Pregnant in America

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!!!

I do not have kids yet, but many of my friends do. My one close friend had 2 beautiful babies that were born normally, but she had an epidural, the first time there was so much medicine that she had to have the baby vacuumed out! The second time there was barely enough and she felt intense pains. Another friend of mine was induced, and unfortunately she lost her baby even with an emergency c-section, with her second child she opted for a scheduled c-section to keep from having the same possible outcome as the first one (RIP Lilly-Anne). I have decided that I want an all natural birth, and I will not allow the use of drugs or anything unless there is an absolute dire need. I have to find a good doctor in my area, and my sister's mother will be assisting me as she has been part of La Leche League and is an experienced mid-wife. Neither my husband nor I trust doctors and are both in agreement of many things. Unfortunately the alternative to doctors is nothing...and that leaves me with no choice, but I plan on going in educated.

I do think doctors are just c-section happy. Even 17 years ago when I was pregnant. I was considered a high risk pregnancy because I have lupus. I did go into labor six weeks before my due date, they tried to stop the labor, but it didn't work, and they immediately jumped on the "you got to have a c-section now!!" My lupus was not an issue at that time, as I was not in a flare. Everything was fine with the baby, nothing to indicate distress. So I refused to have a c-section, and I do think it had to be because of the doctor's schedule, as I went into labor on a friday night and he wasn't on call that weekend..lolol. Then they gave me a choice, have immediate c-section or they will do the c-section 14 hours later with the doctor on call. Luckily for me I was able to deliver vaginally in between that time with no issues or complications.

But I do believe if the babies are at risk and/or mother is at risk, then yes go for the c-section. But I don't think c-sections should be done for convenience on the mothers and/or doctors.

My sister's sister-in-law (her husbands brothers wife) elected to have a c section when they were living in CA. She did not want labor so they scheduled a c-section a week before her due date...oh and gave her a little tummy tuck while they were in there.

Why in the world, would they do a tummy tuck right after birth? I mean, it takes 6 weeks for your uterus to shrink back down to prepregncy size. Seems that would complicate the healing process.

It's done in the UK by folks who have enough money. Victoria Beckham had it done when she had her kids in England. They call it a "mummy tuck." I wanted to have it done here in Canada, but they won't. And the reason? Because I have this stupid flap of skin that I didn't get rid of before I had my last child. (And it's definitely my last; I had a tubal ligation done since they were in there anyway.) I'm still working out like mad and trying to get rid of it.