A few months ago, the Manises hospital (in Valencia) established a protocol with the aim of humanizing caesarean sections "up to vaginal delivery levels". But what is a humanized cesarean section? It is a practice that is also called natural caesarean section, or in the family, and it is very beneficial for the baby and the mother, raising the level of satisfaction of (in general) the whole family.
Considering the high rate of caesarean sections performed in this country, but above all the treatment given to hundreds of mothers undergoing cesarean section (separation of the baby, loneliness after the intervention, among others), is a topic that deserves discussion. Only a cesarean section should be used when strictly necessary, and this would mean a significant reduction in the number of interventions. But, is that in addition, what for a gynecologist is a job, for the pregnant woman it is a unique moment, which is repeated very few times in life: the birth of a child.
What is a humanized cesarean section?
In a humanized cesarean section the baby is placed on the mother, "Skin to skin", and they don't even take it away for cleaning or checking. At all times the treatment is very humane, and the presence of the person accompanying the mother is allowed, which regulates the stress of the protagonist (if you have “suffered” a cesarean section, you probably know what it is to be alone in resuscitation without a baby or a partner).
Breastfeeding starts almost immediately (there is no separation). On the whole everything is much more pleasant. Other characteristics of these caesarean sections is that a slow exit from the abdomen can be achieved by reducing interventionism, in this way, the effects for the baby of passing from the uterus to the outside in a short time are minimized (we bear in mind that a delivery can be very long, and a cesarean section, is faster).
Ask that your cesarean be humanized.
In the event that the intervention is to be scheduled, it is possible to express our wishes in advance, it is also possible to search for the desired hospital if we have had previous cesarean deliveries and we have doubts as to whether we will be able to achieve a vaginal delivery.
Every cesarean section is different, even within emergency (unscheduled) cesarean sections, no two cases are the same. Sometimes you cannot get a cesarean section as human as you would like because there are certain risks for the baby or the mother; but at least it is good that this issue is raised openly and between all of us we can make the births kinder.
For me, it was decisive that my second cesarean section was humanized, 10 years ago. I would have preferred a vaginal delivery, and looking for precisely that I looked for a special place, different from the hospital where my eldest son was born; and in which the protocols skipped the part of "humanity" that should be linked to an intervention of this type. Truth be told, someone from the anesthesiologist team was good to me, but the rest: unnecessary caesarean section, errors in the report, lack of information, denial of rights.
With my second cesarean delivery, I did not have music (as they do in the Manises hospital) but the environment was extremely warm, and the doctors who treated me gave me confidence and security. Ah! by the way: I have talked about a specific hospital, but it is not the only place where humanized caesarean sections are performed (whenever possible); so our appreciation to all those health professionals.
Picture - HBR