C-sections | A Mama's Blog

Interview With AOL Health on C-Sections

November 14, 2010 By A Mama's Blog Leave a Comment

A month or so ago, I was contacted by a reporter, Justine van der Leun, who told me she was a reporter with AOL Health. She said she had come across my blog while doing research for a story on C-sections. She said she found my experience interesting and asked if I would be willing to be interviewed for her story.

I haven’t written about C-sections for a while. I haven’t had a lot of extra time for several months to write a lot of blog posts. This sounded like a good opportunity that could help raise awareness on C-sections, so I agreed to the interview. Justine called me a few days later and we spoke for about 30 minutes. She asked great questions, and said she had been learning a lot about birth because some of her friends were having babies, and also because of the story she was working on.

Justine thanked me as we were concluding and told me she was going to interview a doctor and then write the story. I felt like Justine would write a balanced story, but I was cautiously optimistic until I could read the final story. Sometimes viewpoints and words get misconstrued or used out of context.

Last week Justine notified me the story was finished and published. I was on my way out of work, and skimmed it quickly on my phone and I was pleased. But I wanted to read it when I had more time. When I did I was extremely happy. Justine did a terrific job with conveying my thoughts on C-sections and birth. I posted the link to my FaceBook Fan Page, and finally had time tonight to post the link to my blog.

I’d like to thank Justine here, for writing an accurate and balanced story on C-sections. I hope it will assist women who are researching C-sections.

Here is the link to Justine’s story on AOL Health: Unwanted Cesarean Sections, Getting The Birth You Want

Filed Under: c-sections, Mothering, Parenting, Pregnancy & Birth Tagged With: are C-sections overused, C-section, c-sections, cesarean section, doctors performing c-sections to deliver breech babies, preparing for a C-section, unwanted C-sections, vaginal birth after cesarean, VBAC

“Good-Bye” to Julie

October 12, 2010 By A Mama's Blog 7 Comments

In September, I met my friends for a girl’s night out. We all met each other and became friends within 6 months or so of us having our first babies- way back in 2004.

There are nine of us, Brandy, Amy, Nicole, Heather, Alison, Melissa, Danit, myself, and Julie. I met Brandy, Amy, Heather, and Julie through a Yahoo parenting group Brandy had started. Ryan was about 6 months old, and I had no friends who were moms. I had no idea, or could have known at the time, how vital these friends would become in my life. Eventually our group branched out into a mom’s night out, and I met Melissa, Nicole, Danit, and Alison.

Once a month we would meet to just have some time away from the kids, to talk, and to compare notes. This was before Facebook was up and running, so we stayed in touch every day through the Yahoo parenting group board. I remember at times that seemed like my life-line. Whenever there was an issue I was facing with parenting, one of my friends was dealing with the same thing.

Even though we couldn’t meet every day and chat in person, we had access to each other through the phone, computer, the occasional play-dates, and that support helped all of us. We all invited each other’s kids to birthdays, baby showers, and family events. Most everyone’s husbands became friends too. We met each other’s parents when they were in town, and somewhere along the line, we became more than just friends- we became a kind of a family-a community.

Brandy, Julie, and I told each other on the same day in September 2005, that we were pregnant with our second children, and we were all due within weeks of each other in May. Some days it seemed like we could barely manage what we had, and now we were going to be adding another person to the mix. Julie and I had also had C-sections with our first children, and we were both determined to have a VBAC birth with our second baby. That was a leap of faith- going against what the medical ”norm” advises and deciding to trust my body. I was fortunate to have Julie right there with me, as she decided the same thing.

As the weeks turned into months, and May rolled around, I remember sitting with Julie one morning in her beautiful garden. Julie is a master gardener and always has the most amazing yard. She was hosting a play group, and our two-year olds were off playing the sand. Julie and I’s belly’s were so big, it was warm out, and we had a hard time even sitting. We talked about the impending births, and the way our lives were going to change with a second baby. After that morning most of my fears were washed away. I saw an extremely strong, determined, confident, and capable mother in Julie. I knew if she could manage I could too.

Julie had her daughter, Lily, a few weeks before Cole, and she had a successful VBAC. I was so happy for her. Her successful VBAC encouraged me that much more that I could avoid another C-section. When Cole was born two weeks later, it was via VBAC, and when Trajan, Brandy’s son was born a week later, he was born at home.

