The C-Section: What You Need To Know About Caesarian Birth

The Caesarian section is a medical procedure for birth which involves cutting through the mother’s tummy and womb to get the baby out. It may sound terrifying but, in most cases, the mother is never conscious during the procedure, so she does not feel the pain. The caesarian section may be an option if you don’t want to give birth by pushing, but it may also be the only way to give birth if your doctor finds a complication that may endanger your life or your baby’s if you were to deliver naturally.

CIRCUMSTANCES WHEN C-SECTION IS NECESSARY

1. If your baby is lying in a breech position, which means that instead of the head, his bottom is facing the cervix. Most doctors do not recommend vaginal breech births.
2. If the baby is lying in a transverse position; he is lying on his side, and the doctor cannot turn him.
3. If you are having twins or more children and the first one is lying in either breech or transverse positions,
4. If the placenta is covering the cervix partly or entirely.
5. If you have had a previous Caesarian section.

THE PROCEDURE

Considering the amount of pain that will be involved, the delivering doctor administrates a dose of anaesthetic unless the mother requests explicitly not be dosed. It may be regional meaning that only the lower body is numbed, or general which means that the mother is not conscious throughout the operation. The latter is usually the case for emergency caesarian.

The abdomen is cleaned and a catheter attached to collect urine. The surgeon then cuts a line near the pubic hairline, through the fatty tissue, and into the uterus. The baby is pulled out gently, cleaned and held up for you to see if you are conscious. The placenta is then removed and the cuts stitched.

ABOUT THE PAIN

Quite frankly, choosing to go through with surgery without being anesthetized is plain torture. You will feel every cut as the doctors open up your womb and get your baby, the also as they stitch up the wounds.

A common procedure is using an epidural which is an injection near the spine that inserts a catheter with anaesthetic medicine into the back near the spinal cord. A spinal block can also be used; the doctor injects the dose into the cerebrospinal fluid, and the patient goes numb almost immediately. Unlike the epidural, however, the spinal block cannot be topped up later.

A general anaesthetic, as mentioned earlier, makes the patient unconscious. It is used when the patient requests it, when the regional anaesthetic does not work or when the baby’s life is in danger.

In conclusion, it is essential to know that the deal is not as easy as it may look. While you don’t have to endure long hours of contractions and pushing, the c-section makes all other future pregnancies risky. It takes longer to recover from c-section than from vaginal birth and the babies almost always come out struggling to breathe. Although it's not always a choice, if you are going to choose it, make sure that you understand any of the risks involved.