PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO
My birth plan for baby No. 2 didn?t go as planned. At 9 a.m. I was breathing through manageable contractions and telling our nurse about how I wanted my son to come into the world: A drug-free vaginal delivery with minimal interventions, similar to the fairly textbook birth of my daughter two years earlier. By 5:30 p.m., I was wheeled into the operating room, destined to become one of the 27.5 percent of Canadian women who deliver by Cesarean section.
Most first-time C-sections are done for three reasons, explains Jonathan Tankel, an Edmonton-based obstetrician and instructor at the University of Alberta: Labour isn?t progressing; there are signs of fetal distress; or baby is in a position other than head down. Some other less common culprits include: Placenta covering or close to the cervix, umbilical cord prolapse, multiples, or an abnormally shaped pelvis. In my case, my baby was Frank breech, or bum first, which we didn?t actually discover until I had been in labour for four hours. I tried to deliver vaginally, but he didn?t move when I pushed and his heart rate climbed too high for too long. For me, and so many other women, Cesareans are necessary to provide the best possible outcome for baby and mom. ?We still believe vaginal births to be the preferable way to deliver. I don?t think there is any obstetrician who would disagree with that,? says Tankel. ?In every Cesarean section, we think it through. There is always a reason for it. It is always disc...