All this talk of bubble bursting....

I posted about the risks of sections on Scooby's thread. In the initial post all that was said was that there had been a 3rd degree tear in the previous delivery.

I posted the medical facts. The statistically established truth - tears that bad are rare and can be avoided in most cases by the mother's position, controlled pushing and avoiding epidural and a c-section would not be necessary to avoid one. I don't seek to burst a bubble. It's the truth.

If, following a terrible birthing experience, a long recovery, and a family background of associated problems, a woman still chooses to go the surgical route that is neither surprising nor wrong. I think what bothers me is the risks of EITHER being played down. So many women have a section and say "I'd never have forgiven myself if s/he got hurt in a natural birth". Would they forgive themselves if the surgeon cut their baby's face with the scalpel? If the baby couldn't breathe alone for a day? If the baby needed to go to NICU for post-surgical problems? If the baby never managed to breastfeed? If their NEXT baby died of a placental abruption caused by a placenta praevia attached to the scar? Or if their NEXT baby never came because they lost their uterus during surgery?

In terms of numbers and mortality/morbidity c-sections ARE SAFE. But in all but a handful (WHO states 10-15%) vaginal birth is safer. The risks need to be FULLY weighed. Fear governs too many choices around pregnancy and birth IMO - not really fears of women who have in FACT had scary experiences, but the fears of women who have not given birth yet, the inherent fear of our society of the process of birth.

I will always try to present women with the fullest facts i can, i will always try to inform, rather than scaremonger. But i also recognise that having had only one blissful homebirth under my belt i can NEVER truly understand the fears in the heart of a woman who, for WHATEVER reason, nearly lost her baby or her life while giving birth.

Bx