Jump to content

childbirth

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

[edit]
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From Middle English childbyrth [and other forms], perhaps a partial calque of Old Norse barnburðr (childbearing, childbirth, literally bairn birth); equivalent to child +‎ birth. Compare Swedish barnsbörd (childbirth), Icelandic barnsburður (childbirth).

Pronunciation

[edit]
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

[edit]

childbirth (usually uncountable, plural childbirths)

  1. The fact or action of giving birth to a child, as the culmination of pregnancy.
    • 2001, Ellen Gruenbaum, The Female Circumcision Controversy: An Anthropological Perspective:
      The preference for tightness during intercourse is so well known in Western culture that U.S. obstetricians even have a term for the extra stitch they often perform when doing episiotomy repairs following childbirth: the "husband's stitch." The husband's stitch is intended to produce a smaller vaginal opening, to counteract the natural stretching of the tissues from sexual activity and childbirth and even to make the opening more constricted than it might have been before.

Antonyms

[edit]
[edit]

Translations

[edit]

See also

[edit]

Anagrams

[edit]