AIBU to think we shouldn’t worry about an increase in c-sections?

As someone who had an emergency c section after being pushed into an induction earlier than I wanted, I’m very interested in why there are these increases. While I may well have ended up with the c section anyway, I felt like my induction was too early and, when the baby clearly wasn’t ready to come despite multiple attempts over four days, I was unsurprised when they told me he was in distress and I needed a c section. It felt like a self-fulfilling prophecy and was exactly what I had feared.

I said throughout my care that I wanted to avoid a c section unless absolutely necessary and I wanted to avoid an induction unless absolutely necessary. Yet I was strongly encouraged to book an induction for my due date. The reason for this was because I was late thirties and had had an IVF conception; there were no issues identified with my actual pregnancy.

When I asked my midwife repeatedly to change the induction to later, she told me that the appointments were ‘hard to come by’ and I had better keep it. She did not tell me that I would get a later appointment if I wanted one so I thought I was at risk of having no appointment if I delayed.

When I complained about this the midwife denied it and I now have to decide if its worth taking the complaint to the ombudsman (I’ve already pushed back twice through the NHS complaints system and they’ve made a concession that the tone of their initial response was dismissive but have maintained that they believe they are right). Anyway, I understand the statistical risks which inductions are designed to mitigate but patients should always have choice, the quality of information provided needs to be much better, and I’m still not sure it’s always being got right.

Most women I know have delivered by c section. If I take one friendship group alone (eight of us) with 13 babies in the last 9 years, 8 of those have been emergency c sections and six of the eight of us have had sections. And that’s a group where the majority were having babies in their early to mid thirties. It’s even more common among my mum friends, lots of whom were older than that when giving birth.

I struggle to understand why anyone cares what another woman chooses as long as it's not harmful.

I wanted elcs and to exclusively bf. My best friend (6 weeks behind me) wanted a vaginal birth and to ff. We just supported each other?

Why do you think this is?
Maternal fitness or poor maternity care? Maybe both.
I'm mid 50s and most of my peers and my family had vaginal births, mostly uncomplicated.

A lot of my friends & family have had fairly trouble free VBs although I think at times many struggled with the lack of control. I did & found it scary. I have 2 friends who had difficult CS.

Having not done natural birth, the description of it sounds much, much worse. Even if it goes well. But I was young and recovered quickly. I always imagined how sore my scar was would be how sore all of me would have been with a natural birth.

I have had elective c’s. Tbh I am quite proud of them. I don’t ever feel judged and if people ever were I would just think ‘you do you hunny’.

I do think c sections are sold as the easy way out which may be one reason for the uptake. following that

I have no idea why it’s considered easy tbh although I did buy into that idea & was confused why my recovery felt very different to my VB. The stupid thing was I had had my appendix removed years ago & was in hospital for days after & on morphine so I should have realised the impact of cutting through muscle!

Why would you ask about this. Fucking hell

My close friends in their 30s and all healthy ended up needing emergency CS, forceps (which in 1 case caused scarring), horrible tearing causing great distress, pelvic floor issues and haemorrhage. Most said they weren’t listened to or pushed into certain situations. I asked for details as I’m nosy and my own worst enemy sometimes- they weren’t scaremongering.

It does seem this happens more often after induction and other interferences.

It’s an odd one to me. Medical staff do seem fixated on natural birth which sounds lovely in principle but doesn’t seem that way at all in practice.

I had an emergency, crash section after induction. I’m a strong advocate that first time mothers shouldn’t be induced as the risk is awful. I remember after the section (and while I was pregnant) lots of people telling me a natural birth was a necessity and they were shocked when I said I didn’t really care, just hoped it would be a safe arrival. They were also shocked at my response when they tried to console me or tell me I hadn’t really given birth.

I do think c sections are sold as the easy way out which may be one reason for the uptake. following that, they market the mothers as lazy etc. I do imagine my horrific 20 hour labour, with manual water breaking, lots of meconium, decels and near death for us both was easier because I know we made it and I had a lot of pain relief. I have always been genuinely terrified of natural birth.

a family member is a midwife and she said after that if she’d have been there, she believes she could have managed to get a natural birth. Erm, why? I’m glad they stepped in when they did for a section and very much wish they’d done it when everything started to go downhill.

if we all have cesaerians we'll evolve as a species to not be able to deliver children naturally, which brings a whole host of other issues

She was absolutely fine. Grown woman with a job and family of her own now.

Nope.

Knew this argument would pop up before long. See my previous comment on this very post.

https://www.itv.com/news/2019-04-18/caesareans-cheaper-than-natural-deliveries-once-negligence-claims-taken-into-account

I had my dd by c section and would do it again.

Because as the NHS states….An NHS routine vaginal (natural) delivery costs roughly £2,350. An elective Caesarean section (planned C-section) typically costs around £6,000.

So a planned c section is a ‘waste’ of money.

@Maray1967 I was out the next day with my CS without any painkillers, told to take paracetamol at home. My CS was the right decision but I found my VB so much easier.

I had stated with a vaginal birth then they tried to spring a cs on me

But they can't do it without consent. And I refused to give consent. Baby born under an hour later naturally

Really? I've had 2 and know many more women who've had good births. (Neither of mine was in hospital, which helps).

It does worry me as a lot of women do it because they are scared, and in some cases they feel pressured, plus for personal reasons, I worry about what happens with the infection after (and yes, I know this can happen after any birth, but the mw said it was more common with cs).