• Assessing the Baby
• Assessing the Mother
• Screening for Fetal Abnormalities
• Amniocentesis
• First Trimester Bleeding
• Premature Labor
• Pre-eclampsia

Part 2-Labor and Delivery

• Before Labor Begins
• Fetal Positions
• What Happens in Early Labor
• How the Uterus Contracts
• How Your Practitioner Checks Your Cervix
• The Active Phase of Labor
• Giving Birth

Part 3-Common Obstetrical Practices

• How the Fetal Monitor Works
• How Labor Is Induced
• How and Why the Membranes are Ruptured Artificially
• How and Why an Episiotomy Is Performed
• How a Baby Is Delivered by Forceps
• How a Baby Is Delivered by Vacuum Extraction
• Pain Relief in Labor
• How a Baby Is Delivered by Caesarian Section
• Breech Babies: Version and Delivery Techniques
• How Twins Are Delivered

Part 4-The Newborn

• How Your Baby Begins to Breathe
• How Your Baby Is Evaluated
• How Your Baby Begins Breast Feeding