Do not create additional problems for yourself. Register at the clinic in a timely manner, go to the doctors and take tests before your stomach does not allow you to enter the tram. Calm down, for God's sake! You are not the first, you are not the last, sorry for the banality. We will give birth, we will not go anywhere. Therefore, we went to the hospital.

1.2. MATERNITY HOSPITAL

"It doesn't matter if you hatched from a swan's egg!"

Hans Christian Andersen

It is necessary to prepare yourself for staying in the maternity hospital, first of all, psychologically. No matter how rich and healthy you are, a successful birth is still a lottery, however, with very significant chances of winning.

Childbirth is a rare phenomenon for a modern woman, but it is natural and most often proceeds normally. The chances of giving birth badly are not very high, from the point of view of statistics, although you, of course, have reasons to worry. At the same time, when you reach the emergency room of the maternity hospital, you are already very little able to influence the situation.

The main thing is not to panic, try to listen to what you are told and, if possible, follow the instructions of the person who is delivering the baby as accurately as possible.

Less initiative. Extra brains are the main obstacle when it comes to childbirth (it is not surprising that women with higher education and the intelligentsia generally have a harder time giving birth).

We will not describe in detail the rules of behavior during childbirth (there is plenty of literature on this issue). After all, we are interested in the maternity hospital as the place from which the life of a child begins, and this book is dedicated to the interests of the latter, in fact. Very, very much of what happens in maternity hospitals is not unequivocally correct. But there is no reason to start a discussion, because, I repeat, you and I cannot influence the situation and will most likely give birth in an ordinary state maternity hospital. It should be mentioned that in the very, very recent past, any woman who dared to give birth outside the maternity hospital caused feelings of pity and angry bewilderment from the public. At present, the situation has begun to change – at least the state maternity hospital has ceased to be the only and non-alternative place where a child has the right to be born.

On the one hand, there are not state-owned, i.e. theoretically free, but practically paid maternity hospitals, on the other hand, there are significant advances in the maternity hospitals themselves - they let dads who want to see and get sick, they organize "joint rooms", where the child stays with the mother immediately after birth. In some large cities, "interest clubs" have sprung up, preparing pregnant women for home birth, naturally under the supervision of medical professionals.

The ongoing changes have their pros and cons. In the delivery room, instead of helping a woman in labor, unconscious fathers are pumped out; in the "ward of cohabitation" there are not a mother and child, but five mothers and five children, and so on. And if a pregnant woman has no health problems (not a narrow pelvis, a normal position of the fetus confirmed by ultrasound, etc.), then why not give birth at home, where it is more comfortable, where there is less stress. And if after childbirth there is strength and mood to be together with the child, then why not? But why is it if the new mother feels bad, if there is postpartum depression, if the child is restless?

In any case, wherever we give birth and no matter what experiments are conducted on us, our ultimate goal is the same: to get home with the child as soon as possible.

After all, at home, the responsibility for the baby falls entirely on the shoulders of parents, who have the opportunity to act not in accordance with the instructions and orders of the Ministry of Health, but in accordance with logic and common sense. At the same time, a week spent in the hospital can have a very negative impact on the mother, so there are still some things you need to know.