In July, 2007 our little group got smaller. Brandy and her husband, Dax, were moving to Georgia, so he could attend graduate school. It felt weird we were losing the person who had brought us all together. We had new moms come and go through the group. But our core was always there. This was our last girl’s night out before Brandy moved:

Back to front, clockwise, Amy, Me, Nicole, Brandy, Julie, w/ Lily, Heather

Brandy and her family eventually moved back to Colorado last year, but to another part of the state. Even so, we’ve been able to see her a few times since she has moved back.

April 2009,

Back to front, clockwise, Heather, Amy, Julie, Nicole, Me, Brandy, Melissa, Danit

In January of 2009, I started a difficult divorce process. In April I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, had surgery and recovery for it in the summer of 2009, and in February of this year, my mother passed away suddenly. My immediate family lives about 50 miles away and was not always able to help me- especially when I was recovering from cancer.

My friends became my family in the town I live. I would not have emerged from a divorce, cancer, and my mom’s death without their support and love. Anything I needed, they provided. I didn’t even have to ask- they just came over and did what they saw needed to be done. One day when I was recovering from cancer, I was barely strong enough to get up from the couch. I had the boys and it was all I could do to look after them.

There was a knock on my door, and when I opened it, it was Julie. Julie always has a smile on her face. I think “sunshine” when I see her. She had food for me, a book, and flowers. She had done all the prep work so all I had to do was open the container and eat. All my friends did things like this for me, but I mention Julie, because this post is about her. :-)

Julie, her husband, and their two children, are moving to Finland this month for an incredible job offer her husband received. This was the news Julie told us a month ago at our girl’s night out. I am thrilled for her and her family- but I am also sad. I don’t want Julie to move for purely selfish reasons- I am going to miss her. We all are going to miss Julie- more than I think we care to admit.

For 6 years now, we have gone through everything together. From having infants, to post-partum depression, to toddlers, to preschoolers, to school age children, to losing our parents, to adoption, to soccer practices, to cancer, to other medical issues, to moves, to relationship issues, to divorce, to fitness, to Twilight (and Twizzler’s in the nose) obsessions, to once-in-a-lifetime-opportunities-when it has happened to one of us, all of us have felt it. And we have been there for each other through everything.

Last week we had our last girls night out for awhile with Julie. It was fun, and it was like it always had been. It’s our time to reconnect, talk, discuss, laugh, relax, and enjoy the brief pause in our lives when we aren’t in mom-mode.

I don’t feel like saying “good-bye” is quite the right thing- I know we will see Julie again, and thanks to Facebook, and blogs, we will all be able to stay in touch just like we have always done. But it is her presence – her smile, her laugh, and her warmth, that will be gone from our group- for now.

We’ve been through more things in six years thatn some people ever face. We were all new, clueless, sleep-deprived, scared, and isolated moms when we became friends. Six years later, we are stronger, wiser, healthier, and less sleep deprived (except for Nicole who has a 4-month old) , and we are all still friends. Our children brought us together, but it is our characters that have kept us all friends. That is a unique gift we have all found in each other.

It is a new start for Julie and her family, and a new adjustment for us. It would be very easy to put some sad parting words here, but as I told Julie the other night, I like this quote when thinking about her moving away:

Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened. ~Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

October, 2010

Left to Right: Alison, Heather, Amy, Julie, Melissa, Me, Nicole

Filed Under: c-sections, Family & Friends, Mothering, Parenting, Pregnancy & Birth Tagged With: good friends, mom friends, saying goodbye to a freind

Maternal Death Rates Rise- C-Sections Now Considered a Factor

February 5, 2010 By A Mama's Blog 8 Comments

On February 2, 2010 California Watch, published a story about California’s maternal mortality rate. It reported the maternal mortality rate in California had increased from 4.3 deaths per 100,000 births in 1996 to 16.9 deaths per 100,000 births in 2006 (the last year statistics are available).

The article cites some factors that are thought to be contributing to this upward trend, and it was not a surprise to me to read that C-sections, and repeat C-sections are one of the main factors officials are finally now considering for the increase in deaths. The article points out that C-sections are now the number one surgical procedure performed in the United States.

