Comments on: Natural Childbirth is Anti-Choice

By: mummyme

mummyme — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:31:30 +0000

You are walking on thin ice when you talk about ‘elective’ c sections. Just because someone doesn’t have a physical medical need for one doesn’t mean they should be denied it. After 4 days in labour my planned natural home water birth turned into an ‘everything but the c sec’ birth, including an epidural and a double blood transfusion. I won’t plan any more kids – I am far too scared of the birthing process. But if I fell pregnant by accident I’d beg, borrow and steal for a C sec and if I had to pay for it myself so be it. There is no physical reason why my body can’t give birth, but mentally – I just can’t even begin to contemplate the horror.

By: KPbizz

KPbizz — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 16:43:53 +0000

The pain relief part “dismays” me more than the elective c-section part. After three births that spanned the whole spectrum from crunchy granola drug-free to epiduralized induction for preeclampsia, I feel overqualified to say that pain relief in labor should be considered a “medical necessity” based on nothing more than the woman’s desire for it. Anesthesia for dental work isn’t medically “necessary,” but I don’t know many people who would get their teeth drilled without it.

This also smacks of gross sexism. No one would dare suggest withholding anesthesia for some male-only medical event – say, for vasectomies. (Let the tough guys bite a leather strap!)

By: Jen

Jen — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:42:05 +0000

For as crunchy-granola as I am in most ways, I am absolutely an advocate of having an epidural if you need it and I also scheduled my c-section with my second born. What constitutes elective? I went through 18 hours of labor ending with a c-section for a failure to progress and a decelerating fetal heart rate. I went into that birth with every intention of having a vaginal delivery. However, it didn’t happen. After lengthy discussions with my doctor when I got pregnant with my second, she suggested that my body was not built for being able to birth children in that way. This would make sense in that my mother had 4 c-sections after trying to go naturally the first two times and failing.

With the second c-section, I was informed to the point of being over informed. I was told about the surgery, the aftermath, and the resulting potential for complications in the future. I asked questions. I knew the risks. And chose to anyway.

The idea that if I were living in the UK and they would tell me that I couldn’t have a C-section without paying for it or enduring countless hours of labor is slightly sickening.

Now, that being said, those people who are electing to have c-sections for no other reason than not wanting to have their lady bits stretched out? bullocks to them. That’s ridiculous and they darn well need to pay for them.

I’m just concerned with the idea that some women are going to have to deal with unnecessary trauma or have to jump through countless hoops in order to have the c-section that they would most likely need anyway.

By: smurfett

smurfett — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:52:38 +0000

I think the problem is with the “but only if the mother and her support team understand the implications of the surgery and the recovery process” part.

When you ask doctors to tell you the implications, they don’t tell you EVERYTHING. Things like how you could have your innards stuck together after the c-section as your insides heal, how your chances of a uterine rupture goes up the next time, how it can take a long time to heal, etc etc. Doctors talk about what can happen during surgery, but they don’t talk about what happens after.

But, scarying people into not having c-sections isn’t the way to go either. Noone likes to be forced to do something.

By: Christy

Christy — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:49:26 +0000

Wow. I can completely understand the idea of not wanting to have to pay for elective C-Sections (on the part of the Ins Co), but to deny an epidural?

If that’s not cruel and unusual treatment, I don’t know what is!

In all seriousness though, I don’t think I would willingly get pregnant knowing that I would not be allowed sufficient pain relief. I’m a total pain wuss.

By: liberrian

liberrian — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:11:19 +0000

Assuming that someone who elects a c-section has to pay for it herself, I have no problem with it.
But of course that raises the issue of whether we (as people in the same health care pool) should have to pay for someone’s epidural when she may not need it, medically. Especially since epidural use often leads to other interventions. Should this stuff be treated as “elective” procedures that aren’t covered by insurance? I don’t know–I’m sure that if I felt I needed one when I gave birth, I wouldn’t think so. Since I didn’t need one (my fast labor meant no time for one anyway), I don’t know what to think. If insurance (gov’t sponsored as in the UK or private as in the US) is only supposed to cover what is medically necessary, does epidural anesthesia fall under that heading? And of course, do we really want our insurance companies/organizations to be the ones making that call?