Imagine that you are going to give birth and hope that everything is as you have imagined. You have been preparing for some time and you know that the ideal is to have a delivery as respected as possible, with time to expand quietly, with a cozy environment and in the position that you feel most comfortable to give birth as your body asks. For whatever reason, something is twisted and you are part of that 10-15% of women (as recommended by WHO) who must end up doing a C-section. You understand the need, but you feel that you will miss some things, since the expectations you had will not be fulfilled.
However, you are in luck, you have found a team of professionals that performs the so-called "assisted caesarean section" and they assure you that they will try to make it the closest thing to a natural birth. You don't know what they mean, you look at them a little hesitantly and then ask them: What do you mean by "like a natural birth"?
Over six years ago
Six years ago, the team I speak of (or one of many who perform assisted caesarean section) published an article talking about it. A few months later, we talked about it in Babies and more, explaining the revolutionary invention at the praxis level. A C-section that allows the father to be present, to the mother to see the whole process, to the point that, if he wishes, he can take out her baby herself, is undoubtedly a model far removed from the usual.
What does the mother take out the baby?
When a woman gives birth naturally, standing, squatting or in the position she wants, she can touch her baby's head while she goes out and can even hold her body, being the total protagonist of the process. In a caesarean section you neither see, feel, nor touch. So, with proper hygiene measures (sterile gloves after a good hand wash), the mother can, with the guidance of professionals, take the baby from the belly and take it out, being she the first person to take it , then put it on his chest as if he had just left vaginally.
Ya, it sounds weird, weird. But look at this photo that I show you below, dating from 2007, from an Australian Hospital, and you will know what I mean. Look at the baby, the gloves that the mother wears, and above all, her face. She just pulled her baby from her abdomen.
How is natural caesarean section?
But I say, it is an option. Surely there are mothers who prefer not to touch their open belly in search of the baby. As you will surely wonder what else this caesarean section has, I will explain them below.
The natural caesarean section it differs from the usual one in that the couple is encouraged to bring their own music and the woman is allowed to use her clothes, if she feels more at ease than with hospital gowns. The anesthesia is intended to be the minimum to allow surgery without pain, reducing symptoms of dizziness, nausea or vomiting and allowing the mother to support her baby, put it skin to skin. The track is placed on the non-dominant arm.
The intervention starts as usual. Once the incision has been made, the curtain is lowered (which usually covers the view of the woman) and the head of the operating table is raised so that the mother sees how her child is born. The couple is invited to also observe the birth. The baby is held so that he stays a moment with the head out and the body inside and tries to imitate what happens in a vaginal delivery, when the pressure on the baby's chest allows the amniotic fluid to be expelled from the inside of the lungs. They do it through external massage in the uterus. Once the baby begins to cry, it continues with its extraction (if it does not cry, breathing, color and tone are observed as signs of well-being).
Skin to skin contact
As we mentioned a few months ago, babies born by caesarean section would also have to stay skin to skin with the mother. Once the baby is born, the clothes are removed from the mother's breast and she puts it on top of herself. The cord is cut (the couple can do it if they wish) and the administration of vitamin K, while the baby is still on his mother's chest.
The mother is urged to offer the breast to the baby so she can start breastfeeding. Once the surgery is finished, the baby is weighed and carved and returned to the mother so that keep in touch skin to skin.
Why?
It sounds weird, almost utopian, but there are teams, there are professionals, who are struggling to promote this attention to women who have a C-section. Professionals have it clear: will never replace a vaginal deliveryNor do they intend to encourage women to choose this type of intervention before giving birth, much less. It's just that, since everything is going to end in an operation, in a major surgical intervention, that nobody expected, at least they can try to make everything as close as possible to a delivery.
And this is because it is known that women undergoing caesarean sections have a less satisfactory delivery experience and they are more likely to suffer postpartum depression, to have more problems with breastfeeding and, to suffer a separation at birth, to have more problems with establishing the bond between mother and baby.
Until this comes ...
However, of this care model six years ago. In that time many things have changed, but not enough. The parents are still unable to enter most occasions, the curtain continues to separate the mother from the process, the babies are separated for a minimum of one or two hours (if not more) and in reality everything looks very little like a natural birth . So I think it takes a long time for this model of attention to be established as usual and, meanwhile, it remains to keep fighting, and keep waiting. I hope everything comes sooner than later.
