Pregnant in America

I will look for this documentary! Thanks for sharing.

Heh, I might go on my own little rant for a second, but here it goes:

What's also ridiculous is that after the woman has the child, there's no guarantee that she will be able to resume her job. There is absolutely no job security for women during or after pregnancy. In fact, my friend's mom got fired from her job while she was still pregnant, because the company didn't want to wait for her to recover and come back to work. Go America and your "family values."

As for the C-section, it's an unnecessary surgery and the fact that it's being pushed onto mothers just so the doctors can get more money is horrible. Since when did our health become for profit? Oh yeah, I forgot, us women are second class citizens, so of course our health is not a guarantee. Same with the poor, the disabled, the elderly, etc.

If you look at other countries where the health care is government run and completely NOT for profit, there is a major difference in the level of care available. Why is someone going to put themselves $200,000 into debt and study for years and years and years if they're not going to make a killing afterwards? If you want quality care, you have to invest in it. Just like if you want shoes that won't fall apart after 6 months, you have to be ready to pay big bucks for it.

My son was born with a tumor on his lung. They wanted him to be born naturally so that his lungs would be fully cleared. Mother Nature does a much better job than suction. However, 36 hours into labor....I would not/could not dialate any more. A C-section was necessary and my son was wisked away to ICU before I could even see him. He is healthy after surgery, I am healthy and I am glad for the C-section now. I have none of the problems that my sister has with bladder, scar tissue from episiotomy, or looser vaginal muscles. I would choose the c-section again, just not after 36 hours of labor. :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

Well let me tell you this, I don't really care what you think. It pisses me off to read this crap. My mother should have had a c section with my brother, but her doctor said she would be fine, and the end result of that, was my brother being mentally retarded due to those complications at birth. And seriously, who the hell do you think you are saying that women CHOOSE to have C sections because it is less painful? I have never had a C section, I gave natural birth to my son at 27 weeks (a trauma all in itself) but I do know how much longer the recovery is for a C section vs vaginal birth. It's more likely that the doctors are recommending their patients have c section. (I admittedly did not read past your first paragraph.) Think about things before you make ridiculous assumptions.

First, I'm sorry about your brother and it's not ok that they didn't do what was right during your mother's delivery.

Now, that being said...I've had a vaginal followed by a cesarean. I would have a million c-sections before I would ever have a vaginal again. I couldn't walk for 3 weeks after my vaginal delivery, and I was showering and walking around the hospital 10 hours after my cesarean. EVERYONE is different.

So would you have c-section just to avoid the pain? If so then you should be responding to OP's statement : Why are women electing to have MAJOR surgery? Just to not have any pain? Like seriously. Don't have a kid if you don't want to deal with the pain!

I thought the rise in C-sections had something to do with the rise in obesity? I haven't read any studies on it or anything, so this is just speculation, but most, if not all, of the obese mothers I know gave birth via C-section; dunno if there's any correlation there.

Thank you so much for posting this! I just found out my husband and I are expecting, and I am dead set on a natural child birth. They will have to fight me in order to get me to have a c-section..IT WON'T HAPPEN!!

Congrats on the baby!

C-sections aren't the issue. C-sections are fine if medically necessary. C-sections to avoid stretch marks or so that you can schedule your vacation or your tummy tuck are the issue. I should hope that if you doctor says that you need a c-section because your baby's life or your own depends on it, you will make the right choice.

This is a very sore topic for me. All of the people saying they had c-secs with the scary drugs like the OP is only worried about that are insensitive.

Dr's do and make EVERY effort in their power unless you get a really good one to try and get you to get induced early/get c-sec whatever. They do it ALL the time.

I was 21 when pregnant with my first child. I go to my first Dr visit and she tells me in my intake interview "You will want an epidural right" I said no I am going to do it with no drugs. She looks at me like I am crazy then tells me I am crazy. 2 weeks before my daughter is due she estimates that my daughter is over 7lbs (just 7!!!) and that I need to get induced otherwise she will get too big and I will need a c-sec. Really!!!??? Don't think so. She ended up being born at 8lbs 3.5oz and completely natural. She was even face down for part of labor and I was lucky enough to get a really good nurse who had trained with a mid-wife that helped me get her turned around.

