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Childbirth (also called labour, birth, partus or parturition) is the culmination of a human pregnancy or gestation period with the birth of one or more newborn infants from a woman's uterus. The process of normal human childbirth is categorized in three stages of labour: the shortening and dilation of the cervix, descent and birth of the infant, and birth of the placenta. In many cases, with increasing frequency, childbirth is achieved through caesarean section, the removal of the neonate through a surgical incision in the abdomen, rather than through vaginal birth. In the U.S. and Canada it represents nearly 1 in 3 (31.8%) and 1 in 4 (22.5%) of all childbirths, respectively.
Over one million Americans have the sexually transmitted virus, HIV, which can lead to the deadly disease known as AIDS.
HIV can be transmitted in the sexual fluids, blood or breast milk of an infected person. HIV prevention therefore involves a wide range of activities including prevention of mother-to-child transmission, needle exchanges and harm reduction for injecting drug users, and precautions for health care workers.