How can California, have such a high maternity mortality rate? One would think, after the way modern medicine is used in birth today, that the opposite would be true. This trend is actually not just being seen in California- the entire US maternity mortality rate has also been increasing to the point that it is worse than in some developing countries. As of 2007, the United States ranked 41st in maternity mortality out of 171 countries.

Officials are now conceding that the increasing C-section rate, might have something to do with the maternal mortality death rate. As the California Watch article points out, “doctors face a condition called placenta accreta, where the placenta grows into the scar left by a previous C-section. In surgery, doctors must find and suture a web of twisted placental vessels snaking into the patient’s abdomen, which can hemorrhage alarming amounts of blood. Often, doctors must remove the uterus.”

Along these lines, while researching this blog post, I came across an interesting report from The Joint Commission dated January 10, 2010 on preventing maternal death. It cited a study by the CDC which listed the six leading causes of maternal deaths between 1991 and 1997. The second leading cause was was hemorrhaging, causing 17% of the deaths. The fourth cause was infection at 13%. The report goes on to identify and cites two out of the four common preventable errors that lead to death were: failure to pay attention to vital signs following a C- section, and hemorrhaging following a C-section.

It is interesting that a leading cause of maternal death is hemorrhaging, and one of the most common errors that leads to death is hemorrhaging after a C-section. The CDC reported on these findings thirteen years ago, and officials are just now seriously considering there could be a link between C-sections and a significant rise in the maternal death rate? It doesn’t seem like this has been a hidden fact, or that the research wasn’t being done. This seems more like a case where statistics and research has been emerging for years, but has been largely ignored or brushed off by medical officials. Until now. When California’s maternal death rate is worse than some countries like Bosnia or South Korea.

I have my own theory that the higher a state’s C-section rate is, the higher the maternal death rate will be. While the CDC reports on the C-section rate for every state, not every state publishes their maternal death rates. I could only come up with an handful of state statistics for 2006 on maternal death rates. It’s not enough to draw a definite conclusion. But consider that Pennsylvania had 19 maternal deaths and their C-section rate was 29.7 percent. Washington had 20 maternal deaths and their C-section rate was 28.4 percent. Compare that to California who had 95 maternal deaths and a 31.3 percent C-section rate, and Texas, who had 90 maternal deaths with a 33.2 percent C-section rate.

It’s no secret that other countries who have lower C-section rates also have lower maternal death rates. In Ireland for instance, the C-section rate averages around 21 percent. A joint UN/WHO report in 2007 found that Ireland also had the lowest maternal death rate in the world for women dying during or after pregnancy. Only one out of 47,600 women died, compared with one in 4,800 in the United States. The C-section rate in the United States in 2006 was 31.1 percent. It has been projected (but not confirmed yet) that the C-section rate in the US for 2007 will be 31.8 percent.

The California Watch article tells of a medical director in California, Dr. David Lagrew, who in 2002, banned elective inductions at his facility before 41 weeks or pregnancy, except in rare incidents. Inductions more than double the chances of C-sections. The article says, “as a result, Lagrew said, the operating room schedules opened up, and the hospital saw fewer babies admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit, fewer hemorrhages and fewer hysterectomies.” (bold print mine)

This should have been great news, but as expected, the hospital lost money. On average a C-section costs twice as much as a vaginal birth. Yet, we are constantly told that revenue has nothing to do with the increasing C-section rates. It is because the C-section is “medically necessary.”

If Dr. Lagrew was able to decrease “medically necessary” C-sections in California, right when the maternal death rate was increasing, it ought to be done elsewhere. If Ireland can have the lowest maternal death rate in the world, despite not having all the technological advances that the United States has, and has a considerably lower C-section rate than the United States, that should tell all the officials out there who are trying to figure out why the maternal death rates are increasing, that C-sections are a significant factor in maternal death rates.

It is the white elephant the medical community, and hospitals in general won’t admit, despite research pointing them in this direction for years-decades in some instances. And yet, the C-section rate continues to climb, and more women are dying during pregnancy and childbirth.

I looked up the modern version of the Hippocartic Oath that doctors take upon graduation. After reading these, it is hard to be convinced that most doctors have these oaths in mind in regards to C-sections and births in the United States:

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.

