Elective C-section

JustSomeChick · November 2011

I'll be honest, during my first trimester when I was still experiencing fear regarding childbirth and before I did adequate research, I did consider an elective c-section. However, I am now well into my third trimester, and during my second trimester I had a HUGE change of heart after doing a lot of research regarding c-sections and childbirth in general. I decided I am going to have a completely natural birth at a birth center with a midwife, who by the way, is a million times more attentive than my former OB.

First of all, most insurances will NOT cover an elective c-section, and most doctors will not perform them. A c-section has a lot of major risks to not only you, but your baby as well. they should never be performed without medical necessity. You need to also remember that most first time mothers do not give birth until the 41st week of pregnancy.

Here are some of the risks to you:

*Increased risk of maternal death.

*Infection (very painful!)

*Uterine rupture in future pregnancies/labors

*Hemorrhaging

*Damage to the uterus and internal organs

*Increased risk of placenta previa in future pregnancies

*Increased risk of placental abruption in future pregnancies

*Increased risk of needing future hysterectomy.

*Blood clots in the legs and lungs

*Recovery from a c-section is much longer than from a normal vaginal birth. Many women cannot even walk without pain for at least a week, and have fun coughing or laughing! The first bowel movement is also very painful and you may have a large amount of gas after the c-section.

Then you have the scar, why choose to have a scar like that if you don't have to? Plus, the c-section flap that so many women develop. It can be fixed with exercises designed to bring the abdominal muscles closer together, but this requires finding someone specially trained in this area. You also will not get immediate skin to skin contact, which is very important for the baby! You will not be able to have delayed cord clamping, which means approximately 21% of your newborns precious blood and the stem cells in that blood will be wasted instead of being allowed to flow into his/her body, as well as increasing your baby's risk of anemia. C-sections are also associated with problems with breastfeeding. If you plan to breastfeed, you might want to think about the fact that the drugs given to you for a c-section are associated with problems with feeding and latching on.

The risks for your baby are as follows:

*Injury during the delivery.

*Low birth weight due to miscalculated due date (immature lungs.) Your baby knows when it is ready, not you!

*Increased risk of respiratory problems.

*Lower APGAR scores, usually due to the anesthesia.

*Depressed immune function

*Poor temperature regulation

*Increased risk on jaundice

*Dysregulated gut flora (your baby gets its gut flora from your birth canal.)

*and rarely, death of the newborn.

To me, it became obvious that it would be incredibly selfish of me to go ahead and have an elective c-section. Not only is it dangerous for me, but it affects my baby as well! After further research, I decided that giving birth in a hospital was not for me either, as I want a relaxed, natural vaginal birth without some doctor putting a time limit on my labor and trying to force me into a c-section, starving me throughout my labor, trying to force me into allowing my child to receive the hepatitis B shot, not allowing me to walk, etc. .

As far as the elective c-section goes, I suggest you read the following articles:

https://chriskresser.com/natural-childbirth-vii-c-section-risks-and-complications

https://www.webmd.com/baby/tc/cesarean-section-risks-and-complications

https://www.americanpregnancy.org/labornbirth/cesareanrisks.html

https://www.mayoclinic.com/health/c-section/MY00214/DSECTION=risks

IF I have aroused any interest in home/birth center birth or any questions regarding hospital birth, I seriously suggest you watch The Business of Being Born (it is available on Netflix,) and read the following:

https://www.bmj.com/content/330/7505/1416.full?ehom

https://www.indianamidwiferytaskforce.org/safety3.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Retrieve&list_uids=926075&dopt=abstractplus

https://www.worldcat.org/title/safer-childbirth-a-critical-history-of-maternity-care/oclc/321036742

and remember, The WHO actually recommends home and birth center birth for healthy women.

I hope you choose to research this decision extensively before making a choice. Don't make a choice based on something seeming easier or more convenient. Parenthood is not convenient or easy!

EDIT: my opinion on homebirth applies only to healthy, low risk pregnancies. my opinion on c-section is limited to elective c-section, of course there are cases where a scheduled c-section is a medically justifiable choice to make.

Alauren4 · November 2011

I would never elect to have a c-section. What matters in the end is whats BEST for your baby not what is convenient for you. A vaginal birth is the way our bodies were intended to give birth.

