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Definition: birth from The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide

Act of producing live young from within the body of female animals. Both viviparous and ovoviviparous animals give birth to young. In viviparous animals, embryos obtain nourishment from the mother via a placenta or other means.

In ovoviviparous animals, fertilized eggs develop and hatch in the oviduct of the mother and gain little or no nourishment from maternal tissues. See also pregnancy.

birth

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
or labor, delivery of the fetus by the viviparous mammal. Birth is also known as parturition. Human birth normally occurs about 280 days after onset of the last menstrual period before conception. Onset of labor, the first stage, is heralded by contractions of the uterus felt as cramplike pains in the abdomen or lower back that recur at intervals of 10 to 30 minutes and last about 40 seconds; they increase in frequency until they occur at about 2-minute intervals. With each contraction the cervix, or neck of the uterus, dilates until it becomes wide enough, about 4 in. (10 cm), to permit emergence of the baby. In the second stage of labor the baby passes through the birth canal, most commonly head first, and is born. The effectiveness of uterine contractions in this stage is enhanced by the bearing-down abdominal contractions of the mother. The third stage of labor, which occurs about 15 to 30 minutes after the child is born, is characterized by the separation of the placenta from the…
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Full text Article Preparing for Birth

From The Human Body Book: An Illustrated Guide to Its Structure, Function and Disorders Full text Article Reproduction and Life Cycle
Monozygotic twins A single fertilized egg, or...
Changes occur in the body during late pregnancy, signalling the approach of childbirth. The head of the fetus drops lower into the pelvis; the expectant mother may experience weight loss; and there may also be some early contractions of the uterus. The presence of more than one fetus in the uterus…
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Full text Article birth

From Word Origins
Old English had a word gebyrd ‘birth’ which survived until the end of the 13th century as birde , but it was quite distinct from (though related to) modern English birth , which was borrowed from Old Norse byrth . This came from the same Germanic stem ( *ber-, *bur- ) as produced bear, bairn , and…
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Full text Article Birth

From The SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies
From the beginnings of our species, birth was exclusively the work of women as they labored to push their babies from the private inner world of their wombs into the larger world of society and culture. Yet today, increasing numbers of women around the world have their babies pulled through the…
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Full text Article Birth

From Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology: Health and Illness in the World's Cultures
INTRODUCTION Birth, the physiological process of childbearing, is both a biological and cultural event. In all societies, the universal physiology of birth is culturally shaped and managed. Jordan's (1978, 1993) groundbreaking work Birth in Four Cultures initiated the field of study now known as the…
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Full text Article BIRTH

From Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions
“Ceremonies for Woman in Labor and Confinement,”...
In Judaism, childbirth is much more than just the physiological means of propagation. In Jewish tradition, God is a partner in conception who oversees the spiritual growth of the embryo in the womb and the safe delivery of the child. The baby boy becomes a member of the Jewish community upon his…
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Full text Article Birth

From Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology
The process of delivering a child from the uterus by passage through the birth canal or cesarean section at the end of pregnancy, which normally occurs after a gestation period of about 267 days; also called parturition, or labor. Birth labor is divided into several stages. During the latent phase, …
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Full text Article birth

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
or labor, delivery of the fetus by the viviparous mammal. Birth is also known as parturition. Human birth normally occurs about 280 days after onset of the last menstrual period before conception. Onset of labor, the first stage, is heralded by contractions of the uterus felt as cramplike pains in…
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Full text Article BIRTH

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity
The biblical exegesis of the Fathers on both the OT and NT (See Lk 1:13) considers marital fecundity to be a good and a gift of God (Clem. Al., Strom. II, 83,142,1-2; Cyr. of Jer., Catech. IX, 15; Ambr., Exp. Lc. 1,29; John Chrys., Anna 1,4). Conversely, the church considered *Encratite movements, …
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From The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets
is a life event associated with sweet foods that appear in various rituals, among which baptism, christening, or other formal presentation of a new child to a community are public events, while the actual birth, attended by women only (at least historically), is private. The foods served vary…
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From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
I was born in 1896, and my parents were married in 1919. ACKERLEY, J. R. My Father and Myself (1968). It was easier than having a tattoo. APPLETON, Nicole The Sunday Times , July 2001. For that which is born death is certain, and for... …
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