Labor and Delivery Process Surprises

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21 Labor and Delivery Surprises -- Don't Say We Didn't Warn You!

There goes the birth plan! No matter how much you prepare, the labor and delivery process can still hold a lot of surprises. Read on to learn 21 of the most common ones (22 Photos)

Dina Roth Port on Sep 7, 2012 at 3:18PM

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a Dina Roth Port on Jul 17, 2012 at 11:44AM

You read all the advice, you talk to your friends and you take the classes, but even when you think you're 100-percent ready for childbirth, parts of labor and delivery can be completely unexpected -- and, okay, even shocking. From the gross to the scary to the slightly bizarre, here are 21 labor and delivery surprises. Don't say we didn't warn you!

You Will Be Seeing Red
So, you might expect a little fluid and a trickle of blood during delivery. But doctors say that plenty of women -- not to mention their queasy partners -- are shocked by just how much can actually come out. "I've had men pass out because there's so much fluid -- sometimes so much that it can soak the floor," says George Macones, M.D., chair of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Committee on Obstetric Practice. "There's the amniotic fluid and then, after delivery, there might be some postpartum bloody discharge called lochia until the uterus contracts down to size (which can take up to six weeks) as well as blood from vaginal tears." It's important to keep in mind that, regardless of the volume of fluid you expel, it's usually perfectly normal.