Then I get pregnant with my son a few years later. I live in a different city so I decided this time I was going to go to a midwife. A couple of months in they give me the glucose test and say I have gestational diabetes so I am too high risk to be allowed a midwife. (By the way I think the glucose test was dopey because the hospital nutritionist gave me a glucose meter and I took it 6 times a day and it never went over even after drinking soda). So I get referred to the nearest hospital and dr's to where I live. Winnie Palmer medical center in Orlando (its an addition across the street from Arnold Palmer the renowned hospital for children's cancer and stuff) By the way this is a residency hospital. The doctors office was behind the hospital and directly affiliated. I never saw the same Dr twice. There had to have been at least 20 there all doing their residencies. Half way through my pregnancy they tell me he is going to be too big and I will have to get a c-sect. I tell them no way in HE@@. I only want one if it is medically necessary in an emergency when it comes down to it. Every appt after that they continue to push the c-sec on me. Oh we can schedule it for any day you want, it will be a lot less painful, if you don't you could rip a nerve in his shoulder if he gets too big etc etc. 3 weeks before he is due they tell me okay I will call the hospital and get you admitted for induction. WHAT!!!??? Absolutely not. He isn't due yet. I've done all the research. I know that induction increases the chances of needing epidurals or spinal blocks and eventually c-sec. After that they tried scare tactics. Sign this paper saying you understand your baby will die if you don't get induced now. (By the way his heart rate is fine, my BP/HR everything is healthy, I haven't gained unnatural weight from the GD, there is enough fluid in their with him, no medical reason at all why I would have to get induced before term or have a c-sec.) They finally let me go on the condition I get a stress test and US 2 x per week until he comes. Whatever. Eventually he was a week and a half late, but due dates have a 2 week margin of error anyways. I go into labor. Go to the hospital. They make me walk around the block a few times because I'm not dilated enough. I go in, they strap me down to a bed and tell me I can't do normal walking around labor process because they have to watch his heart rate. So I am strapped down to a bed for HOURS. They have an old midwife come in and try to scare me about how she has had to have people sliced open because babies were to big and kids that have been delivered with their shoulder nerves torn. Finally after 5 hrs of being strapped to a bed and not being able to get him in a good labor position or walk around or anything and being bullied into a c-sec I finally agree. WHY?!!! did we agree after all the research and planning and prep and sticking up to the drs and knowing that I could do it did we give in. Because I 100% didn't trust them. I doubted any of them had ever naturally delivered a real baby in their very short careers (and this was confirmed later). However they HAD done 100's of c-sec, because that is what they were taught in med school. Lots and lots of them they had done. So I agree and tell them spinal block instead of epidural. 3 hours later they finally wheel me up. (Funny it took 3 hrs when it was so dire that I had to pick c-sec according to them) By then after hours of laying around he was getting feisty and they were having trouble keeping track of his HR. The Dr giving me the spinal block was also in training, the real Dr was behind him watching. He did it wrong!!!! Yep wrong. It didn't work. I could still feel everything. I could lift up my feet half a foot. By then the Dr doing the c-sec said they didn't have time for the real Doc to try the spinal block because his HR was dropping (weird it dropped immediately after the drugs were injected) and I would have to go under general anesthesia. By the way my SO doesn't know any of this at the time and is standing outside the OR waiting for them to let him in after I am prepped. Now that I am going under Anesthesia they won't let him in at all. I was freaking TERRIFIED!! Double the drs everywhere because there were so many training and watching, them messing up me not being able to be aware. In the end he was fine. He was 10lbs 3oz but no unusually large shoulders. I didn't get to see him for 3hrs because of the drugs. To top it off despite the fact that I had breastfed for 1.5yrs for my daughter the nurses, since he didn't want to eat much in the beginning (duh you doped him up through me what do you expect), said they would have to bottle feed him. I said HE@@ no you aren't messing this up too. They finally called a real lactation consultant in to check on him and they said he was fine and that I was doing everything right and that he was just groggy from the drugs DUH!!

I am in no way not advocating c-sec in a medical necessity, but that is not how the Drs operate these days. They train for c-sec. They train for induction. They will use buttering up, scare tactics anything necessary to convince uneducated pregnant women that that is what they need.

Oh and I have a friend who had a c-sec for her first (medically necessary her daughter was stuck) and she said it was so much better then natural would have been and if she has another kids she is electing for it.

When I had my c-sec I could barely walk or pick up my son for the first 3 weeks afterwards. The recovery time was NOT the same as natural and much more painful.

Medically had to have a c-section, I did not opt for it! The cord was wrapped around his chest AND my birth canal was too narrow even for my 6 lb baby. After 3 days of attempting natural delivery just to have a c-section I was kinda pissed.

Amen to that! I WISH the United States had the same laws on maternity as Canada does!.

I agree that the state of all of this is ridiculous!!! My first son I was induced for because of gestational diabetes (and he was getting big).....but they wanted to induce me on a Friday and I made them wait until Monday because I wanted the weekend to see if I would go naturally. Then they did a 2 day induction....the pitocin didn't jumpstart my body and I didn't start having contractions until they broke my water. If I knew more about it then I would have done it differently.

My daughter came naturally 2 days later......yes I used an epidural for both and if (God forbid) I had another I would go with the drugs again. My son came 13 1/2 hours after they broke my water and I had gone from no contractions to contractions every 30 seconds....I wouldn't have survived 13 1/2 hours. My first contraction with my daughter was at 6:05 am and she was born at 11:44 am. She came a lot quicker!!!

But I know there are reasons for c-sections and won't put down people who have them but to do it as an elective surgery with no real reason is crazy!!!