I'm deeply concerned about the rise in C-section rates and also about the growing tendency of women to choose Cesarean birth when there is no medical need for it.
Complications that can occur during or after a C-section
C-sections are major surgery and can have major complications. These include:
- Hemorrhage
- Damage to the bladder or intestines
- Major infections of the uterus, kidneys, lungs, or other areas
- Blood clots around the uterus or in the leg veins or lungs
- Opening of the skin incision
- Damage to the uterus that makes future childbirth more dangerous
- Increased risk of mortality
- Respiratory complications
- Adverse reactions to anesthesia
- Accidental surgical cuts on the baby
Hospitals are for sick people, and birth is not an illness.
Nancy Wainer
Midwifery Today 57, Spring 2001
Every Procedure Used During Pregnancy and Birth Carries Risks
A woman in Iowa was recently referred to a university hospital during her labor because of possible complications. There, it was decided that a cesarean section should be done. After the surgery was completed and the woman was resting post-operatively in her hospital room, she went into shock and died. An autopsy showed that during the cesarean section the surgeon had accidentally nicked the woman's aorta, the biggest artery in the body, leading to internal hemorrhage, shock and death.
Cesarean section can save the life of the mother or her baby. Cesarean section can also kill a mother or her baby. How can this be? Because every single procedure or technology used during pregnancy and birth carries risks, both for mother and baby. The decision to use technology is a judgment call-it may make things either better or worse.
From Technology in Birth: First Do No Harm - by Marsden Wagner. This article is from the Midwifery Today web site.
Cesarean section can save the life of the mother or her baby. Cesarean section can also kill a mother or her baby. How can this be? Because every single procedure or technology used during pregnancy and birth carries risks, both for mother and baby. The decision to use technology is a judgment call-it may make things either better or worse.
From Technology in Birth: First Do No Harm - by Marsden Wagner. This article is from the Midwifery Today web site.
Audio Tapes from Midwifery Today
Midwifery Today audio tapes are taped live at our conferences, and feature the best birth and midwifery teachers in the world.
- Cesarean Prevention with Sister Angela Murdaugh, CNM and Ina May Gaskin. This is an easy-to-follow class, full of pertinent information vital to reducing c-sections.
- Working with VBAC Women with Nancy Wainer Cohen. This excellent tape reminds the listener of the damage that can be caused by cesarean section and the importance of helping the woman through this experience.
- What is Happening with Cesarean Section Worldwide? with Marsden Wagner, Marion Toepke McLean and Michel Odent. Learn the reasons for the increase in cesarean sections, the connections between an increasingly violent society and violent births.
- Epidemics: Cesareans, Epidurals, Ultrasound with Marsden Wagner, M.D., Nancy Wainer Cohen and Fran Ventre, CNM. An excellent overview of these epidemics, with information and discussion at the worldwide, national and personal levels.
Women Can Have Babies!
Don't we get it? Women have babies! Even when there are situations that arise! There are billions of people on the planet-they get here without being cut into the world! All our ancestresses had babies or we wouldn't be here, and they all birthed outside of the hospital. I will say it again and again and again until I no longer have the breath: Hospitals are for sick people, and birth is not an illness. Every study that has ever been done has shown that planned homebirth is as safe (safer, I think safer) as hospital birth. Best kept secret in the country, wouldn't you say?
Oops. I'm sorry. Please pardon the sarcasm-it just slipped out. Get me talkin' about birth and VBAC and a whole lot of emotion comes up. I have counseled thousands of VBAC mothers. They understand that they were robbed, and that birth is joy. They are exuberant-for years after their VBACs. Their bodies work, there is nothing wrong with them, they are normal. The "voices of VBAC" are profound and passionate.
From A Butcher's Dozen - by Nancy Wainer. This article first appeared in Midwifery Today Issue 57, Spring 2001.
Oops. I'm sorry. Please pardon the sarcasm-it just slipped out. Get me talkin' about birth and VBAC and a whole lot of emotion comes up. I have counseled thousands of VBAC mothers. They understand that they were robbed, and that birth is joy. They are exuberant-for years after their VBACs. Their bodies work, there is nothing wrong with them, they are normal. The "voices of VBAC" are profound and passionate.
From A Butcher's Dozen - by Nancy Wainer. This article first appeared in Midwifery Today Issue 57, Spring 2001.