I will not be ashamed to say “I know not,…”

and the last one:

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

Maybe it is as simple as that. Maybe if more doctors and hospitals realized a woman’s body is capable in most cases of giving birth without surgery, and let their bodies do what they are capable of doing-just like Dr. Lagrew did, maternal mortality rates would drop in our country. Maybe when ”Big Business” gets out of the birthing process, C-section rates will decline, improving maternal health.

The answers to solving the increasing maternal death rate are out there, and have been for years. The question that demands an answer is, when will the majority of the medical community stop ignoring the answers?

Filed Under: c-sections, Current Events, Health, Pregnancy & Birth Tagged With: C-section and death statistics, C-sections and higher maternal death rates, California maternal death rate, Dr. Lagrew, increasing c-sections linked to higher maternal death rates, maternal death rate increasing

The C-Section Difference

January 26, 2010 By A Mama's Blog 30 Comments

It has been a while since I have written on the topic of C-sections. However, a post I wrote almost two years ago, The Reality of C-Sections, remains the most popular post on A Mama’s Blog. It has received over 11,000 page views to date. I decided to share my C-section experience and what I learned so others could be informed, and make decisions about C-sections based on knowledge. I would have never been able to go out and tell 11,000 plus people my experience, so I am pleased the post has been successful.

Of course not everyone agrees with me, and I get passionate comments from women on both sides of the issue. Some women have chosen to share their own C-sections stories with me privately, and in the comments. Some are horrifying. Some are heartbreaking. I have cried at many of the stories, because so many of the causes given for the C-sections seemed so unnecessary to begin with, and the toll the surgery has taken in these experiences, is extensive.

I have received many comments from women who say their C-sections were great experiences and they have no regrets. I have received accusations from other readers who think I am trying to scare women. I have been called every obscene name at least twice.

I don’t mind a difference of opinion that is conducted in a respectful manner, but after my health issues last year, I have less of a tolerance for rude comments and readers taking personal shots at me. Lately, whenever I see a comment has come in on the C-section post, I get butterflies in my stomach, and hope it isn’t a nasty comment. I have defended my position so many times in the comments there really isn’t anything new that I can offer, that I haven’t already stated. If it is a comment attacking me personally, I delete the comment. It serves no purpose to anyone to state an argument in that manner.

I have been thinking about closing comments on that post. At what point does a discussion run its course? But then I will receive a comment from someone who has thanked me for writing the post. Or a woman shares her C-section experience. So many women have said they have cried while typing out their stories, and I believe just by being able to type out the words, it helps heal. I know, because writing helped me start to heal from the unresolved issues I had from my C-section.

On Sunday a very touching story from Sarah was posted on her C-section experience. (It is the fifth to the last comment currently in that post’s comments). Her experience brought tears to my eyes, and as soon as I read this sentence that she wrote, “i am not sure that i will ever get over the emotional trauma i experienced when my daughter was born,” I realized closing the comments would be a mistake. Reading this from Sarah made me realize how deeply the emotional trauma can run from a C-section. While it lessens, it never fully goes away. Just like the positive aspects of birth never go away, the negative emotional tolls don’t either.

Six years has passed since my own less than ideal and emotionally traumatic C-section. It is disheartening on some level to read that some C-sections are even worse than mine was six years ago, and that they are still being performed at an alarming rate- almost one in three births in the United States is a C-section. (This figure is from 2007, and is probably higher for 2008 and 2009 but the rates have not been released). It seems at times for those of us who believe C-sections should be reserved for true medical emergencies, it is an uphill battle. What difference really can we have?

I found out how much of a difference one person’s experience can have this past weekend. I was getting my haircut, and only have it cut every few months now. My stylist, “Emily,” told me she was seven months pregnant, and of course I congratulated her. Emily is young- at least young from my perspective- she probably is not older than 25. She knows I have two boys, and she asked me what hospital my kids were born at. I told her, and told her I had a C-section with my first son and a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) with my second son. Emily asked me which was better- the C-section or the vaginal birth.

