Planned C-sections Bring Greater Satisfaction Than Vaginal Births

In spite of a recent trend to demonize C-section and prevent women from getting one if they want to, research demonstrates that those women who  still manage to get their planned C-sections are a lot happier and less likely to suffer from postpartum depression than women who undergo vaginal birth:

The doctors found that women who planned C-sections were much more satisfied with their experiences than those who planned vaginal births. . . The study polled 160 women planning vaginal delivery and 44 planning C-sections. The women were asked eight weeks afterdelivery about their fulfillment, distress and difficulty. They rated their satisfaction with the childbirth experience on a scale from one to 100 and how they felt right after birth using descriptors such as "disappointed," "enthusiastic" and "cheated." Those planning C-sections reported higher satisfaction, higher fulfillment and lower distress and difficulty, and a more favorable overall experience than those planning vaginal birth. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that about one-third of U.S. women giving birth had C-sections in 2008, the latest data available. The number crossed all races and ages.

The main reason for the anti-C-section propaganda that we have been inundated with in recent years is the firm belief many still possess that true femininity is only achieved through pain and suffering. Consequently, women who plan to avoid the so-called "natural" childbirth have been demonized as not womanly enough. As this study shows, however, ultimately such women come out winning because they don't sacrifice their emotional and physical well-being to some medieval prejudices about what is and isn't "natural."

You can see how terrified our culture still is that some women might escape the horrors associated with vaginal birth in the language of the very article that quoted this important piece of research. In order to make up for the article's brave defense of planned C-sections, its author immediately proceeds to quote some unintelligent quack who obviously despises women for a living:

"How much this figures into an individual's psyche is nothing we can measure, because we can't do randomized studies by making some women have C-sections and some vaginal births," she said. "Instead, we absolutely should have more counseling. Labor is OK, and they'll survive. Most births go very well; there's no good evidence now to circumvent Mother Nature."

There is no doubt in my mind that the jerk who said this atrocity doesn't rely on "Mother Nature" when she, say, gets a toothache. I also don't believe that a dentist who'd tell her that pain is OK and she'll survive would not be her dentist for long. It will be especially funny if Nada Stotland, the woman-hater who made this statement, has ever used birth control, painkillers, reading glasses or tampons. The same goes for refrigerators, washing machines, computers, and all the other things that mother nature didn't provide us with but which we still use to make our lives easier on a daily basis.

Myths about C-section

There has been a lot of discussion of elective non-emergency C-sections on this blog lately. My interest in the procedure was due to my sister's decision to give birth through a scheduled C-section. This personal decision on her part has led to many people approaching her (and me, as well) to tell us a whole bunch of scary stories about C-sections, which later on turned out to be nothing but myths.

So here are the myths and the reality of an elective C-section. Obviously I am not talking about cases with complications that can, of course, happen with any method of giving birth.

Myth 1: The recovery period is very long. Wrong! If everything goes well (and once again, things can go wrong with any method of giving birth), the recovery period is very short and involves no excruciating pain or loss of basic functions.

Myth 2: You will not be able to walk for weeks. Not true at all. My sister started walking several hours after the operation and had no trouble taking walks or doing anything she needed to do from the very beginning.

Myth 3: You will not be able to lift your baby. This is an egregious lie if there ever was one. My sister started lifting her baby from day one and continues doing so. 

Myth 4: The pain is excruciating. The final stage of the operation is a little painful, but the painful part lasts only 10 minutes or so.

Myth 5: You are left with a disfiguring scar. Today, 8 days after the operation, the scar is almost invisible.

Myth 6: You will not be able to bond with your baby as effectively. Both my sister, who had the C-section, and her fiance, who obviously did not, have bonded with the baby extremely well. The nurses and doctors who did the psychological evaluation observed in their report that their bond as a family was extremely strong.

So if you are thinking about having an elective C-section and saving yourself the pain, the time, and the trauma to your genitals but are scared by the horrible stories people tell you about the procedure, I hope you might be reassured by this information. I was, of course, personally present in the hospital starting from two hours after the operation and can testify to the absolute veracity of everything said above.

