NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Pregnant women who have a cesarean delivery appear to be more likely to suffer a stroke during the following year than women who give birth normally, researchers in Taiwan have shown.

As an expectant mother approaching your due date, a concern that looms large in your mind is the pain that you will experience during labor. Will you be able to cope?

Shoulder dystocia refers to the situation when, after the baby's head emerges from the vagina, the shoulders fail to follow easily, either on their own with the mother's pushing, or with some gentle assistance from the midwife or doctor.

Here is a thoughtful response from Mary Knauer, CNM.

As many midwives have found, a doula can be an invaluable resource to a laboring woman and to a new mother.  A doula is a professionally-trained supportive companion for a woman in labor.

The "birthing ball" is a wonderful comfort tool for pregnancy and labor.

Sterile water papules are a new, drug-free way to control pain.

There are suggestions that the practice of early cord clamping may have far-reaching detrimental effects on the infant, such as autism, infant anemia, childhood mental disorders and hypoxic ischemic brain damage.

How should childbearing women with a history of cesarean be counseled about the optimal mode of delivery with their current pregnancy?