C-Section Recovery & Support Blog

That’s the very question Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in London asked when they realized how c-section births are rising.

Because c-sections are major abdominal surgery obviously it’s not  ‘natural’.  This is a problem for many women because they feel they are being robbed from the natural experience of giving birth.  I totally understand this so I often get excited when hospitals and doctors can find ways to make your c-section be a more natural experience.

However as much as I am a proponent of the ‘The Natural Cesarean‘ it doesn’t seem to be a common practice among many hospitals, so I sat up and took notice when I read that Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in London is taking on the practice of making c-sections more of a natural experience by putting in place 3 procedures that Professor Nicholas Fisk and his colleagues have suggested.

You can read the full article here: http://www.babychums.com/?p=1519

Professor Fisk focused on three things during the c-section procedure:

1. Parental involvement. Drop the drape that separates a mother from seeing her child being born.  A new mother can now see her child’s entry into the world.

2. The physiological aspect of the delivery. This is where the c-section is performed much slower so the baby can start breathing on its own.  A slower birth allows the baby’s lungs to expel fluids better reducing the risk of breathing problems which can be commons among cesarean babies.

3. The skin to skin bonding. Baby is handed directly to mom for bonding. This is more and more suppose to be standard procedure during a c-section however with all the monitoring equipment it’s not always easy to maneuver a baby around it all so it’s not always done.  However efforts are being made to place monitoring equipment such that there is no interference, also anesthesia dosages are reduced so that mom can more easily handle her baby.

C-sections can never be considered a “natural birth”, however with procedures in place like the ones above we might be able to get as close to a natural feel as possible and I think that is a positive move.