a good read....I have had to have 2 emergency sections to date, my last one in Nov 2007 after 16 hours of labour if I do have anymore children I have already been told I will need another section. But this read has made me feel a little bit more settled and not that I had let myself down or anyone else down. Having had my first section in 2003 it was the worst that ever chould have happened but after my second emergency I am not taking any risks!

What an interesting article. Before the birth of my dd I was adamant that I did not want a cs, but when I found out she was breech and engaged I was strongly advised to have one. It wasn't as bad as I thought and the recovery period was generally good, even though 5 months on I still get very achy and occasional twinges if I overdo it. The article does make me consider that I might get an elective again though rather than risk a vbac, if the situation should arise.

Great link, thank you. My ds1 was an emm. csection and ds2 was a last minute planned section.  Won't bore you with all the in and outs but I was guided by the MW to a planned section after 16 hours without waters... she said 'I have looked at your notes and we have to be realistic'.  I was so thankful for was - James was quite blue when he arrived, but he was safe and fine and they knew what was best for us.

i think that the fact that  many proffesionals in the field of birthing choose to have elective sections speaks for itself, yes they are aware and surrounded of all the possiblities that can go wrong in a vaginal birth  which some may say clouds their judgement but they are also exposed and aware of the dangers of and elective section, so given that they have all information and experiences of both sides they still choose the elective section, which isn’t the same as an emergency section, electives are by far easier to recover from and are less stressful than emcs, it still hurts but i think the risk factors and outcomes of an elective section are in nowhere as horrific and damaging as the long term problems a majority of women experience from a natural labour, more than half of mothers going for a vaginal birth end up with intervention including an emcs, when confronted with those figures im happy that i bypassed any possible problems with a vaginal birth and went straight to the elective section as i dread what  to think what would of happend to me and my son if i had to have vaginal birth with complications.

" womens bodies are made for birth its what they do, its been done for thousands of years" - people tend to forget that many women died in childbirth and that elective sections are sometimes the safest way to have a baby , not to mention that babies are getting bigger and our internal structures are staying the same, the average weight 50 years ago was around 5-6lb, now its 7.5 many being bigger than that for first time mothers and babies head ratio to body is the biggest in the animal kingdom making birth the hardest for women, my sons head was 37.5cm when born at 39 weeks, he would not of made it through my pelvis and thats the case for quite a lot of women, we would of probably died 50 years ago and thats all i have to say about that.

It is an interesting article, thanks for posting the link.

I, personally, didn't think it was very well balanced. It has a few too many mentions of what goes wrong with some natural births and not much about what can go wrong with a caesarean.

I can see why hospital maternity staff might be worried by what they've seen, but I also think that it is their uneeded interventions that cause extra problems a lot of the time.

I don't want to have a caesarean - I had a lovely water birth with my ds (9lb 2oz) in a birth centre. This time I have placenta praevia and so I have to have one. I understand how a lot of women are completely put off a vaginal birth if they've had bad experiences with a hospital birth the first time and I suppose it's the same for these maternity staff who see these things happening too.

Excellent & interesting thanks for posting xx

thanks for that rose petal. it's nice to read something in support of c-sections.  it's true, i did feel as if i had failed when i had to have an emergency c-sec. going to try vbac this time

Thank you for that Rose Petal.

It does make a refreshing read, and makes me feel so much more confident that my decigion to have an elective c-section with my second baby, was the right one.

Lou x

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jul/11/nhs.health1

Hello, this was published on Friday in the Guardian.  For those that haven't read it, you may find it interesting.  It makes for a refreshing read, certainly not an article about women who are 'too scared or too posh to push'.