Natural Cesarean

The natural caesarean: a woman-centred technique

Beautiful alternative to a routine cesarean procedure! Take a look at this video about a family-centered technique for ideas about things you can request in the event of cesarean, including: placing the IV drip in a non-dominant arm, and keeping baby with mom (and partner) if the baby is doing well, delayed cord clamping/cutting, and placing ECG monitors on back of shoulders and side, rather than the front of the chest, so that baby can be close on mom’s chest.

Wonderful, considering research has found that separating newborns from their mothers is stressful for babies. (ScienceDaily – Nov. 2, 2011, read the full article here)

Summary: Although much effort has gone into promoting early skin-to-skin contact and parental involvement at vaginal birth, caesarean birth remains entrenched in surgical and resuscitative rituals, which delay parental contact, impair maternal satisfaction and reduce breastfeeding. We describe a ‘natural’ approach that mimics the situation at vaginal birth by allowing (i) the parents to watch the birth of their child as active participants (ii) slow delivery with physiological autoresuscitation and (iii) the baby to be transferred directly onto the mother’s chest for early skin-to-skin. Studies are required into methods of reforming caesarean section, the most common operation worldwide.