delivery
noun
Delivery — the culminating act of bringing a child into the world
Definition
The act of delivering a child
In depth
Delivery, in this sense, names the act of giving birth, the process by which a child is brought from the womb into the world. The word frames birth as a kind of arrival, the long labor of pregnancy finally completed in a single decisive act of release.
Origin
The word descends from Old French delivrer, to set free or release, ultimately from Latin de- (away) and liberare (to free). That underlying image of release and liberation gives the word for childbirth a quiet poetic resonance: delivery is, etymologically, an act of freeing, the child set loose at last into independent life.
Usage examples
"The delivery had been difficult, but mother and child were, in the end, healthy."
"She had imagined the delivery for months, and still nothing quite prepared her for the reality of it."
"The midwife had overseen hundreds of deliveries, yet each one, she said, still felt entirely new."
How to use it
Delivery is the standard, accessible term across medical and everyday contexts describing childbirth, suitable for both clinical writing and warmer, personal narrative. Writers should be mindful that the same word also describes the transport of goods, relying on context to clarify the intended sense.
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