The VBAC and Cesarean Prevention Handbook
Part of Midwifery Today's Holistic Clinical Series
The VBAC and Cesarean Prevention Handbook will teach you how to work with VBAC moms and how to prevent cesareans in the first place.It includes articles by midwives, doulas and mothers on the powerful experience of VBAC, as well as technical information about cesarean sections and VBACs designed to help you support VBAC moms in a safe and empowering way, regardless of setting.
VBAC/Cesarean Prevention Package
The VBAC/Cesarean Prevention Package brings together perspectives from experienced practitioners to help you learn more about cesarean prevention. The package includes The VBAC and Cesarean Prevention Handbook and two audio tapes: Cesarean Prevention with Sister Angela Murdaugh, CNM, and Ina May Gaskin and Working with VBAC Women with Nancy Wainer. Protest a VBAC Denial
Hold a rally at the hospital
Contact the International Cesarean Awareness Network to be matched with a "rally mentor" who can help you with the details. Prior to the rally, establish a letter-writing campaign directed at the hospital and perhaps a petition to present as well. When women rallied in November 2003 against a newly instituted VBAC ban in Santa Cruz, California, the hospital administrators met with the protesters and reversed the ban on the spot!
From 50 Ways to Protest a VBAC Denial - by Barbara Stratton, Midwifery Today Issue 78, Summer 2006.
From 50 Ways to Protest a VBAC Denial - by Barbara Stratton, Midwifery Today Issue 78, Summer 2006.
Articles and other Materials from Midwifery Today
- A Butcher's Dozen - by Nancy Wainer
- VBAC. A victory and a relief for most of the women who have one. A deep and generous healing for many of them. And still, very much a sham, because most of the women never really needed to be cut in the first place, so they didn't really need to be VBACs after all.
- Technology in Birth: First Do No Harm - by Marsden Wagner
- Cesarean section can save the life of the mother or her baby. Cesarean section can also kill a mother or her baby. How can this be?
- The Assault on Normal Birth: The OB Disinformation Campaign - by Henci Goer
- We seem to have spent the last few years reeling from assault after assault on the concept of normal birth. Have you wondered, as I have, what is going on? This isn't a matter of chance; it's a concerted effort.
- A VBAC Primer: Technical Issues for Midwives - by Heidi Rinehart, MD
- Women pregnant after a previous cesarean section have special needs and concerns.
- The VBAC and Cesarean Prevention Handbook
- Part of Midwifery Today's Holistic Clinical Series, The VBAC and Cesarean Prevention Handbook will teach you how to work with VBAC moms and how to prevent cesareans in the first place.
- What Every Midwife Should Know about ACOG and VBAC: Critique of ACOG Practice - by Marsden Wagner, MD, MSPH
- Learn what every midwife should know about ACOG and VBAC from Marsden Wagner, MD.
- E-News 5:7 - VBAC
- This archived issue of Midwifery Today E-News features information about VBAC.
- 50 Ways to Protest a VBAC Denial - by Barbara Stratton
- After advocating VBACs for years, ACOG in 1999 flip-flopped and issued guidelines restricting them. Barbara lists a number of ways to fight a such a denial and win.
- Vaginal Births After C-section Are Not Necessarily Riskier in a Birth Center
- While recent research concluded that VBACs are riskier in birth centers than the hospitals, the author points out some of the other problems that the authors of the study failed to note, such as the fact that being in a hospital increases the risk of a cesarean and on future pregnancies.
- Cruci/Section: My Baby Was Cut Out with a Knife - by Leilah McCracken
- Trying to write about the c-section I had 10 years ago with my second child is difficult.
- Cytotec Induction and Off-Label Use - by Marsden Wagner, MD, MS
- Without adequate testing of Cytotec (misoprostol) for labor induction, obstetricians simply began to use it on their birthing women. They were taking advantage of a huge loophole in our drug regulatory system.
What's Your Opinion?
What are your feelings about and experiences with C-sections and VBAC?
submit
-
Reply
- PregnancyEducation PregnancyEducation Mar 30, 2009 @ 3:18 pm
- i too support c-sections
-----------------------------------------------------
Pregnancy Symptoms - Think about your baby
-
Reply
- Lilacmoon Lilacmoon Aug 22, 2008 @ 3:55 pm
- thrivingmom - I'm totally supportive of necessary C-sections. What I want to discourage are C-sections done for other reasons: to schedule the birth at a convenient time, to avoid the pain of labor and so on.
