In the quest of Normal Delivery over Cesarean

Why I support Normal Delivery over C-Section?

Cesarean is often termed as a modern way of birthing entailing full comfort to a mother. Many health practitioners have made their pastures turn greener than ever by convincing “to-be moms” for a C-section. If they are not able to convince them in a straightforward way, they often strategize and capitalize on psychology by making the to-be-mothers believe in various complications that may arise in the course of the delivery. None of us want to risk it and hence are forced to go with the expert’s opinion. 

Well, since I’ve entered into motherhood, these topics have gained prime importance in my life. With so many friends stepping into the same phase & discussing the same, I was indeed prompted to share my findings with all of you. I wanted to have a normal delivery for myself but as luck had it, I had a complicated case and was left with the choice of C-Section only. I consulted close to 5-6 best of the doctors to get a silver lining for opting Normal delivery, but I did not succeed.

But then why am I not supporting it here? Why do I have reservations against Cesarean?

Moms, I’m actually not against C-Sec as such, but I’m against the reasons prompting a woman to undergo C-section. I am against those practitioners who opt for it due to some reasons as in:

• Lack of Proper support at the hospitals

• The absence of shared practice: Not having a team and being the only consultant leaves many established gynaecologists with no time to support vaginal deliveries. I’ve seen and met doctors doing 7-8 C-Sec’s a day. Can you believe it, there might be even more than this in one day? Most of the gynaecologists don’t have the time and energy to support to-be-moms. A normal delivery, from the initiation of labor pain till birthing a baby can extend from 1 hour to more than 24 hours. It needs patience, support, perseverance not just from a woman, but from her family and even her gynaecologist.

• Lack of proper trained Junior Doctor or nurses to even handle certain pressure on another case. One doctor cannot handle immediate multiple concerns for obvious reasons and this is when effective trained and specialized junior teams help out and ensure the operation goes on smoothly.

• Option to rule out night delivery

• Self – opted route by to be moms: Well, here I must say that personally I have seen that moms choose C-section due to few reasons such as:

• • Fear of Labor Pain
  • Astrological/ similar other beliefs
  • Lack of knowledge about the pros and cons of the birthing process.
  • Lack of faith in the consulting team and family support.

There are few reasons why we need to support Normal or Vaginal delivery:

• Speedy recovery & quick to be back to work regime.
• Lesser bleeding & fewer chances of infections
• Less duration of being in pain.
• A mother can immediately hold & feed her baby as soon as she delivers.
• Baby passing through birth canal boosts up their immune system and protects their intestinal tracts.
• Also, naturally born babies have fewer allergies & less of respiratory problems (as muscles involved in the process of vaginal delivery are more likely to squeeze out fluid found in a newborn’s lungs)

As per WHO, cesarean should account for just 10-15% of overall deliveries. Norway, Sweden and few other countries have managed to keep the rates below 15%. UK, France have it close to 20%. While, In India, the Cesarean rates are highly varied, with TN, Haryana crossing 50% mark. Even in Delhi, the average C-sec rate is 40%-50%. Isn’t that huge? Don’t you feel that we need some initiative and promote few Maternity cares who have actually taken steps to improve their stats?

Yes, among this category lies, Sitaram Bhartia, who has consistently improved their practices to bring their C-section rates lower from 2001. Today, they proudly boast of,

• Caesarean rates as low as 18% in 2016.
• Even better, low-risk first-birth moms had an 88% normal delivery rate; this means just 12% C-section for low-risk first-birth moms.

But this all did not come in a year, and just like this, there were immense efforts and plans made to improvise the rates and minimize surgical interventions. I visited their hospital and tried to have a look at the best practices they followed.

Let me share the best practises of Sitaram Bhartia :

• A dedicated team of Health Educator’s and Nutritionist’s to address questions related to Diet, health, optimum weight, body changes during the pregnancy.
• A team of Physiotherapists, to guide you exclusively with the exercising throughout.
• Initiation of Antenatal classes, in which the mom-to-be and her birth partner, be it her mom or her husband are educated about the process of of labor and delivery. Partners are trained to support women emotionally and physically during this process to ensure the expecting mother has a calm experience.
• Starting from their first visit to the gynaecologist, parents are counselled and educated about the benefits of Normal delivery
• A dedicated team of obstetrician – gynaecologists, there is no hopping from one maternity care to another. This helps in the formulation of standard protocols, charges, processes and whole team is introduced when possible and interacts with the visiting expecting mother. The best part, the entire team knows about the history of the expectant mother and in turn, she has established comfort levels with the whole team. High transparency, understanding and a bond of faith are required during the birthing process, and their squad ensures just that.
• There is always a skilled doctor and nurses in the labour room. So if a mother comes in during labour, she will be attended to by an excellent team even if her concerned doctor was occupied with another situation. Specialized Junior doctors and trained nurses are always available in the hospital. They all are often trained to handle varied situations and provide care to the expecting mothers.
• The effort of every single person from CEO to management staff to nurses and their confidence to go in for Normal labor.
• Dedicated Quality team to conduct audits with the consultants

All these efforts have resulted in Sitaram Bhartia doing a commendable job in changing the stats of Delhi when it comes to Normal Delivery.

I was very impressed by their empathy, hygiene in the wards, concerns for to-be-mothers and all of this has reflected in their stats and pursuance to continue their efforts. Even giving an ear to their patient’s testimonials made me feel proud, that someone is working to change the history!

So, to-be-mama’s, don’t just find a doctor, instead hold onto a team, who can support you in every endeavour you make to bring a beautiful blessing into your life.

Do you have a pregnancy story? Share it with us in the comments below.

Happy Birthing!