In preparation for the birth of your baby, your cervix effaces (thins and stretches) and dilates (opens) so your baby can fit through the birth canal. This cervical ripening can begin days or even ...

That said, unless things are cut short by a C-section, all women go through three precise stages of labor and childbirth: labor itself (which includes early labor, active labor and transitional labor) ...

As your due date approaches, you may be wondering how dilated your cervix is and if you are making progress toward delivery. While only your doctor can confirm cervical dilation, you can do a ...

Tricia Brockway, a labor and delivery nurse whose mission is to empower women through information, recently drummed up a dilation chart that's easy to understand. In an enlightening Instagram post, ...

Cervical dilation sounds pretty intense, but if you are in labor, it's going to happen. The question is, how do you know if you're dilated and ready to deliver your baby? The cervix is a magical ...

Poor healing entails painful complications and impaired fertility, so women need counseling on the risks for future pregnancies.

Near the end of the third trimester, a woman's cervix will soften in order to begin the process of effacing (thinning and stretching) and dilating (opening up). An open cervix allows the baby to pass ...

Elective induction of labor in first-time mothers with an unfavorable cervix increased the rate of cesarean deliveries compared with women who received expectant management in a randomized clinical ...

The World Health Organization released new guidelines that state women should have more say in the labor and delivery room. Among the recommendations, the guidelines reject the traditional benchmark ...

To evaluate if a learning curve exists for cervical Foley placement for labor induction in women with unfavorable cervices and whether labor curves differ compared with the dinoprostone insert (PGE2).

Three women spoke to ABC News about their labor experience. Quayla Harris knew exactly how she wanted the delivery of her third child to go: a natural birth in the hospital with her husband by her ...