When you conceive and become pregnant, your body begins to prepare for giving birth and, at the same time, it nurtures the fragile fetus growing in your womb. Full-term pregnancy is considered to last 38 or 40 weeks. When the length is calculated from the estimated day of fertilization, the pregnancy period is couple of weeks shorter than that calculated from the start of the last menstruation.

Every labor and delivery is different. How long the labor lasts and how fast or slow it progresses differs from woman to woman and from birth to birth. Some women experience very distinct signs of labor, while others do not.

There are several early symptoms that reveal that your labor is about to start and your baby is going to be born. Among these early labor symptoms are loose bowel movements. The intestine commonly empties just before labor starts. A quick decrease in the level of hormone progesterone is being considered for causing this effect. Another early sign of labor is a feeling of shivering or trembling that you might experience without any sensation of cold or weakness. Passing the mucus plug from the vagina (this is also called the "bloody show") is a common early sign of labor, as well. This may happen one day or several weeks before labor begins, or after a vaginal exam. Labor can also start with a trickle or gush of water from the vagina. This means that the bag of water, meaning the amniotic sac that surrounds the baby, has broken.

No one knows exactly what causes labor to start or why so many pregnancies become overdue. One of the recent studies published in European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology (Vol. 132, June 2007) revealed that when the level of specific mRNA molecules in mother's blood circulation increases, the labor is about to begin. What is interesting is that these molecules are of fetal origin. Could it be so that the baby sends a signal to the mother's body that it's time to deliver? What happens if the mother's body doesn't identify this message? Could that be one of the reasons why so many pregnancies become overdue and EDD are passed?

Holistic approaches aim to maintain an ideal balance and help our bodies to function better in various situations of life. This is how these methods help the mother's body to be more sensitive to mutual communication between the mother and the baby during pregnancy, labor and delivery.

Maternity Acupressure is a natural holistic method that helps the mother's body to prepare for childbirth. Maternity Acupressure is beneficial, also, for the baby because it helps the baby to take the optimal position for the birth and to be engaged into the mother's pelvis. Maternity Acupressure method can also be used to induce the labor naturally if the pregnancy is already overdue. Because of the high success rate, Maternity Acupressure has quickly become a popular natural labor induction remedy used by many professional pregnancy and labor caregivers. As Maternity Acupressure uses only application of pressure on specific spots on the skin, it can be safely used at home with basic instructions.

Studies prove that over 83% of pregnant mothers using acupressure to induce labor naturally experience a normal and natural childbirth with significantly less medical interventions than pregnant mothers who don't use this method. Additionally, their labor time was shorter without signs of distress or hyperstimulation of the womb. On the contrary, acupressure seems to avert the mother and the baby to become distressed during labor and delivery.

Thus, holistic methods, such as Maternity Acupressure, might have a remarkably beneficial effect in preparing the mother and the baby for the birth that occurs at the right time in the most optimal manner.