That's interesting. Thanks for bringing that to us, Thylan. That's worthy of a *quality star.

Awarding Thylan with one star point for this contribution to Sift Talk - declared quality by kronosposeidon.

Not sure why I didn't see your post before this, Thylan, sorry. Caesarian rates are on the increase. In Australia, like the U.S. we're at 25% overall, but in some hospitals, especially private ones,the rate can be as high as 50%, especially for first-time mothers. WHO recommends no more than 10% or thereabouts.

I've made a bad job of sharing my views on caesarian section here in the past and because it's such an emotional issue, where women's experiences leave a big impact on how they view this procedure, I don't want to offend anyone else, here.

I do believe that the best care any woman can receive is with the midwifery-based-model of care, where the pregnant woman is attended to by the same midwife throughout the entire period of her pregnancy and labour, as well as the post-natal period.

Midwives are an amazing asset to any community. They truly know how to be with a woman and support her in the best possible way.

I am indebted to our CNM in CA for her care and to our homebirth midwife here in Australia, who helped me birth our 11 pound, two-week past due-date, breech baby, vaginally, with no tears and no trauma and to her continuing, up-to-the-moment care, even though the 'baby' is now 7 years old.

Ultimately it is the woman's choice. It is also important that women have the opportunity to make informed choices.

wow...

I've had three c-secs now and may I say I hated every one of them. Two were done under general anesthesia and the last (lil Miss) was done with a spinal block. Believe me, the spinal block c-sec was BY FAR the better choice by a MILLION MILES. Waking up after major surgery was traumatic and awful. Getting off the anesthesia alone was horrible. Frankly, I don't remember a thing for about a week after each one. But with the spinal block I remember Lil Miss' birth. I got to hear her cry (well more like an indignant bleat) and see her right away. The down side was that I also had to listen to my doctor describe the whole operation while he was doing it. Thus, when he was having some difficulties with all the scar tissue and profuse bleeding, I became somewhat alarmed. I was given the option to look at and hold my baby as soon as they popped her out but I declined. As nice and natural as it sounds, frankly I wasn't that interested in having a bloody mess lying across me while the doctor was busy trying to keep me alive and put my inards back together. I said I wanted her cleaned and wrapped first and I don't feel the slightest guilt about that: we've had plenty of time oto bond and get close, I didn't need alll that gook on me to know my baby. If that new "natural cesarian" helps mothers feel a little better about having to have a c-sec I say hallelujah and more power to it! Anything that cuts down on the intervention is a good thing. But I hope it doesn'tbecome like natural childbirth has become: the standard of comparison. Its depressing enough for any woman to be told ad nauseum that there's a certain way to have your baby and then not be able to do it at the last minute. Women who end up having a c-sec already have to deal with a certain amount of disappointment and sadness... adding shame or any kind of "tsk tsk you shoulda done it THIS way" just makes it worse.

And having a healthy baby should not be made "worse" in any way.

sure looks cool tho

oh but ultimately what persephone said is the most important thing of all: women should be able to make informed choices. Disappointment and sadness and all other adjuncts of a birth plan gone awry can be mitigated by how much control and choice a woman feels she had.

It is the problem that far too many women are being forced into Caesars when really, they don't need to be. 'The baby is too far past due date', 'the baby is in distress', 'I will miss my holiday if we don't get it out now'.

Caesars are an easy way out for hospitals, they are easier for the doctors as they are more 'controlled'. It's not better for the mother or the baby, but that's not their concern.

The fact that you hated your births is very sad, birth should be a wonderful thing.

I don't know your situation at all, and there may well have been sound reason for the Caesars, but if they weren't necessary, then that's a sad thing indeed.

Hey lets not all blame the doctors here, I think your views are biased towards the US end of the health care system which is at times slanted towards heartlessness.

In my country alot of women now do Caesars because they think for some stupid reasons that it doesn't widen your pelvis and thus retains your figure. But since now its all up to patient choice the doctor cannot really convince them either way.

>> ^Farhad2000:
Hey lets not all blame the doctors here, I think your views are biased towards the US end of the health care system which is at times slanted towards heartlessness.
In my country alot of women now do Caesars because they think for some stupid reasons that it doesn't widen your pelvis and thus retains your figure. But since now its all up to patient choice the doctor cannot really convince them either way.


Oh absolutely there are a lot of women who are doing elective caesars because they:
* think it'll hurt less
* want to schedule their birth in around their oh so hectic life
* have been told 'you're just not big enough to give birth' (which in 99.999% of cases is a bald faced lie)
* think it'll be less 'embarrassing'

I'm not jumping down the US particularly on this, I'm angry at my own country, Australia. We have our very close neighbour, New Zealand, with their female prime minister, which has much, much, much better rates of intervention and caesers because they are a lot more supportive of the midwife/natural method of giving birth.

Many more happy, more empowered, more self confident women because of it.