How many women experience pregnancy related complications each year?
A. Each year over 7% of women in the world experience pregnancy related complications that can lead to long-term illness or disability. (That’s 7 million out of 210 million women who are pregnant every year.) Most of these are due to health care disparities between rich and poor women. The 3 main factors that affect a woman’s ability to receive proper birthing care are: recognizing that there is a problem and the need to seek care, a delay in reaching care, and getting adequate treatment once a woman has arrived for care. Q. How long does labor last? A. It really depends on the woman. For some, it can be as short as an hour or two; for others, it can be up to three days. Usually, it is in the range of 15-20 hours. Labor is broken into three stages: early and active labor, transition and pushing, and the birth of the placenta. During early and active labor, the cervix dilates and contractions gradually become longer and more frequent. The cervix, which has an opening the size of the tip