Sascha3 · November 2011

Interracialbabymachine:
What the heck are you talking about it's a six week recovery you cant even hold your baby a certain way or carry it or vaccuum it or walk up stairs for six weeks or youll rip your stitches out..plus you have a higher risk of blleding to death no tto mention your stomache muscles are cut into and never will be firm again.Also you will look pregannt still for quite some time as those muscles heal.It feels like your guts are ripping out and tearing when you first have to walk so you dont get a blood clot.Its easier to have natural as you can get up and walk around right away because you can feel your legs you have to wait hours after C section for drugs to wear off oh ya and also you cant poop for a week because your intestines are still alseep so they pump you full of stool softeners so when you finally do go you can and u risk ripping your stiches out with that too,.Also you cant sneez will rip stitches out and you pass clots the size of your fist after a c section.Still want one> your firends embelished the truth ..Some people dont wake up for days because they can feel the docotr cut and have to be pu ton general anestisia wich you wake up much later and miss that forst bonding experience with it.Everyone I know including myself said if they had a C- section the first time they would have never had another baby.Its like having a truck run over your belly. That is why I waited so long to have another baby .You can have a VBAC the only reason one cant is if they have had a Original cut horizontal instead of a bikini cut then you have to have that same type c section everytime.I am having a VBAC ...People will will reply and say they didnt encounter these things bu tremember they are the rare few .They are like those women who go in and only push for like 5 minutes and the baby is born .The rest of us well were not so lucky.

I am so glad someone on here can communicate intelligently about this topic. Tongue Tied

Really?? I will let my SIL know all of this. She was holding her son the same day, back at work running her own business which involved lots of standing within 2 weeks, and flew home to introduce the family to her son after 4 weeks. Back in the gym at 8 weeks. Not that she needed it...her stomach was already flat when I saw her at 4 weeks. I don't think she is the exception either...I have never known anyone with excessively bad complications from a c-section. Just normal recovery periods that maybe were longer than my SIL, but not anywhere close to what you describe.

And do you REALLY, REALLY know women who were asleep for DAYS after their c-section under general anesthesia? Because I think you are lying. Did they have Michael Jackson's doctor or something?

tartaruga · November 2011

overture:
Jocelbug:
I am also havin an elective c-section because i just cant stand the thought of havin the baby come out of my vagina. i dont care if u other ladies think that is selfish--so mind ur own damn business. its "my fun place" and if i say its an entrance only, its an entrance only.
This has got to be the dumbest thing I have ever read on this board. I'm surprised she figured out how to get pregnant.
What an astounding level of immaturity.

Yup.

There are some good reasons for c-sections, some semi-good reasons for c-sections, and then there are some terrible, terrible ones. This has got to be the very worst one I've ever heard.

Snapdragon750 · November 2011

There is no reason on the planet why you should assume a c-section recovery will be easier than a vaginal recovery. I know people are saying both ways here, but the mere fact that they keep you in the hospital for 4 days after a c-section and 2 days after a vaginal delivery really gives you all the evidence you need as to which recovery is usually faster. If you really want your meeting to go smoothly you should try to wait until AFTER your meeting rather than planning to have a c-section before your due date! Most first babies are late anyway.

And I seriously have no idea why you think it would be hard to get on the phone after a vaginal delivery. You'll definitely be on more painkillers after a MAJOR ABDOMINAL SURGERY than you will from vaginal birth even if you tear. So what is the real issue here?

pipesmom · December 2011

I think the people calling you crazy or saying you're uneducated about the subject need to get educated themselves. There have been numerous studies done on how c-sections are easier for babies vs. passing through the birth canal. I am always amazed at how judgmental other women can be, when this forum is a place where we should be supporting each other. Ridiculous. I say, if you want an elective c-section, go for it. Good for those moms who are so pro-natural and pro-vaginal delivery, but there's a reason why medicine has advanced over the years. Just because something has always been done one way doesn't mean that one way is the best way. Just think, without medical advancement we wouldn't have penicillin or many other necessary medications - which, for the record, aren't natural either. Would these other moms advocate someone living with a curable disease just because taking medicine isn't natural and medicine hasn't always been around? I hope not. Anyway, do what's best for you and your baby, and don't listen to the naysayers. You know your body best.

