optional caserean

so for my bioethics exam we have to debate the pros and cons of optional c sections.

talking this over with my class is ok - although it mainly 19 and 20yr old boys who go all trembly when we have to read about the details of birth

but yeah, good as it is to chat to those lads, it would be really great to hear some opinions of women and their partners who have expirenced birth, and who might have a diffrent perspective.

I was wondering if anyone on here had any thoughts on whether or not women who are fully informed should be able to have a c section on demand?

 

I don't think anybody should ever have major invasive medical procedures done without being fully informed about the possible consequences. Here in the US the rate of non-emergency planned C sections is staggeringly high. It's often for the Dr.'s convienience! Women are terribly unaware that recovery from C sections takes longer,that the ability to bond with your baby is diminished,etc. They are informed only that there are extremely small possibilities of danger but are reassured that it won't happen to them. I had both of my children naturally in non hospital birth centers assisted by midwives by the way and had no complications and very easy labors and deliveries. I personally feel something like major surgery (which is what c-sections really are) should be reserved for cases of medical neccessity.

 

Here's the thing......informed consent, the way dotor's do it, is a joke. No one in their right minds would have an elective c-section if they were in fact fully informed. A cesarean section has a 100% morbidity rate. Every single woman who has a c-section will end up with a uterine scar, a higher blood loss than a woman who had a vaginal birth, a surgical incision, and a longer recovery period.
Every woman who has a c-section increases her risk of having a stillbirth next pregnancy 4 times. She has a 4X as high risk of having an ectopic pregnancy, a placenta previa, placental abruption, and a premature baby. Also she risks contracting an infection, a uterine rupture, bowel obstruction, hemorrhage resulting in hysterectomy, allergic reactions to anesthesia, breathing problems, breastfeeding problems, bloot clots n the legs or lungs, bonding issues with baby, injury to urinary tract (I had a client whose bladder was lacerated during a section), injury to baby (I also had a client who's baby's face was lacerated, from over the right eye all the way to the right ear) tachypnea in the baby (fast breathing caused by fluid in the lungs. C-section babie's do not get "squeezed out" in the birth canal), and baby;s born by section are at a higher risk of developing asthma.. The maternal mortality rate is 4 times higher for c-sections than normal vaginal birth. 9 out of every 1,000 women who have a section will have an emergency hysterectomy in the post partum period. 1 in 14 women will still have pain or numbness in the surgical site 6 months after her section.

C-sections are very lucrative for doctors and hospitals. Event though the actual surgery pays about the same, the hospital can bill your insurance for your extended stay, the extended nursery stay of your baby, the neonatologist team who evaluates your baby, the pain medications needed postpartum, and, your doctor can plan your section around his schedule. In every hospital in North America, c-section rates soar sky high right before major holidays and weekends. Elective sections are done in the morning, leaving the doctor the rest of the day free. Your doctor can get all his patients delivered by lunch without waiting around for a natural birth nd be home in time for dinner.

Many women are afraid of natural birth, something the media has played up for immnse profit. Just watch some of the popular tv real life dramas, like Maternity Ward, Birth Day, Babies:Special Delivery, and 9 times out of 10, the birth is painful, complicated, and ends in an "emergency" c-section. Sit-coms show the main charactor screaming in pain and behaving like a woman possessed by demons. Dramas show dangerous, tragic births, with either mother, baby or both dying. Women are afraid of birth, their afraid of dying, their afraid of pain.

Also, and this might be the most important reason for the sky rocketing rates of c-sections, is doctors are being forced to practice what is called "defensive medicine". They are making decisions based on what is least likely to get them sued. With malpractice rates becoming more and more prohibitive, and personal injury lawyers on every bus bench and match book, doctor's are being forced out of obstetrics for fear of malpractice suits. A doctor is more likely to get sued for NOT doing a c-section than for performing an unnecessary one.

There are many, many more risks and sequelae involvedin a c-section, but you won't hear an OB or nurse actually explain all this. So, in fact, there is no true "informed consent". While the nurse rushes around prepping a tired, scared, and in pain woman for her section, she blurps out the usual "you may bleed more than usual, you may have an infection", minimizing them, and the woman agrees. They never, ever tell a woman that she may die, her future babies have an increased risk of sudden fetal demise, or that she may suffer an emergency hysterectomy.

If there were truly informed consent, most women would not choose an elective c-section.

 

I believe that you should never have a c-section if you don't need to. But I did have both my children with a c-sectrion. With my second one (which was schedualed) I was out and about and in very little pain only 12 hours after the birth. And bonding with my child was in no way affected. Breastfeeding did not work out with my first. But with my second I have not had any real problems.

 

I have had two births-one vaginally, and one an emergency c-section (I was giving birth to sweet Virginia when she was in the birth canal, the doctor had to push her back inside because the umbilical cord was prolapsed).


I recovered from my vaginal birth immediately. I felt GREAT the next day. After I had Virginia, I was in excruciating pain for weeks. I have an ugly scar, STILL feel pain every once and a while (it's been over two years now), and can never get my stomach back in shape.

I hope to god that with my future pregnancies, I don't have to go through that ever again.

I would gladly have a few hours of labor pain than weeks and months of pain and recovery from surgery.