(Updated April 2022) There is a very common myth, generally perpetrated by Hollywood, that you can only have ice chips in labour. The thought of that may seem crazy, to do so much physical work, for many hours on nothing but water and ice chips. Sadly in generations past this was the norm. However now a days that isn't necessarily true. These days you can and should eat, especially if you are hungry and of course drinking something other than water is also necessary. But

You get pregnant everyone congratulates you and suddenly everyone has an opinion about how you should birth and how you should raise your child. And one topic that is always top of the list is pain medication in birth. Your friends who have had babies before they will immediately tell you, "Just get the epidural! Don't be a hero, there is no prize at the end of doing this without an epidural." Just the opinion of a friend shouldn't be the reason you make a decision. There

Getting sleep as a new parent seems like a losing battle. Your newborn won't sleep for longer than an hour or two at a time and that leaves you with no time to get anything done let alone get any kind of sleep. So why is this and how are you going to survive it? Babies actually sleep quite a lot. In a 24 hour period they can sleep any where from 12-18 hours. However they do it in increments. While baby was on the inside they relied on your circadian rhythm and your melato