I've been reminded that it's only 27 days until the birthing. I'm running out of time. May as well share what I've learned re caesarean vs. vaginal delivery now before it's too late.
I conducted my research in 3 phases, not unlike the 3 phases of labour.* Except that the phases of labour are progressional and my phases of research are not like that at all. What I discovered is that this is a really big subject and summarizing it all into one concise blog post is pretty much impossible, assuming I am reluctant to skip over some of my hard-earned information, which I am. It's too bad about the limited attention spans of the modern age. Try not to drift off.
I'll caution by saying that I'm really not trying to be preachy in anything that follows. I have enough faith in modern medicine to believe that regardless of how they get the babies out, there's very little risk of actual death or serious injury either to mother or child. Of course, that all depends on what you consider serious injury. I think that things like the shredding of one's vaginal wall and incontinence are pretty serious, but what do I know.
My bottom line is that I think that a woman should have control over her body and the method employed to get things out of it - and so, yes, I won't deny being a little ranty in reaction to the very real bias out there as to which way to go, and, for lack of anything else to base an opinion on, a little focussed on the long term consequences to one's body post-delivery.
My first phase of research involved trying to work the topics of birth and post-birth experiences into casual conversation with friends and acquaintances. I don't know that many people with kids. Of those that do, my questions were typically met by vacant blinking and what I presume was an assumption that I wasn't really expecting an answer to anything so personal. I will not draw any conclusions from my limited data. That would be biased. But here's what I got from the eight people willing to talk.
Question 1 - how did the birth go?
One had a scheduled c-section (twins) and things pretty much went according to plan.
Four had vaginal deliveries. One of them has done it four different times so for statistical purposes I should count this as seven different births. The news there, no surprise, is that the process is excruciatingly painful and very undignified. Only one very candid source volunteered further information, which was that she required so many stitches that they lost count, and the nurses of the ward all came to visit her after just to marvel at what she had endured. Part of the reason for the unheard number of stitches was recounted to me in rhyme: "from stem to stern is the splittage term."**
The remaining three had planned vaginal deliveries gone wrong. All three, coincidentally, encountered the same problem, which was that each of their trusted OB-GYNs inaccurately measured the size of the fetus in proportion to their physical ability to pass them through their hips/birth canal. After going through all of the torture of the first two stages of labour, they underwent emergency c-sections because their babies were too big for them to handle, and if not for the caesarean, both of them would have died. In terms of how the procedure went from that point, I know that one of them had planned a natural delivery, and so was under no anaesthetic when they sliced open her abdomen and placed her internal organs on her belly so that they could access the uterus. She could feel everything. EVERYTHING.
Question 2: What were the after-effects?
All eleven children are healthy and devloping normally.
One of the emergen-c ladies in question was really intent on the experience of the vaginal delivery, and was quite traumatized that it didn't go that way. She's not morbidly depressed about it or anything, but it still upsets her 18 months later.
One of the others suffered damage to her abdominal wall during the surgery and is now incapable of crunches or sit ups.
All women who had c-sections have surgical scars. The incision is just under the top of the pubic hair line, so unless they're fully waxed, no one sees it. Even if they are fully waxed, it's not as though their husbands are surprised or repulsed. They know where it came from.
For the women who delivered via birth canal, one of them admitted to me sadly that her vagina just isn't the same. She did not elaborate. Another reported that it took some time, but eventually things tightened back up. I only spoke to the husband of the woman who has had four vaginal deliveries. He said that things were never the same after the first kid. No significant change with subsequent. He also mentioned that it's so long since he's experienced any other vagina that he doesn't really remember what they feel like pre-birthing and so no real loss there. For him. We don't know what she's feeling.
Stem to Stern acknowledged that were she to have another baby, she would request a caesarean.
I tried to speak to many, many more than eight people about this when I began the interview process. The trouble was that I unwisely jumped right into the question of whether the vag was ever the same after, and as previously mentioned, I typically didn't get a response at all. Of those that did reply, I soon ascertained that I could not trust any of the information I was given. Was anyone going to readily admit to me that ever since the birth it's like a hotdog down a hallway down there? I suspect not. I also suspect that it's physically impossible to do the number of Kegel exercises that would be required to restore things, but again, what do I know.
My next phase of research involved an attempt to find objective scientific data. This proved difficult. It turns out that my own attention span is a little lacking and so I'll save that for tomorrow. Stay tuned for Science!
*For those that require the education, the three phases of labour are as follows. 1. Early Labour. onset of contractions that cause progressive changes in the cervix: it effaces (thins out) and dilates. 2. Transition. The cervix dilates more rapidly and the contractions are longer, stronger and more frequent. Transition ends with full dilation, also known as 10 cm. 3. Pushing. Expulsion. I think self-explanatory.
**I know that's not really a rhyme in the strict sense of rhyming. However, it contains both asonance and consonance, and that's good enough for me.
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