Gentle C-Section Birth.
What is a gentle c-section birth?
Gentle caesarean births are becoming more and more frequent as women work to create a surgical birthing experience that feels calm, positive and has more natural elements that they would experience if birthing vaginally.
Now there no getting away from the fact that a caesarean birth is a surgical procedure and it is one in which saves lives and also supports women who have experienced previous birth trauma, difficult experiences or who have birth anxiety to be able to have their baby without fear of re-traumatising themselves…but can you make a surgical birth more natural?!
That’s where gentle caesarean birth comes in!
If you have elected for a caesarean birth and your pregnancy and health of both you and your baby are all straight forward and uncomplicated you may wish to consider a natural or gentle caesarean birth.
Smith, Plaat & Fisk (2008) describe a ‘natural’ caesarean birth as mimicking what parents are able to do in a vaginal birth by allowing the parents to watch the birth of their baby, taking time to have a slower and more gentle birth for baby through the mothers abdomen so that with the baby wriggling its way out aided by the contracting uterus the baby receives squeezing as they would if born vaginally and the final aspect being allowing mother and baby to have immediate skin to skin contact and delaying cleaning, tagging and weighing of their baby.
In a gentle caesarean although the environment understandably needs to remain sterile there are choices you can make to help make it feel calmer and less intimidating reflecting more of what you want from your birth. This could include lighting being dimmer (bar the surgeons light), your own music being played and a quiet theatre free from ‘chit chat’.
Wires, monitors and cannulas can be placed in areas that will not affect the mothers ability to hold her baby skin to skin. A screen is put in place for the start of your birth and then as baby’s head emerges the screen is lowered and the head of the bed is raised so that the woman can see her baby being born. At this point the baby is able to breathe air whilst also remaining connected to the placenta. Allowing baby to be in this position can help the mothers body to gently stimulate baby’s lungs and clear them of liquid as would occur in a vaginal birth. The surgeon through this stage is hands off and allowing parents to observe their baby.
The next stage uses a combination of the mother’s body naturally helping baby out through the uterus and soft tissues contracting and the obstetrician supporting baby and helping them to wiggle out (walking the baby out).
Once baby is born other normal practices can be observed providing birth mother and baby are well such as delayed cord clamping and skin to skin. The midwife can then move to the head end with the parents to ensure baby is doing well, monitor baby and reassure the parents as the obstetrician finished the surgery whilst those initial skin to skin moments are cherished.
Preparing for your elected caesarean birth with hypnobirthing and then following with a gentle caesarean birth can make a huge difference to how you feel about your birth if you had been hoping for a vaginal birth. Your birth is likely to be calmer, quieter and a more positive experience helping you to come to terms with and be able to reflect back on your babys birth with joy and love.
Have you been considering a gentle caesarean birth? Do you want help to prepare for a calm, positive caesarean birth experience without overwhelm and fear? Perhaps you are electing for a caesarean birth or have been thrown a curve ball and want to know how to cope with birth and recovery so you feel calm, confident and empowered?
If you want your c-section birth to be the best it can be come and join me for my online, self paced hypnobirthing course for c-section Mamas. In this course you will learn key information about what to expect before, during and after your c-section, choices you have when it comes to your caesarean birth, hypnobirthing tools and techniques to help you feel calm and prepared as well as scar care and a specialist baby massage routine designed to support babies born via c-section.
For more information or to get started with your C-Section Hypnobirthing course click HERE.
