Scheduled C-Sections on the Rise

[lesliepear]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/07/22/csection.debate/index.html

Alan was born with a c-section. I didn't have a choice - he was too big, so the doctor scheduled me for the next day after a scheduled appointment at 39 weeks. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but I'm not sure I would have JUST scheduled one.

Comments

[bghsmith.livejournal.com]

That is usually for women who are just-too-busy to wait for their child to be born when it's ready. They need to work 'childbirth' between 'get car tuned up' and 'vacation'.
Personally it makes me sick, but what are you going to do? People can't be flexible anymore unless they also want to be unemployed.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

I had thought the whole idea of scheduling a c-section to be very funny while I was pregnant...and I wound up having one scheduled .

[allye.livejournal.com]

I wasn't given a choice...even when I was hospitalized 3 times during my pregnancy with my daughter, they still elected if she were to come early, for inducing, rather than a c-section. My dr won't do one unless it's necessary.

[mayna.livejournal.com]

How big is too big though? They use that as a reason lots of times, and short of xray you don't know how big is too big for your pelvis. I had a 9 lb baby and she came out the normal way.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

I'm still a little upset with the doctor about the whole thing.

He weighed 8 lbs 11 oz on the sonogram the day before he was born.
He came out at 8 lbs .01 oz - and when the doctor delivered him, he did say that he would not have fit. His head was down, but over the public (pelvic?) bone not in the birth canal which may have also been a potential problem.

[keri80.livejournal.com]

I choose to have a c-section before I was required to. I didn't need the "birth experience" that some women want :)

[msmichelle.livejournal.com]

how big was Alan, Leslie? My sister's baby was 9lbs, 12oz and growin' rapidly in those last few weeks. i suppose the risks are greater. i didn't realize your csection was scheduled, not the "failure to progress" kind.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

He weighed 8 lbs 11 oz on the sonogram the day before he was born.
He came out at 8 lbs .01 oz - and when the doctor delivered him, he did say that he would not have fit. His head was down, but over the public (pelvic?) bone not in the birth canal which may have also been a potential problem. I hadn't gone into labor - but I think they were also watching my blood pressue because it had been high and my feet were swollen. I also wonder if my age (40) had anything to do with it?

[geekmom.livejournal.com]

I think age is a risk factor for macrosomia, so the Dr was probably just making assumptions based on that and the sono coin tossinformation. The sono estimate for Pari was 2 pounds 14 oz. Thank goodness they were wrong in the other direction on that one!

Really, the Dr didn't know that he wouldn't fit, but I really doubt he's going to say, "Well, it looks like I goofed. This baby would have come out just fine!" Maybe he would have, maybe he wouldn't have. Really there's no way to tell except by pushing.

[msmichelle.livejournal.com]

Ah, I'll bet his placement/location as determined by sono factored in a lot. That makes sense. It's almost as if you must go through a birthing process *once* to have a satisfactory level of knowledge enpowerment. I know I didn't ask all the questions that occured to me after Natalie was born.

[geekmom.livejournal.com]

"And several studies show that while the instances of maternal death is low for both kinds of deliveries, the risk of maternal death is lower in elective C-sections than in vaginal deliveries"

Um, yeah. If I made a study that lumped all vaginal births, including inductions, and compared it to just the elective C-sections, there'd be a heck of a difference!

It's the darned "Too posh to push" crowd being a bad influence. Bleh.

[miss-leeding.livejournal.com]

i had a baby the 'natural way' -- but what does that even mean anymore??? yknow?
i'll tell you what - i know that recovering from a c-section is tough stuff - but two days after pushing that baby out my muscles (EVERYWHERE - including places I didn't know I had muscles [under my arms]) - killed me.
If Zakkary had come home with me (he stayed two days longer than I did) -- I wouldn't have been able to hold him.

(note: this post in no way suggests i would rather have a c/s or plan one)

There are still some people ... women included... that think you push the baby out of your pee hole. Not educating themselves could lead to the misnomer of a baby squeezing out of there.

