Impact of caesarean births on mother and baby

Unfortunately the very real people out there are not giving us the much needed information which is why these articles are important.

I do support pro choice so it really is up to you, but I have a whole host of surgeons that have performed surgery on me. Apart from my Gynae who I completely adore and respect, all of them infromed me of all of the risks of the surgery. I knew what I was doing to my body, but with my c section I wasn't. Actually neither my gynae nor my fertility specialist who did surgery actually explained the surgeries I was to undergo.

Two people are at fault for this, my surgeon who by law has to explain the surgery to me and provide me with all the possible risks including death and myself for not insisting that I have the surgery and possible complications explained.

When I had my emergency gall bladder surgery, my surgeon explained the lap surgery which I had had with him before and he had me read a full leaflet on the surgery including risks on my way into theatre. My Ent explained the surgery in detail with pictures and told me the risks and how many complications he had personally had and how it was dealt with.

For those that choose a c section, I trust that you were informed of the risks associated with the surgery by your caregiver. The major risks are few, the smaller risks we might no fully understand yet. I just find it astonishing that the gynaes go out of their way to explain the risks of natural birth yet not the risks of a c section and I mean all of the risks even the small ones that we just think are of no point in knowing.

I think one thing we are also forgetting is that the gynae is responsible for your surgery and delivering the baby. How many of us who undergo c sections consult a paed before the surgery to find out how it affect the baby. A paed is after all the baby specialist, not the gynae.

For the mothers that truly wanted a natural and were bullied into c section, I truly feel for you. I hope that we will get to a place where this type of malpractice is taken seriously.

Times are changing and I hope that I don't read comments from Gynaes like "the vagina was never meant to have a child exit it". Sadly this is the view of some of our gynaes in South Africa. I was told by a stand in gynae, why go for Toyota when you can have a Merc of births.

Hasie - we don't give our babies the "right" to choose ALOT of things. We, as parents, make most of their decisions for them, how they are born into this world is only but 1 of those things.

Personally, I just roll my eyes at threads like this. I really wish society would stop putting so much emphasis on natural birth vs ceasarian and concentrate on the many more important things that is wrong with this world. THere are so many "statistics" on how bad c-sections are for babies, yet very little REAL PEOPLE to actually support and confirm that c-sec's are so terrible for babies.

Thanks for the post Nefertiti - always good to be informed, but it is my opinion that these articles are extremely 1-sided.

I am not pro natural or pro c-sec, I am pro "whatever is best for mom and baby", and even after reading hundreds and hundreds of articles, I am still not sure what that "best" is because as I have said, there are lots of "statistics" but no real proof.

*sigh*

I agree that there is two sides to a coin. And there is complications that can arise during natural birth. However, these complications are more often than not caused by the unnecessary interventions that our doctors put us through.

Personally I think natural birth is the way to go, but then I also think you should do your research so that you choose the right care giver and the right birthing team.

The biggest problem I have with our "right" to choose, is that we don't give our babies the right to choose.

True, if someone wants to "elect" to have major surgery and be sliced open through how many layers of tissue, it's their body (and their child's) and their choice.

What I want to know is, why does my medical aid refuse to pay for the "elective" boob job that I'm considering having?

Thanks 2kidmamma

I couldn't have said it better!!!! So true!! Everyone's own choice!!

There are always two sides to a coin. Alot of what Marie says i tend to agree with (Case in point is my friend who's 1st child now suffers brain damage due to a long traumatic natural birth that due to her being force fed how imperitive natural birth is she refused a c-section and now has a braindamaged child) However I have many friends who had very easy successful natural births, i also have many friends who had horrific natural birth experiences that ended up in very traumatic emergency c-sections. Nobody I know including myself had elective C-sections and found them traumatic or had anything negative to say about them. Both have Pro's and cons and so the crucial word here is CHOICE. Each body has it's own right to choose how they will bring their own child into this world. It's nobody elses decision.

Thanks for the inforamation. Always important to understand all aspects of what we put ourselves through usually with very little knowledge of the complications that may arise.