I told her the VBAC by far. I told Emily I was holding my baby seconds after he was born, versus not being able to hold my baby for an hour after birth with a C-section. I told her I was able to eat 30 minutes after the VBAC, versus three days after with a C-section. I told her I bonded instantly with Cole after he was born, versus five days with Ryan, after the C-section. I told her I was nursing Cole within minutes after the VBAC, versus an hour with the C-section. I told her I felt better three days after the VBAC birth versus twelve weeks, with the C-section.

Emily was quiet for a minute, and I was wondering what her reaction was going to be. She put down her scissors and told me, “Thank you.” I was a little surprised, because I was expecting her to tell me she had heard C-sections weren’t that bad. Emily told me that she wanted a natural birth, and so many people have tried to talk her out of a natural birth. She also said so many have told her that she’ll end up with a C-section anyway. Emily said she was starting to doubt if she could really give birth naturally, but hearing my comparisons, it firmed her resolve. Emily said unless she had a medical emergency, she was going to give birth naturally, and not let anyone talk her into a C-section! It was so encouraging to hear a younger mother with that attitude. I told her of a few resources that could help her even more, and she thanked me again for being honest about my birth experiences.

I have thought about this exchange for a few days now, and after reading Sarah’s sentence, the realization became very clear. Emotional trauma from a C-section does not ever completely vanish. It will always be- to some extent or another- with us. It doesn’t matter if it was a week ago, twenty years ago, or if it was a medically necessary C-section or not. We can never go back and undo what was done. But our honest experiences with C-sections can be more powerful to someone who is seeking information than any books, or medical professional.

When women are told they need to “get over” their traumatic C-section births, by ignoring the parts of their birth experience which were negative, or traumatic, it doesn’t ”magically” make everything better. It harms the women again, because now it isn’t acceptable to share or to talk about anything that isn’t a positive birth experience.

There are still women, like Emily, who believe their bodies are capable of giving birth the way they were intended to do so. There are women who don’t believe insurance companies, hospitals, drugs and surgeries are the answer to birth. These women want to know the truth, and are seeking answers. On the opposite side, there are so many women who had no one who shared their C-section experiences with them, when they had to make their decisions. There are women who have lost so much, and and have been hurt from C-sections. How do these two sides come together?

By telling our stories. It doesn’t matter that some won’t agree with you. It doesn’t matter that some will tell you to get over it. It doesn’t matter that some will tell you, you should be grateful your baby is healthy. It doesn’t matter that some will accuse you of trying to be overly dramatic. It doesn’t matter that not all C-sections are traumatic for everyone. What does matter is ours was. What does matter that someone else’s will be too. What does matter is we talk about it. It matters that we share our stories, and honor our birth experiences- all of them.

For the women who refuse to accept a C-section is the normal way to give birth, by sharing our experiences, we confirm their instincts, and they confirm ours- a surgical birth is not usually the best way to give birth. Most importantly, by talking about it your spirit starts to heal. A little at time. Never completely, but enough. Our experiences become patched together like a quilt. This is enough to make a difference, one birth at a time.

Filed Under: Breastfeeding, c-sections, Health, Mothering, Pregnancy & Birth Tagged With: C-section, cesarean section, should I have a c-section, VBAC, VBAC or C-section, what is a c-section like, which is better

The “Best Of” C-section Recovery Tips

June 1, 2009 By A Mama's Blog 1 Comment

I was recently contacted by Elizabeth McGee, who runs the website, Worryfree C-section.com. Elizabeth’s purpose was very intriguing to me- she isn’t promoting C-sections, but is helping women understand what is involved in a C-section. Elizabeth writes ”Whether your c-section is planned or comes as a surprise, I’d like to help it be as momentous as possible by informing, educating and familiarizing you with the physical and emotional aspects of preparing, having and recovering from a c-section.”

I was honored that Elizabeth decided to post my blog article, Recovering After a C-section, on the site’s blog collection of the “Best Of” C-section Recovery Tips. I also like Elizabeth’s article, Emotional Recovery After a C-section. I feel this is one area that women are usually not very well informed on regarding C-sections, and it good to see it addressed.

I always encourage women to find out as much as they can before hand about C-sections. If you are researching C-sections, I think you will find the information Elizabeth has compiled at her website and blog, from other moms and professionals very informative and helpful.

Filed Under: c-sections, Mothering, Pregnancy & Birth Tagged With: C-section, C-Section recovery Tips