JustSomeChick · December 2011

pipesmom:
I think the people calling you crazy or saying you're uneducated about the subject need to get educated themselves. There have been numerous studies done on how c-sections are easier for babies vs. passing through the birth canal. I am always amazed at how judgmental other women can be, when this forum is a place where we should be supporting each other. Ridiculous. I say, if you want an elective c-section, go for it. Good for those moms who are so pro-natural and pro-vaginal delivery, but there's a reason why medicine has advanced over the years. Just because something has always been done one way doesn't mean that one way is the best way. Just think, without medical advancement we wouldn't have penicillin or many other necessary medications - which, for the record, aren't natural either. Would these other moms advocate someone living with a curable disease just because taking medicine isn't natural and medicine hasn't always been around? I hope not. Anyway, do what's best for you and your baby, and don't listen to the naysayers. You know your body best.

I'd love to see a legitimate scientific study that claims a c-section is BETTER. That is absolute quackery. A c-section is traumatic for a newborn, it is not the natural way they are meant to come into the world and it carries a higher mortality rate. It is associated with problems breastfeeding, as well as intestinal and digestive issues because a baby gets its gut flora from the mother's vaginal flora. C-section babies are also more likely to be jaundiced. The only time a c-section should be performed is in a state of necessity where the benefits outweigh the risks. The perceived benefits do not outweigh the risks in the case of elective c-sections, and there is a reason why many OBs will not perform them and why many insurances will not cover them.

semdkm · December 2011

Neither is a picnic, but I have to say that the likelihood of your recovery being better post c-section, which is major surgery where your middle is sliced in half, is nowhere near the likelihood of an easier recovery time from a vaginal (natural) birth. I've heard horror stories about vaginal births, yes, but nowhere near as many as I've heard (and personally experienced) suffered as a result of c-sections. Add in the lack (or limited) bonding ability with your child the moment he or she is born, the risks of surgery, etc., it completely baffles me why anyone would CHOOSE a c-section (except, as previous poster mentioned, where a vbac really isn't a smart thing to attempt).

semdkm · December 2011

One more thing-since you've obviously received remarkably positive info about c-section recovery, I really, really urge you to look more closely at the risks. I didn't elect either c-section. Why, the first one went so badly I landed in therapy. I woke up every night for months in a sweat, screaming and crying from the sheer trauma that was my c-section. Everyting with the local anesthesia went so badly that I actually had to be given general, and have very limited memory of my child's birth. I was in so much pain and had such a reaction from the drugs that I didn't even SEE my child until a full day later. Couldn't hold her until even later. Because it was so painful to hold her, I couldn't nurse her. My scar, too, opened up and became infected. My second was an attempted vbac, but I developed, out of nowhere, severe hypertension and they had to get the baby out--so, it was scheduled within hours. It wasn't traumatic in the way the first was, but I can assure you laying under bright lights with arms strapped down, the awful feeling of the anesthetic, hearing them take out the baby not being able to hold him, that was terrible. Then the recovery from the surgery....not fun at all. Just want you to know these stories are more common than the "I had a c section and was running and working and feeling great the following couple of days" stories.

salt78 · December 2011

semdkm:
I really, really urge you to look more closely at the risks. I didn't elect either c-section. Why, the first one went so badly I landed in therapy. I woke up every night for months in a sweat, screaming and crying from the sheer trauma that was my c-section. Everyting with the local anesthesia went so badly that I actually had to be given general, and have very limited memory of my child's birth. I was in so much pain and had such a reaction from the drugs that I didn't even SEE my child until a full day later. Couldn't hold her until even later. Because it was so painful to hold her, I couldn't nurse her. My scar, too, opened up and became infected. My second was an attempted vbac, but I developed, out of nowhere, severe hypertension and they had to get the baby out--so, it was scheduled within hours. It wasn't traumatic in the way the first was, but I can assure you laying under bright lights with arms strapped down, the awful feeling of the anesthetic, hearing them take out the baby not being able to hold him, that was terrible. Then the recovery from the surgery....not fun at all. Just want you to know these stories are more common than the "I had a c section and was running and working and feeling great the following couple of days" stories.

I'm sorry you have had such a hard time in the past, but I disagree that there are many more horror stories than positive ones. Your story sounds very much on the extreme end.

I know quite a few people that have had c-sections. The most severe issue that arose from one of them was a mild infection (hers was an emergency section...I've heard that planned ones typically go much better) and no one I know has ever been scarred for life from having one. I know people that were up and running right away and people that took a little longer, but the same could be said for vaginal delivery. There are risks and problems associated with any kind of delivery.

My mother has been a L&D RN for 20 years and they do countless sections with little to no issues.

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