-
Reply
- thrivingmom thrivingmom Aug 22, 2008 @ 1:48 pm
- I had both of my babies by c-section due to a very rare medical condition. I'm eternally thankful that c-sections are an option and that they have such a high success rate. I was even able to be awake during my second c-section so that I had closer to a birth experience with him. Myself and my two children are alive as a result of c-sections.
-
Reply
- robert320 robert320 Apr 2, 2008 @ 9:51 am
- Wow, very interesting lens! My partner has 5 weeks until the due date, the baby has breached and we have been told we may have to have a C-section if the baby does not find her way back into position. We have just finished our antenatal lessons last night, I do not recall any mention of the dangers of a c-section, so thank you for making us aware of these. We were, and now even more so, will be looking to avoid a c-section if at all possible.
There seems to be so much to worry about, and that is just getting the little one safely into this world :)
I know the odds are fairly minimal of anything happening but the awareness of all of the things that could go wrong puts even more pressure on the decisions you have to make.
Thanks once again
Robert
-
Reply
- Heather Heather Feb 29, 2008 @ 12:13 am
- I agree that if a woman can safetly deliever her child vaginally then she should. I had my first vaginally. My second child was delievered via c-section because his heart rate dropped drastically during labor. I believe that my Dr acted in the best interest of me and my baby and I am very grateful to him for doing so. I think people need to leave opinions to themselves regarding this subject. Its no ones business but the mothers and the doctors. We are all different and have different problems in pregnancy. I am still a wonderful mother no matter how I delievered my babies.
-
Reply
- crunchymom76 crunchymom76 Sep 2, 2007 @ 9:11 pm
- Great info. I agree with you!
Other Information
- Sharp Rise in C-Section Rate
- The sharp, continuing rise of c-section (cesarean section) defies best evidence and best practice. Maternity Center Association explains why healthy mothers and babies are experiencing surgical birth when there is no medical need for it and more
- Advice for Women About Cesarean and Vaginal Birth
- C-section offers important benefits in selected circumstances; however, without a clear, well-supported reason for having this surgical procedure, vaginal birth is likely to be far safer for mothers and babies.
- NIH Cesarean Conference: Interpreting Meeting and Media Reports
- Childbirth Connection has posted an Alert to help women, health professionals and others interpret the formal reports and media reporting from the NIH cesarean conference,
- Cesarean Section
- An interesting article that explains some of the complications of C-sections and gives some reasons why they are performed.
- Why Cesarean Sections are Not the Best Childbirth Option
- The rate of cesarean sections in the United States is rising as more women choose "elective" cesareans for childbirth. Learn why a natural birth is almost always safer for both the mother and the baby.
- Listening to Mothers from Childbirth Connection
- A national survey of 1300 US women commissioned by Lamaze International and Childbirth Connection, entitled Listening to Mothers, found that only one chose a primary c-section without a medical reason, while 10% felt that they were pressured by a health care professional to have one. The study also showed that mothers are not clear about complications that may accompany c-sections, even if they had previously had one. Eighty-five percent of the women believe that a woman should be allowed to have a VBAC, if desired, despite the fact that most of them were not even given that option. This page has links to the survey, questionnaire and related documents.
- ICAN Names Top 15 Studies That Should Keep Mothers Out of the OR
- Major pieces of research released in 2006 showed that women who undergo cesareans versus women experiencing a vaginal birth have a higher risk of dying in childbirth, have a higher chance of suffering from potentially fatal placental problems in subsequent pregnancies, and their babies have a higher chance of being injured during surgery. The list of 15 studies that ICAN collected also shows that vaginal birth after cesarean, including multiple cesareans, continues to be a reasonably safe birthing choice for mothers.
by Lilacmoon
I'm the Marketing Director at Midwifery Today magazine and have worked there since 1993. I have one daughter and two grandaughers. (more)
Explore related pages
How to Become a Midwife- "The decision to become a midwife is one of the most important you will eve...
San Diego Midwife Talks About VBAC- I'm Barbara E. Herrera, LM, CPM and have been in the birth arena for 25 years an...
Natural Birth Fanatic- For those of us who understand natural birth, this lens might seem redundant. Yo...
Natural Parenting Resource & Support Center- Whether You Are A Natural Mom (or dad) Or You Are New To Living A Natural Lifest...
Home Birth Preparation- There is plenty of information out there about getting YOU ready for a homebirth...
Birth Stories- A collection of birth stories that I've come across on the web. The focus will m...