C-section Persecution

I have already discussed how the ruling patriarchal ideology marginalizes women who give birth through C-section**. Women have to be constantly punished for their gender through pain and suffering. Those who try to minimize the pain of childbirth through scheduled C-sections are shamed into seeing themselves as traitors to their femininity and told that they are a "failure."

Here are some more disturbing facts provided by Feministe about the persecution faced by women who give birth through C-sections:

Insurance companies can consider prior cesarean sections as a “pre-existing condition” and deny a woman coverage for childbirth. Additionally, in Florida for example, women who have had c-sections are charged 25% more in premiums if they want to retain their health insurance coverage of birth.



In Illinois, according to a Chicago Sun-Times article on 6/26/07, a woman’s emergency c-section (much to her physician’s consternation) was denied coverage by BlueCross BlueShield.

The sad thing is that women often buy into this anti-C-section propaganda and gleefully participate in shaming women who have C-sections.


** Check out my posts "The Truth about C-section," "A C-section Makes You a Failure," and  "Ideology in Birth Preparation Classes."

A C-section Makes You a Failure

The "only-a-vaginal-birth-will-make-you-a-real-woman" discourse does everything it can to make women who have C-sections feel like something is wrong with them. One way to achieve that is to link the words "C-section" and "failure" in women's minds. Usually, it's done thorugh constant reiteration of "Don't think you are necessarily a failure for having a C-section!" In this way, the idea is planted in people's minds that having a C-section is somehow related to feeling as a failure. Women who would have never connected these things might start linking them in their minds after being brainwashed in this manner during their entire pregnancy.

Here is an example of this ideological device being used by the web-site called www.surgery.com, the motto of which is "Helping Surgery Patients every Day": "Undergoing a c-section may also inflict psychological distress on the mother, beyond hormonal mood swings and postpartum depression ("baby blues"). The woman may feel disappointment and a sense of failure for not experiencing a vaginal delivery." This, of course, is completely ridiculous. Why should a woman feel like a "failure" because of having a medical condition (such as, for example, a low placenta) that requires a C-section? What is so particularly fulfilling about a vaginal birth that a C-section cannot provide? Can't women who deliver vaginally have postpartum depressions? 

But nobody cares about the truth or the objective facts. The only goal of this idiotic propaganda is to create a connection between C-sections and a sense of failure in people's minds. This is absolutely disgusting.


P.S. The picture has nothing to do with the post but it's the building where I work and I love it so much that I wanted to put it here to offset the horrible impressions this disgusting brainwashing leaves in my mind. 

Ideology in Birth Preparation Classes

I just discovered to my great surprise that birth preparation classes instead of offering medical facts and objective information sometimes push disgusting ideological propaganda.Often, this results in outright lies and marginalization of large groups of women.

My sister just attended such a class and was shocked by the following:

1. There were several hours dedicated to "natural birth" and only a few minutes on C-sections. What is the point of women with scheduled C-sections sitting through hours of information that is irrelevant to them and getting no information that is remains unexplained.

2. The women were shown a long video of "natural" birth. As for the C-section, they were told that a video of it is "too graphic" to be shown. The only result of this indoctrination is that women with elective C-sections and medically justified C-sections feel completely marginalized. Why aren't people who want to avoid the "natural" childbirth process consulted on whether they want to observe a video of it? Shouldn't their feelings be respected? Or has their decision (or, in many cases, medical necessity) to have a C-section put them outside the pale of people whose wishes deserve respect?

3. A lot of information on C-section complications and complications from epidurals (often completely false) was offered. No information on complications from the so-called "natural birth" was provided. The videos of natural birth show women whose deliveries are fast, complication free and are not accompanied by any screaming and crying. Imagine how horrible women who can't avoid screaming and crying must feel. No wonder so many women go into post-natal depressions after their expectations about childbirth are made completely unrealistic by such classes.

4. All the information that was offered on C-sections quoted sources from the 80ies. The only purpose of that is to conceal from women any medical advances that have been made in this area in the past 20 years and scare them into "natural birth."

The most offensive thing is that people paid for these classes in hopes of obtaining objective facts. All they got as a result is a shameless propaganda of somebody's truly medieval views on childbirth. Can't women be left free of control and brainwashing even at such an important, intimate, and dangerous moment in their lives? Or are we considered so innately stupid hat even faced with objective data we will not be able to make a decision that is right for us?