Caesaerean section paper final draft

Mother Nature Knows Best
By: Amanda Cunningham
For: Englih Compoition II
Professor: Mr. Hamelin



A woman runs into her pregnant friend, she asks : "How are the future mom and her baby ?" The friend answers : "I have no idea, I won't see my gynecologist before next week." More and More women are giving their natural human biology over to technology, including the rising number of women choosing to have caesarean sections. A Caesarean Section is supposed to be a last chance effort used to get a baby out of a mother if a situation has become an emergency. An emergency caesarean section situation should only arise if continuing labor would harm the baby and/or the mother. The World Health Organization states that an acceptable average for Caesarean sections is 4.5% of all births, but averages are rising. Today the caesarean section rate is 33% of all births, a steep incline from the 4.5% in 1965. Obstetrician Dr. Savage believes, "…as the developed world becomes more and more dependent on technology, there is a danger that people will cease to believe that women can give birth naturally." These rising statistics need to drop. Women having elective caesarean sections are to blame for the increases. Women believe caesareans are a safe option, but they are not aware of the risks for themselves or for their unborn child. (Savage W 1992).( Heike Emery. September 2008.)

Caesarean section is a risky way out, but the women opting for these surgeries believe it is a simple and harmless alternative to the natural way of life. Before she even met her husband and became pregnant, Euna Chung decided that all of her children were going to be delivered via caesarean section. Quoted here, “I had a fear of going through labor and ending up with an emergency C-section anyway. I know that’s rare, but I didn’t want to deal with it.” People of today think that anything in life can be sped up with technology, even birth. There are some outlandish reasons for having requested caesarean sections: unwanted pregnancies, the idea that vaginal birth is “archaic, painful, disfiguring and [a cause for] diminished sexual performance”, a caesarean is an “easy way” to deliver a baby, and even that vaginal birth isn’t natural. Women are told that the procedure won’t hurt, and they like the instant gratification of caesarean sections. Also, with the rising number of midwives and celebrities opting for Caesarean sections, the procedure is coming across as simpler and safer. One woman believed she was going in for a routine simple surgery. Her testimony proves the situation was drastically different,
“When you get into the operating room it is like you have been abducted by aliens. Everything is silver. There are bright lights everywhere. Everyone has their faces covered so all you see are these little eyes. You can't recognize anyone who you have been talking to the past few days. It's very cold. So your sort of half naked, freezing, by yourself without your husband, worried about your baby and yourself. And it was really scary for me. Definitely in comparison to vaginal birth. Much scarier.”

Another woman was forced to have a Caesarean section, and feels that her “birth rape” led her to postpartum depression. The doctors overestimated the size of the baby. She did not need to deliver. She wasn’t able to deliver naturally, and she wasn’t even allowed to hold her baby because “her insides may fall out”. Her body’s inability to function naturally caused this woman to believe she was a failure as a mother. Caesarean sections are not the in and out, safe and sound, procedure that they appear to be. (Alice Park April 2008). (Sara McAleese, 2000) (Doula Pam, 2008.)(Safe Birth, 2008.) (Larissa Hirsch, MD June 2006).
A Caesarean section comes with many unnecessary risks for the mother. One of the biggest risk factors for the mother is Post Pardon Depression. Dr. James Swain conducted research at Yale University that found hormones (specifically oxytoxin), which are released through the natural pain of labor, help form maternal instincts. Women who had caesarean sections showed signs in brain scans of postpartum depression within two to four weeks after delivery. Dr. Swain concluded, "Our results support the theory that variations in delivery conditions such as with caesarean section, which alters the neuro-hormonal experiences of childbirth, might decrease the responsiveness of the human maternal brain in the early postpartum.” Mothers who suffer from postpartum depression are less capable of caring for their newborns and themselves. Some other risk factors mothers who opt for natural child birth do not have to worry about include, wound infection, Intestinal Obstruction, increased bleeding resulting in the need for blood transfusion (6% of women who have a c-section will need a blood transfusion),extended hospital stay (women who have caesarean sections average 4 extra hospital days), emergency hysterectomy due to complications with initial surgery, extended time away from the infant, pain due to surgery which keeps the mother from breast feeding (many women report still having pain at the incision site six months after the surgery), and the extra cost associated with surgery. Death is also a huge concern for any surgery and an average of 140 women will die every year in America due to complications with Caesarean sections. There are many dangers for mother’s who opt to have unnatural births via caesarean section. (Ishpreet Bindra. September 4, 2008.) (Sara McAleese 2000)

The unborn infant in these situations are also put in jeapordy. The biggest threat for a baby is respiratory problems. When a baby comes out of the natural birth canal pressure removes contents from the lungs, and there is a natural transfer of care from the mother’s body to the infant; with caesarean section this process never occurs. Respiratory problems at birth often lead to RSV and asthma in the child's future. Other problems include premature birth (if the gestation was not measured correctly), increased need for assistance with breathing and immediate care after birth, and accidental cutting or nicking of the baby during the caesarean process (2% of babies will be cut during a caesarean). Caesarean babies are also 50% more likely to have low APGR rates when compared to vaginal deliveries (These test measure responsiveness of the child one minute and five minutes after birth). Infants are not left unharmed because the mother chose to have a Caesarean section. (APA. September 2008.) (Larissa Hirsch, MD June 2006). (Ishpreet Bindra. September 4, 2008.) (Sara McAleese 2000)
The infants aren’t safe, the mothers aren’t safe, and this surgery is not the “easy way out” people tend to assume it is. If women are going to have these elective surgeries they should at least inform themselves of the possible outcomes. One slip of the knife and a baby or mother could die. Women’s bodies were designed to handle the birthing process. It is time we put technology aside and use the best computer at our disposal, the brain. Caesarean sections were designed for emergencies, and that is where their place needs to return.


Works Sited
1. Alice Park (April 28, 2008).Womb Service. Why More Women are making caesareans their delivery of Choice. Time, 171, 65-66.
2. APA. September 2008. American Pregnancy Association. Risk of Cesarean Procedure. Retrieved 11 Se
ptember 2008. http://www.americanpregnancy.org/labornbirth/cesareanrisks.html
3. Heike Emery. September 2008. Caesarean Section. Home Page. Retrieved 10 September 2008. http://caesareansection.net/
4. Ishpreet Bindra. September 4, 2008. The med Guru. Normal Delivery =better Mother Child Bonding. Retrieved 10 September 2008. http://www.themedguru.com/articles/normal_delivery_better_mother_child_bonding-8619092.html
5. Larissa Hirsch, MD. (June 2006). Caesarean Sections. Kids Health. Retrieved 10 September 2008. http://kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_newborn/pregnancy/c_sections.html =
6. 'The rise in caesarean section - anxiety or science?' in: Chard T and Richards M P (eds) Obstetrics in the 1990s: Current Controversies, Blackwell Scientific Publications Ltd, Oxford.
7. Safe Birth. (15 May 2008.) “Prevent Caesarean Section.” You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZy0JPtubiQ
8. Doula Pam. (10 February 2008) “Our First Childs Birth” You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy-b0JkruFY