I have a rant, and it's about childbirth. I guess it's never too early to think about my childbirth preference, especially since the nurse asked me what my decision was two weeks ago...I had no idea I was supposed to know this early. I said I wasn't sure, but that my default answer was for a repeat caesarean. The three nurses I saw that day, upon reading that "repeat caesarean" on my chart actually responded with great relief, which came as a surprise. The reason for my surprise I think stems from the bombardment of negative press and negative attitudes I've experienced related to the c-section birth.
When I was pregnant with Amelia and her due date approached, I was ideally looking forward to the vaginal birth experience. This, I think, is the wish of most pregnant women. Really, who is adamantly hoping they get their abdomen cut open, sliced through the nerves and the stomach wall? Who craves the recovery of that, and feeling truly disabled for quite some time, feeling uncomfortable and in constant pain when trying to learn to breastfeed? Nobody. Obviously a c-section is major surgery and not to be a preferential method of childbirth if you have the option of avoiding it.
That being said...in many cases it cannot be avoided. And that is OK. Women with chronic health problems, uterine abnormalities, babies presenting as transverse and breech...without the c-section there might be more moms and babies to suffer death and/or deformity needlessly. Additionally, if labor does not progress, the baby is in distress, etc...the c-section again saves the day. Which, really, when all is said and done is the goal.
The issue of the VBAC always seems to come up for me these days. People asking if I'm going to try for one. I am honestly not sure about it. Uterine rupture sounds like it might suck. I know that only a small percentage of patients experience this, and that the recommendation is that only women who have had some kind of double stitching done during their first c-section repair of the uterus should attempt VBAC, and that lately more dr's have only been using the single stitch. Hmm...in my morphine induced haze after my surgery I do not recall Dr. Ehret elaborating on what kind of stitching technique he used on my uterus. Ultimately, I'll make the decision for my delivery with my new dr and I'll be ok with whatever that is...even if it is the repeat c-section.
My problem with the pregnancy community, all the pregnancy literature, blogs, websites that aim to support pregnant women is this: why don't you tone down the natural vaginal birth is the only healthy way to birth propaganda? Yes yes, you are right about the fact that it's "natural" and there are many many ways that it's better for mom and for baby. But what about for me, and for others that don't have a choice? Where are the sites for people like us, who are going to or have had a c-section? There should be more information that is purely informative and possibly even supportive. In my childbirth classes, a very small percentage of the overall time was spent on discussing and role playing a c-section. Still, none of this was enough preparation for heading into the OR, getting the spinal and the actual operation. Nobody warned me that they'd give me the spinal without Joe present, or that I should probably be ready for the process of the spinal to be one of the freakiest things to happen. There are so many things that c-section moms need to know, so that they can take some ownership of the situation. This time around, I plan to make sure that the negatives associated with my first c-section are not repeated. These negatives had nothing to do with my medical care, which by any standard was great-I'm here and healthy and so is Amelia! All I'm saying is, for the number of women who end up having c-sections whether planned or unplanned-c-section information is inadequate and most of it is in the spirit of "10 things you can do to avoid a c-section"...not very helpful when you are lying on the table under the bright lights.
