I found this link recently while reading a friend’s blog and wanted to share it. While some cesareans are certainly a necessity, the US has a frighteningly high rate of one in three births. People sometimes assume that cesareans are a safer way to birth, but the fact is that they are major surgeries with all the risks and possible complications that come with any major surgery and it’s recovery. I am thankful for those lives which have been saved, but would love to help prevent any unnecessary cesareans whenever possible. Check out Unnecesarean.com and pass on the link to the moms and moms-to-be you know.
We have eight grandkids out of three women in my family. Only two were born noncesarean. I feel very lucky to be the one that didn’t have to have one, but I have wondered why so many seem to be happening now days.
Not only in the United States that the rate of CS births are increasing but also in different parts of the world. I’m a mom with 1 daughter. I had a c-section last January 2008. My baby was breech so the doc gave me a cs. At first I was insisting to have a normal delivery but the doc said it was too risky. When she delivered my baby, they discovered that her cord was looped on her neck two times. If i were to give birth vaginally, it could’ve harm my baby’s life.
I had a scheduled cesarean due to having toxemia and the risk of having a stroke during induction and labor. I’m satisfied in the choice I made, I still feel to this day that it saved myself and my daughter. I do feel that one great point that the website makes is about women ( and their doctors too),now, who want to skip the last few weeks, have a in and out, simply because they don’t want to gain those last few pounds or don’t want a baby that is “too big.” Cesareans can save lives, but I don’t think they should be used to save one’s vanity! I would have given anything for my daughter to have been born at her full weight ( and when she was ready) instead of having to deliver her early.
I had my first son via C-section because at 37 weeks, he was 9 1/2 pounds and in transverse position. My second son was one pound smaller, but I had another C-section because of the first. (Neither of my doctors felt comfortable about VBAC; they remarked that when/if things go wrong during VBAC, they go wrong fast, and horrendously.) Both sons have done beautifully.
The recovery was rough both times, but honestly, the worst thing about having had C-sections has been putting up with the attitude I get from other women. That’s not an indictment of anyone here. I am simply SO SICK of women essentially trying to provoke me into an argument over HOW I GAVE BIRTH. As though I owe anyone an explanation!
Oh, Paige, I’m sorry! Semantics should have nothing to do with it – it should be your FEELINGS about it. I am sorry you haven’t received support when you needed it. Blessings to you and your boys!
While I appreciate efforts to help women enhance their chances of ensuring a vaginal delivery when they do NOT want a cesarean delivery, I think that websites such as unnecesarean should not criticize women who DO want a cesarean delivery.
Many women (including those with healthy pregnancies and no medical indication for surgery) decide to have a planned cesarean delivery in preference to a planned delivery, and this is a perfectly legitimate decision. There are risks involved with both types of birth, and when we peel away the mixed cesarean risk data that includes emergency and medically necessary surgeries, it is clear that in healthy pregnancies, planned cesarean deliveries at 39 weeks EGA for women planning a small family are no more dangerous than planned vaginal deliveries, which are associated with serious morbidity and mortality risks for mother and baby too.
Thank you Paige,
You do NOT owe ANYONE an explanation.
And thank you Pauline.
I don’t think this link should be spread anywhere as it only scares women, many women don’t even choose caesarean. I’m pregnant and I’m one of them.
This is propaganda in my opinion and it just makes me sad. This has nothing to do on a site like this where women supports each other.
I don’t see unnecesarean.com as unsupportive and it is absolutely not propaganda. I happen to know the woman who created the site (although I did not know it was her site until AFTER I made this original post – I promise) and her only hope is for women to simply be educated. I don’t believe she is intending to denounce cesareans when they save lives and she has told me that she supports a woman’s right to choose a cesarean – her hope, I believe, is simply to end the UNNECESSARY c-sections. The ones women regret, the ones they weren’t empowered enough to avoid.
In other words – and, this is my opinion – if you make an educated choice to have a cesarean – good on you! If you don’t choose it, but believe it is the best option for you and your child – good on you! I hope every woman feels empowered and satisfied with her child’s birth no matter the method.
Peace.
Hi, Bonnie. Thanks for the heads up. It’s a pretty common reaction when people hear “unnecessary cesarean” to jump to the conclusion that the person saying it feels that all or most cesareans are unnecessary.
Start here: https://www.unnecesarean.com/about
Propoganda is any interesting term to use. What isn’t propoganda? Is there anything that isn’t inherently biased? If the Unnecesarean.com delivers the loaded message that women have the right to accurate information about childbirth and that the practice of inducing and sectioning for suspected large babies is not evidence-based, then I guess you could call it propoganda, right?
I’ve encountered many people who assume that discussing birth is really an attempt to indict other women for making “bad” choices or not being strong enough or educated enough or… The conclusion drawn is that someone thinks UR DOIN IT RONG.
The status of maternity care in the U.S. is pretty scary. It could be so much better. Thank you for the feedback that the site could scare pregnant women. I have been trying to figure out a way to post a disclaimer of sorts that the blog discusses things that might cause fear. Birth is as much an emotional, social and psychological process as it is physical. And physically, women’s bodies are so much more capable than the current medicalized view of birth gives them credit for.
Thanks again for the feedback. Like Bonnie said, “Peace.” =)
Jill
unnecesarean (at) gmail (dot) com
Sites like Unecessarean.com are critical in today’s underinformed, over-scared birthing women. I wish I had found that site before I submitted to my first unnecessarean. And I’m happy to such a committed author on the web who dedicates so much time to supporting mothers who were not only traumatized by their cesareans, but who would do anything and everything to avoid that again. Vaginal birth is important. Surgical birth is dangerous. Facts and evidence support those two statements. And it’s about time we stopped skating around the truth. My VBAC was the most important thing I’ve ever done in my life, or ever will do with my life, and I would never have achieved it without the support I found from women who know the truth. Facts are facts. Most surgical births are caused by irresponsible practitioners. This site is supposed to be about letting it all hang out there, and supporting other mothers. You can’t do that if you pretend that every c-section was necessary. Let’s remove the wool from over our eyes.