Birth

Moche ceramic vessel showing a woman giving birth. Larco Museum Lima

A woman giving birth on a birth chair, circa 1515

Newborn after typical hospital birth

Birth (to be born) means when a baby animal comes out of its egg, or out of its mother after pregnancy. It is sometimes thought of as the beginning of life. It is also known as calving in livestock or whelping in meat-eating mammals.

Related medical words

• Childbirth is the process at the end of a human pregnancy that results in a baby being born.
• Natural childbirth is the technique of minimizing medical intervention, particularly anaesthetics, during childbirth.
• Multiple birth is the birth of two (twins), three (triplets), four (quadruplets), etc., babies resulting from a single pregnancy.
• Birth pangs are the pains felt by the mother during labor
• Caesarean section or C-section is surgical birth through the wall of the abdomen.
• Afterbirth is the birth of the placenta following the birth of the baby.
• Birth canal is the term used for the vagina during birth
• Birth control is the prevention of pregnancy.
• Birth defect is a physical or mental abnormality present at the time of birth.
• Complications may cause a miscarriage or spontaneous abortion to occur.
• Infertility treatments are devices, medications, or behavior patterns to increase the probability of pregnancy.
• Premature birth is the birth of an infant before the full term of pregnancy.
• Stillbirth is the birth of a dead fetus or infant.

Changes in pelvis during human pregnancy

In adult females the pelvis is shaped differently from males. The differences are connected with allowing the baby to pass through the birth canal successfully. Also, during pregnancy, a hormone called relaxin softens the ligaments in the pelvis area. This produces a little bit of extra space for the baby's head to get through. The process is hard to describe in words, but fortunately there is an excellent video which explains what goes on.

• Baby Centre expert advice: how pregnancy changes your pelvis. [1]

Legal meanings

• Birth certificate is a legal document describing details of a person's birth.
• Birthday is a day to celebrate that the person has lived a certain number of years.
• In some countries a person is considered of illegitimate birth if the child is born of parents not legally married to one another.

Spiritual meanings

• Born again -a term used primarily in Protestantism, is associated with salvation, conversion, and spiritual rebirth. See Gospel of John chapter 3.
• Rebirth is a belief that a person is born again after their death based on the karma of their previous births.
• Virgin birth of Jesus is the Christian doctrine that asserts that Jesus Christ was born to a virgin, and thus that his conception was carried out without an earthly father.

Related pages

• Death
• Fertilisation
• Home birth
• Pregnancy