Day 5 – Medical Advances – CAESAREAN BIRTH – Your Baby, Your Body, Your Life, Your Choice

Caesarean birth still has risks, and these risks increase with each surgery a mother has, but when we look back over human history, and even over the last half century, medical advances have improved its safety immensely.

It is these improvements, and the skills of all the obstetricians and other maternity care staff involved in caesarean births, that we celebrate during Celebrating Caesareans Week.

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Penny Christensen, founder of Birth Trauma Canada, says:

“Competently done, cesareans and regional anesthesia are the biggest medical advancements in obstetrics to date. They should be celebrated as such.”

Pauline Hull, editor of Caesarean Birth, says:

“This is not about ‘promoting’ caesarean birth, but rather appreciating and celebrating the advances in technology and improvements in safety that have saved lives, and provided many women today with choice. We celebrate so many other medical interventions, including IVF’s recent 40^th anniversary, yet even though Louise Brown’s birth was a planned caesarean, the benefits of surgical birth are often awarded only begrudging praise, at best, and reserved for ‘precious babies’ or private patients, instead of being communicated more widely.”

CMSUK - Tanyel Keskin - Quote - perfect 6 days ago4

CMSUK - Sammie James - Quote - 3rd elective CS

Here are just some recent examples of how advances in medical science, including caesarean birth surgery, have saved the lives of some of the most vulnerable babies around the world:

USA, 2018

These Photos Of Preemies Then And Now Highlight Their Amazing Resilience (Huffington Post)

Canada, 2018

Miracle baby born to Edmonton mother with hyperemesis who weighed just 80 pounds (Global News)

UK, 2018

Cancer survivor told she may never have children after A4-sized tumour left her in a THREE-MONTH coma defies doctors by welcoming a miracle baby boy (Daily Mail)

India, 2018

Premature Baby Born weighing less than a pound is one of the smallest ever to survive (The Independent)

UK, 2017

How This Woman’s Baby Was Born Into Her Abdominal Cavity, Then Saved By a 30-Second Surgery (Cosmopolitan)

USA, 2017

Woman gives birth to fourteen pound baby at US hospital – heaviest in 30 years (The Independent)