The C word

Most of you know that it's our hope that we have a vaginal birth.  Unless things go wrong and our midwives and nurses both feel that they have to call in the OB in which case we are open to having to do the surgery.

However, the problem seems to be that every time there's a Cesarean done, the mother has been told that it was in fact necessary.  And who's to argue?  I would assume that the doctor is making the decision based on all of their medical knowledge and experience, not worries of malpractice suits or when their shift ends.  This is where the controversy starts.  I'm not going to go into an open debate here because to be honest I'm not an expert.  But there is a lot of research and material out there that can help us educate ourselves into making the decision that's best for us.

Here's a quick video that we were asked to watch as homework for my birthing class and an article we read.  I thought that some of you might find the statistics interesting.

Birth by Numbers  - a little dry at times as it is talking numbers and stats but easy enough to follow along (~22 minutes)  The startling contrasts in where we are in % of neonatal death rates and maternal death rates compared to other countries is pretty sad.

Cesarean Birth in a Culture of Fear  - An article by Wendy Ponte

One of the things I noticed that both pointed out was that in fact there aren't that many women who request, in advance for c-sections for purely vanity's sake - a reason so often used to explain away the high rate of C-sections in the U.S.