Party room or birthing suite? Video shows everything a c-section shouldn’t be
If someone had shown me this viral video of New Year’s Eve c-section in Brazil while I was pregnant, I would never have gone through with my birth.
In fact, anyone who has ever experienced a c-section birth will find it completely unrelatable.
And thank goodness for that.
https://www.facebook.com/shebirths/posts/3118798551467443
As Nadine Richardson founder of She Births, the scientifically verified childbirth education program, told Babyology, the video is an example of everything a c-section shouldn’t be.
“The birthing environment is so, so important,” says Nadine. “Every mother and baby have the right to birth in a safe, peaceful place.”
Read more on c-section births:
- My planned c-section was easier but I missed out on something
- What is vaginal seeding? And why is it good for c-section babies?
- Why emergency c-sections happen
Party room or birthing suite?
From the opening seconds of the video, you’re taken inside an operating theatre that’s heaving with hospital staff – up to 50 people at least – some wearing party hats on top of their medical uniforms.
Next is the noise. It’s party-level, far from the humming, deliberate quiet of a normal operating theatre.
Then there’s the complete dismissal of the poor birthing mother – she looks practically unconscious and completely ignored despite the countless number of medical staff around her. And while you witness the tug and pull on her abdomen as her baby arrives into a room of raucous shouting as midnight strikes, she is cast entirely out of the picture.
Nice for the hospital stuff, maybe. (But aren’t they supposed to be working?)
Truly terrible for the poor mother and baby.
As Nadine wrote on her Facebook page:
“As I re-watch this birth I can only think how incredibly unsafe and unprofessional. How the mum looks very heavily drugged and is ignored and not being integrated or included and the child is being held inside according to the clock and other random people’s wants and desires. I feel it’s disrespecting of our bodies and our babies. As a child, I would be forever angry and upset that I was birthed this way. I feel sad for the mother who had her power and choices taken away from her at the most vulnerable of times…”
You can be in charge of your birthing environment – even with a c-section
As the mother of two c-section babies, I can tell you this video is a far cry from my own experiences.
When my second son was born by elective c-section, the room was blissfully quiet and I had the full attention of the three (or maybe four) people in the room.
He was placed on my chest and my husband and I were given lots of space to bask in the glory of our new little guy.
The noise in that room in Brazil would have shaken me to the core and distracted us all from a moment you never, ever get back.
So if you’re planning a c-section in the coming months, rest assured this will not be your experience – unless of course, you ask for it.
