Vaginal delivery


A vaginal delivery is the birth of offspring in mammals through the vagina. It is the natural method of birth for all mammals except monotremes, which lay eggs.
For humans, the average length of a hospital stay for a normal vaginal delivery is 36–48 hours. Surgery extends that stay. With an episiotomy to enable vaginal birth, the stay is 48–60 hours. The length of stay for a Caesarean section, a common form of nonvaginal birth, is 72–108 hours.

Types of vaginal delivery

Different types of vaginal deliveries have different terms:
Note: Use of the term IVD for instrumental vaginal delivery is best avoided because of its duplicate meanings.