Day: May 8, 2011

>Planned C-sections Bring Greater Satisfaction Than Vaginal Births

~ Clarissa ~ 2 Comments

>In spite of a recent trend to demonize C-section and prevent women from getting one if they want to, research demonstrates that those women who  still manage to get their planned C-sections are a lot happier and less likely to suffer from postpartum depression than women who undergo vaginal birth:

The doctors found that women who planned C-sections were much more satisfied with their experiences than those who planned vaginal births. . . The study polled 160 women planning vaginal delivery and 44 planning C-sections. The women were asked eight weeks afterdelivery about their fulfillment, distress and difficulty. They rated their satisfaction with the childbirth experience on a scale from one to 100 and how they felt right after birth using descriptors such as “disappointed,” “enthusiastic” and “cheated.” Those planning C-sections reported higher satisfaction, higher fulfillment and lower distress and difficulty, and a more favorable overall experience than those planning vaginal birth. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that about one-third of U.S. women giving birth had C-sections in 2008, the latest data available. The number crossed all races and ages.

The main reason for the anti-C-section propaganda that we have been inundated with in recent years is the firm belief many still possess that true femininity is only achieved through pain and suffering. Consequently, women who plan to avoid the so-called “natural” childbirth have been demonized as not womanly enough. As this study shows, however, ultimately such women come out winning because they don’t sacrifice their emotional and physical well-being to some medieval prejudices about what is and isn’t “natural.”
You can see how terrified our culture still is that some women might escape the horrors associated with vaginal birth in the language of the very article that quoted this important piece of research. In order to make up for the article’s brave defense of planned C-sections, its author immediately proceeds to quote some unintelligent quack who obviously despises women for a living:

“How much this figures into an individual’s psyche is nothing we can measure, because we can’t do randomized studies by making some women have C-sections and some vaginal births,” she said. “Instead, we absolutely should have more counseling. Labor is OK, and they’ll survive. Most births go very well; there’s no good evidence now to circumvent Mother Nature.”

There is no doubt in my mind that the jerk who said this atrocity doesn’t rely on “Mother Nature” when she, say, gets a toothache. I also don’t believe that a dentist who’d tell her that pain is OK and she’ll survive would not be her dentist for long. It will be especially funny if Nada Stotland, the woman-hater who made this statement, has ever used birth control, painkillers, reading glasses or tampons. The same goes for refrigerators, washing machines, computers, and all the other things that mother nature didn’t provide us with but which we still use to make our lives easier on a daily basis.