Five years ago when I was pregnant with my daughter I never dreamed I would one day be advising other women to schedule a C-section rather than go through with a natural labor. But I am.
When I was pregnant I studied the Bradley Method of delivery (a natural birth technique). I was adamant that I would have no drugs, and my child would have no drugs, and I would nurse, and it would all go smoothly. NOT!
I did not go into to labor until close to my 42 week of pregnancy, going 2 weeks past my due date. But I believed strongly that when the baby was ready I would go into labor. Not picking a green apple my Bradley teacher called it. Of course, my doctors were encouraging me to induce. But I refused thinking that it would start me down a road to a c-section. Unfortunately, by the time I did go into labor my daughter had grown so big it was impossible to deliver her, that and the fact that she had lashed herself to the figurative mast with her umbilical cord.
So, after laboring with no drugs for a day, and then laboring another day on pitocin (to induce harder contractions), the doctor finally convinced me that I had to go with the c-section, but the joke was on me, cause when they tried to give me an epidural it didn't work. HAHA. It was when they delivered her they saw that she weighed 11 pounds and her umbilical was wrapped around her 3 times. I felt terrible, thinking that if I had only allowed them to induce me she might have been small enough to be delivered vaginally.
I still felt guilty about this, until last week, when I witness one of my oldest and dearest friends deliver her first child. She went in chanting epidural, and she had no qualms if she had a c-section. Two weeks early her water broke in the middle of the night, and when her contractions hadn't progressed they started giving her pitocin. When the contractions became so strong they gave her an epidural, and before we knew it she was completely dilated and ready to go. This is where it got ugly.
They had to let the epidural wear off so she could push and kept upping the pitocin to get the contractions harder. It was a brutal and traumatic couple of hours. At the end she did have a beautiful baby boy, but was he in any healthier condition than a normal c-section baby, I don't think so.
My poor friend had to push for hours and her poor little baby was stuck and it was all positively heart breaking. After many stitches, she was all put back together. But I don't know how long it will be till she can walk more than around her house. OUCH!! With a c-section there is post-op pain but really cutting your stomach open is nothing compared to cutting you vagina open. The only worse thing I see about the c-section is you're not suppose to drive for 6 weeks after. I'll make that trade.
I know that it probably is true that the journey through the birth canal is good for the baby and the hormone changes brought on by labor helps the mother's milk come in and to bond with their baby. But I also know that too often women are allowed to tear drastically during vaginal delivers, and women who labor for hours end up with c-sections. Mighten it be better for all involved if we just picked a convenient day and calmly went to the hospital and had the baby taken out.
Think how much less fatigued the mother would be if she got a decent nights sleep and hadn't run the equivalent of a double marathon before meeting her child. Instead of waking up in the middle of the night frantically rushing around in a daze and then staying awake for an entire day or more?? Really wouldn't it be better for the baby to come to a more relaxed situation and be greeted by a mother who wasn't completely exhausted. So like the title says, schedule a c-section and save yourself from the exhaustion and pain.
———
This is an original post from the Los Angeles Moms Blog (http://www.lamomsblog.com/). Elise also completely reverses her opinions at Elise's Ramblings
———
(c) 2009, Elise.
As written for Los Angeles Moms Blog, http://www.lamomsblog.com/.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
TO SUBSCRIBE TO MOMS
Items in the MOMS package are not included in your MCT News Service subscription. You can subscribe to the MOMS package or purchase the items a la carte on MCT Direct at www.mctdirect.com. To subscribe, please call Rick DeChantal at Tribune Media Services at (800) 245-6536 or rdechantal@tribune.com. Outside the United States, call Tribune Media Services International at +1-213-237-7987 or e-mail tmsi@tribune.com