What You Should Know About C-Sections
C-Sections Can Be Traumatic for Your Baby.
You are laying on your back on a hospital bed🛌. Since this will be an incision, you have some form of pain medication – usually an epidural or spinal block💉. We will skip over all the risks associated with incisions across the abdomen for the purposes of this topic. Once the incision is made, and you are ready to meet your sweet little baby, there’s actually a lot that has to happen in a few short seconds.
The doctor👨⚕️ delivering the baby has to reach his or her hands into the incision, which is just big enough to squeeze their hands into to find the baby’s head. Once they have the baby’s head, there’s really no other way to do it except to pull the baby up through the incision by its little head. Remember, you are on your back, so they have to lift your baby against gravity AND against the resistance of that little incision they made😨. This puts a lot of traction/pulling force on your infant’s tiny neck. Once the head is out, they often will bend the head side to side to get the rest of the body out. This too puts a lot of strain and tension on the delicate structures of your little one’s neck. This puts a lot of stress on your baby’s nervous system. If your baby was delivered via C-section, it is important to get his/her nervous system checked by a neurologically-focused🧠 pediatric chiropractor. At Ideal Family Chiropractic, this is our specialty.
Sometimes C-Sections are Needed, Sometimes Not
Our C-Section Rate is Too High. For many years now, C-sections have accounted for close to ⅓ of births. Most medical professional organizations state that the C-section rate should be somewhere around 10-15%. Other more holistic professional bodies believe the rate should be closer to 5%🖐. The idea is that there will always be a small percentage of births that don’t go as smoothly as we would hope and those situations may require a C-section. But why is our rate so high📈? In the Western world, pregnancy, labor, and delivery has been medicalized and pathologized. As a pregnant mom, you are treated as though something is wrong with you or as though there will be an emergency🚑 at any moment.
Birth is Designed to Progress
You Need to be Relaxed
Easier said than done, right? Oxytocin is a hormone that allows your cervix to dilate and efface, which is needed for the baby to enter the birth canal. In order for oxytocin to be released, you need to be relaxed and in a state of peace☮️. Oxytocin is called the “love drug” or “love hormone” because it is necessary for natural childbirth. When you are relaxed and oxytocin is released, your pregnancy can progress naturally. As you breathe, focus, and birth your baby, the oxytocin helps with labor, delivery, and bonding between mother and baby🥰.
Hospitals are Not an Ideal Environment for Childbirth
Mothers are often told they need a C-section due to “failure to progress”. As they enter the hospital room, they are in an uncomfortable room in an uncomfortable hospital bed, hooked up to machines📠 with wires and tubes and beeping. This is not a relaxing environment. This puts you in a state of stress, not even including the potential emotional, mental, and physical stress you may have endured during your pregnancy🤰. Then as you fail to progress, other options are discussed to get your body moving faster.
Your Body Didn’t Fail You
All along the way, you feel that your body is failing you, furthering the stress and getting you closer to a C-section. With hospital births being the norm, and medical professionals putting mom in a state of stress from the moment she settles into her room if not earlier in her pregnancy, is it any wonder why our C-section rates are so high📈? If this sounds familiar to you, please come in and let us care for you and your baby to address any lingering stress on both of your nervous systems.