On Preventing Caesarean Births
At the risk of being labeled a sexist, I would like to respond to the recent article “Their Message: Caesareans Don’t Necessarily Follow” (by Sue Horton, Jan. 21). The risk is worth it because when it comes to discussions of Caesarean births, the practice of labeling has become a more serious problem than the practice of Caesarean delivery.
I was terribly saddened by the article’s implication that many women who have delivered by Caesarean feel they are failures. One of the article’s subjects described how she was feeling “really depressed and crazy” for the first few months after her child’s birth because she hadn’t been able to deliver vaginally. Consequently, her baby boy must have been in some way suffering from the effects of a depressed mother during his first few months of life. I suspect she felt this way because of having to carry around the label of “Caesarean” and its implicit connotation of failure.
To be sure, I don’t feel that Caesareans should be performed so that doctors can get a round of golf in at their country club or to increase their profit margin, etc. This is why a prime responsibility for the prospective parent is the choice of doctor. But having made that choice, parents should then concentrate on the successful creation of a healthy new life and not on the particular manner in which that life is brought into the world.
My feelings are so strong on this matter because my 4 1/2-year-old son was born Caesarean. I was present at his birth and saw a blue and apparently lifeless baby emerge from his mother. Thanks to the quick response of our doctor he was resuscitated and has been a joy ever since. He was not breathing at birth because of the stress of labor as he was forced into a pelvis that just wasn’t big enough. This was aggravated by the fact that we had unfortunately delayed the decision to proceed with a Caesarean in the hope that the baby might be born vaginally. In retrospect, I think we delayed partly out of concern for having the Caesarean label affixed to us. But while we delayed, our baby suffered.
Since the birth, I have seen my wife repeatedly “judged” for her failure to deliver “naturally.” How absurd that we should become so wrapped up with our egos that our focus becomes the means of delivery and not the end result.
My wife is once again pregnant and faces the probability of a Caesarean birth. It would be nice if the baby can be delivered vaginally simply because it is always preferable to avoid surgery whenever possible. Beyond that consideration, however, let me further tempt the enmity of those who enjoy convenient labels by proclaiming that, as to what kind of birth our baby will have--it simply doesn’t matter.
DAN WOLF
Los Angeles
