Part One: Giving birth

From the last weeks of pregnancy to the first hours with your baby Birth is one of the most intense experiences a body can go through, and one of the least predictable. No book can tell you exactly how your labour will go. What it can do is explain what usually happens, why, what your choices are at each point, and what the people caring for you are doing and checking. People who understand the process tend to feel calmer and more in control, whatever kind of birth they end up having.

The chapters follow the order of events, from getting ready to the first hours after birth. Read them in the last weeks of pregnancy, ideally with your birth partner, and come back to the ones you need.

Figure 2. How labour progresses, with the opening of the cervix drawn to scale.