Ever wondered about caesarean sections? During a caesarean, the baby is born through an incision in your abdomen and uterus; it is a surgical procedure that must be performed in an operating room, in a hospital. Giving birth can be easy and perfect – a dream experience. It can also be a marathon of risks and closely calculated timing during which things can go wrong. Having an unplanned c-section may be the result of some of these occurrences. Sometimes c-sections are pre-planned, and other times they are the result of emergency circumstances. Roughly one of every four babies are born via c-section every year in North America.
Some women plan and pre-book a cesarean delivery, due to a number of factors including: (1) a previous extensive uterine surgery or delivery by c-section (if you want to deliver vaginally, talk to your health care provider), (2) physical obstruction of the birth canal, (3) active herpes or other infections (HIV, hepatitis) that may be passed onto the baby, (4) maternal medical conditions such as severe cardiac disease, complications from Multiple Sclerosis or other issues (5) placental abnormalities or (6) multiple births where the first baby isn't presenting properly or delivery of triplets or more.
There are also instances when a cesarean section is needed in an emergency: (1) labour isn't progressing and the health of the mother or baby is at risk, (2) the baby is not responding well to labour, there is prolonged slowing of the baby's heart rate, (3) the baby is in transverse (sideways) position and cannot be turned or birthed successfully, (4) bleeding is present in the vagina caused by placental abnormalities, (5) the umbilical cord has prolapsed into the vagina, which can result in fetal death.
While there are risks with a cesarean delivery (it's major surgery, often done in an emergency situation, with little or no time to prepare mentally and physically), in most cases the risks of not performing surgery are even greater.
And thus concludes our grade nine health and anatomy class on c-sections.
Just remember, it's not how the baby comes out - either vaginally or by c-section - you're going to be an exhausted, shell shocked mother in love either way.
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