I'm rambling now.

[preternatural.livejournal.com]

It means as much as it ever did. Having cesarean sections available to keep moms and babies from dying in no way detracts from the benefits of labor and birth.

One would like to think that any obstetrician worth his/her salt would counsel a patient who wanted an elective section, and in so doing might realize it if a patient were under the impression that babies are birthed through the urethra.

[msmichelle.livejournal.com]

There are still some people ... women included... that think you push the baby out of your pee hole. Not educating themselves could lead to the misnomer of a baby squeezing out of there.


What?!?! I'd never conceived of anyone of childbearing years or can imagine anyone who's had sex to be this uneducated on birthing. Or, for that matter, anyone that completed health class in high school, read an issue of cosmo, etc. etc.
I just find this tidbit so incredible and unbelievable.

[miss-leeding.livejournal.com]

another startling fact: when the lacey peterson case happened - i had a conversation with a co-worker (who has three children)... she said "If Lacey wasn't put in the water (BUT NOTE: STILL DEAD) the baby could've lived."
I tried to tell her once mother dies.. baby dies due to the mother's blood not circulating bringing the baby oxygen, nutrients... I could not convince her otherwise. She insists that the baby would've lived inside the mom - even if her life was ended.

I think women on the internet, or who were fascinated with pregnancy, women who dealt with any infertility know so much about pregnancy and fertility that it seems second-nature now.

I, too, was stumped at some of the things people say.

[preternatural.livejournal.com]

OK, first of all, grr: I'd written up a big reply but when I clicked "post" I got a message that, for some reason, I'd been logged out of LJ and my comment got eaten.

Anyway. I had a scheduled section with Gabe because I didn't think, for reasons which are a long story, that a VBAC would be a viable option for me. But would I do it with no medical indication? No way.

The woman quoted in the article said she wanted a section for the "control and predictability." This makes me laugh mightily. Surgery is not predictable. Recovery is not predictable. And, please, anyone who values control that highly is in for a MAJOR shock when they become parents.

Last, I know this is judgmental, but did you notice in the picture of her that she is bottlefeeding? Maybe she just wants the control and predictability of knowing how many ounces of - please, let it be pumped milk! - her baby is getting.

[cheesepuppet.livejournal.com]

What an interesting conversation. I have lots of opinions on this because when I was pregnant I planned an entire earth-mother experience. I arranged for a waterbirth at the best birthing center in Portland, and read up on breastfeeing, which I planned to do for at least two years.

Miles arrived by emergency c-section due to complications during labor that were directly due to his being 2.5 weeks overdue and HUGE - he was 10.5 pounds. Because he basically died and was revived, he suffered hearing loss, something an elective c-section could have saved him from! Now he'll wear hearing aids the rest of his life, although thankfully he's normal in every other way.

He was so huge that my milk couldn't keep up with him, and then two months later he developed a milk allergy, so we had to switch to soy formula. So here's earth mama me, bottle feeding (which I am so fucking tired of hearing negative comments about, thank you very much) and EXTREMELY happy with my c-section. I've heard so many stories about sexual and urinary dysfunction firsthand (not secondhand, not a "friend of a friend") from women who have had vaginal births. I will definitely have a c-section with my second child. I look forward to keeping my intact vagina, and my very happy sex life after.

[luscious-purple.livejournal.com]

I'm not a mother myself ... but I was wondering how long women are now expected to stay in the hospital after having a C-section.

I have a friend at work who was rather abruptly thrown out of the hospital only 36 hours after her C-section. When the Pentagon was hit on 9/11, all the D.C.-area hospitals basically discharged everybody who wasn't on the critical list in case they had a flood of disaster victims. Mother and son ended up OK, though.

Then when I was born many years ago in a C-section with a much longer incision than today's standard, my mother didn't even remember anything that happened for the first four days afterward. Guess the nurses must have fed me or something....

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

I went into the hospital on Tuesday morning to have my c-section and went home on Saturday morning. I felt I had enough time to rest and recover.