Editing Midwifery (section)

==== Birthing positions ====
{{Main|Childbirth positions}}

Until the last century most women have used both the upright position and alternative positions to give birth.  The [[lithotomy position]] was not used until the advent of forceps in the seventeenth century and since then childbirth has progressively moved from a woman supported experience in the home to a medical intervention within the hospital.
There are significant advantages to assuming an upright position in labor and birth, such as stronger and more efficient uterine contractions aiding cervical dilatation, increased pelvic inlet and outlet diameters and improved uterine contractility.<ref name="Factors influencing maternal positions during labor">{{cite web | url=http://www.instituteofmidwifery.org/MSFinalProj.nsf/a9ee58d7a82396768525684f0056be8d/45f9de25c6ca395e85257715003dad3f?OpenDocument | title=Factors influencing maternal positions during labor | date=April 2010 | access-date=10 August 2015 | author=Searle, Lorraine | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160222212343/http://www.instituteofmidwifery.org/MSFinalProj.nsf/a9ee58d7a82396768525684f0056be8d/45f9de25c6ca395e85257715003dad3f?OpenDocument | archive-date=22 February 2016 | url-status=dead }}</ref>  Upright positions in the second stage include sitting, squatting, kneeling, and being on hands and knees.<ref name="Gelis122-134">Gelis, Jacues. History of Childbirth. Boston: Northern University Press, 1991: 122-134</ref>