Why vaginal birth?

[SantaSusan]

Inspired by another thread. I'm really interested to understand the reasons for most women opting for a vaginal birth.

Disclaimer: I really, really want this thread to be a nice discussion to share views. I'd hate for this to descend into a judgy or unkind thread! Obviously, however anyone chooses to give birth is their choice alone. And as long as your precious little bundle arrives safely at the end, then who cares how they got there!?

I ended up with an elective. I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd have anything but a vaginal birth. However, for reasons I won't go into, it was decided during my pregnancy that a c section would probably be the best option for me. Everyone I spoke to absolutely loved their c section experience, and 99% of the comments online were so positive, so I wasn't worried about it at all once it was decided upon.

I had absolutely no pain during my c section or during recovery. I breastfed right away. I was up and about pretty much immediately. This seems to be the experience of most women who've had elcs. I would have an elective section again and again. If I'm lucky enough to have another baby, it'll be another section.

As such, I often wonder why more women don't choose to have their babies this way. It's so common in other countries. I think there's a lot of misinformation around c sections. The risks are also lumped in with those of emergency c sections, so electives are often painted to be riskler than they actually are.

You often hear people saying it's major abdominal surgery' in quite a judgemental way, which of course it is. But as far as surgical procedures go, it's generally very straightforward and in most cases, is easy to recover from.

I also repeatedly hear that vaginal is best as it's the most natural. But just because something is the 'natural' way to do something, doesn't necessarily mean it's the best. There's lots of things we do now with technology and with medicine that isn't the 'natural' way, and nobody bats an eyelid.

I can't quite put my finger on why I was so opposed to c sections previously. It's like it was subconsciously ingrained in me for no reason other than popular rhetoric. Which is why I'd be interested to hear why others decided a vaginal birth was best for them? Or why others knew they wanted an elcs? Has your subsequent birthing experience changed your minds at all?

Long time ago for me but I had planned on a vaginal birth. I ended up with c-sections and I am happy it ended up like that. We won’t have any more children but if we did I would choose a c-section. I like my vulva and vagina just the way it is.

I should imagine that dead people are more expensive. There would be a big compensation pay out I’m guessing if medical negligence led to death or brain damage.

Always wondered, how do elective sections affect a newborn's horoscope? (Misses point of thread.)

My preferred option was Vaginal birth as I wanted a birth where I had the best chance of delayed clamping, the baby benefiting from the boost to its microbiome, instant skin to skin and bf. I wanted more than one so didn’t want to increase my risk of placenta previa or placental abruption with subsequent pregnancies. I wasn’t keen to have a surgical wound and to need blood thinners and to risk infection.

I would like planned sections to be available for mothers who want them and for offers to be supported by evidence. Birth can be damaging but so can sections too. It’s only hindsight that tells us if our plan was the best. I think that it’s particularly hard to labour well in many hospitals. Non of it is some top trumps or some mean take down of women who want a pain free birth or a natural birth. All women should be able to access evidence and use it in the context of their preference to make their best decision.

Dead babies tend to be cheaper in legal terms than living ones who need a lot of care because of how badly the maternity care went. You're right though, some big compensation payouts. Botched maternity care costs the NHS a lot in legal costs, and it's one of the reasons NICE doesn't think there's good evidence of attempted VB being cheaper. ELCS does go wrong to the extent that the NHS have to pay compensation on occasion, but obviously it's much more likely with attempted vaginal birth. There's just a lot more that can go wrong, not least because EMCS is one of the potential consequences of attempted VB.

In an ideal world with equal and abundant resources for everyone women should give birth in any way they want. Elective CSection was great for me too, and where I come from, it is the norm (contrary to popular belief of MN, yes there are many countries it is now the majority choice). I elected it because I was afraid of VB, and 13 hours of pushing didnt appeal to me. Wanted to get it over with, and it was with the surgery. Everyone’s preferences might be different. Some might like the idea of pushing and everything natural. Yes our bodies are designed for VB. But some women struggle with VB and some with CS. No crystal ball to predict beforehand. Next time round I’d elect CS again, just cos I was ok with it, it worked out great, Im familiar with it, and I can.

And yes OP the NHS deliberately maximises fear around CS, to convince and guilt trip people into thinking CS are very dangerous, and extraordinary. It is neither. But they want to cut costs.

In my country it is the opposite. Doctors like the predictability of CS , they just fit in an appointment in the diary, and charge you for it, so they start saying things like your hips look so small, not sure you can do VB.

Hopefully everyone is aware of these manipulations and are not buying into it - no matter what form of birth they prefer.

Yes! I have chosen one for my first baby. I just told them I wanted one & that was that.

I think you are very lucky if you had such a good recovery after a section. My first was an elective due to breech and although there were no complications whatsoever I was in horrendous pain afterwards. I was very restricted in what I could do to the point I needed help to even sit up as my muscles couldn't do it. I felt it hampered bonding with baby as I was trying to recover myself and felt I had no energy to give to my baby. It took quite a long time until I was able to take her out in the pram and also of course you can't drive for 6 weeks.
For baby 2 they then offered another section in fact were quite keen but I was adamant it wasn't happening. Call me crazy but I WANTED to labour, I felt I had missed out on this with my first child. Due to age they were insistent I didn't go over 40 weeks so I did have a section booked but thankfully baby came early so I was able to labour. It was a difficult birth and I ended up with a 4th degree tear BUT I felt 100 times better than my first birth. Recovery was pretty immediate (had to be as I was rushing to the loo, laxatives) , no pain and I felt I bonded a million times better with my baby as I was able to do everything. Also there was no chance I was going to be restricted with section recovery as I had child 1 to look after too and needed to be back on my feet ASAP. People asked me after if I wish I'd gone for the section and my answer is 100% no, with my 2 experiences I would choose a vaginal birth if possible every time.

I wanted a vaginal birth as I couldn't bear the thought of having surgery, spinal/epidural and so much medical intervention. Luckily I've never had surgery and I felt that I wanted to avoid it unless absolutely necessary.
Fortunately I've had two very easy and quick vaginal births, managing the pain using hypnobirthing techniques.

Both my vaginal births were awesome, even the first one when I had to go on the oxy drip (fun!).

To be honest a c-section never crossed my mind as something to consider, as I would personally prefer not to have my body cut open unless absolutely medically necessary (which thankfully wasn't the case for either of my pregnancies).

Plus there are benefits to the baby of a vaginal birth.

I figured it worked for thousands of years so there must be something in it and flat on my back with my legs at a funny angle is how i got into the situation in the first place so it worked then

I have Crohn's Disease which makes a C-section elective or emergency high risk.

It's also made me very aware if avoiding any surgery if possible as there is always a risk. And the immune system: both a vaginal birth and breastfeeding being beneficial to the babies and lowering the risk of them developing an auto immune condition themselves even as an adult. And there's the recovery for me as Mum

So I'm hoping to have vaginal birth and breast feed, but may not have the choice and will consider myself lucky if I do.

I've had 3 VB's, an ELCS and an EMCS. Personally I found the pain about the same for all of them but the c-section pain was after the birth when I also had a baby to look after and lots of walking around, sterilizing bottles etc. So I preferred the pain to be beforehand when I didn't have to do anything else. There was some pain after my vaginal births but nothing a dose of paracetamol and ibuprofen didn't cure completely

Surely because that's how we evolved - babies grow in our uterus and come down the birth canal when they're ready to be born?!

OP, there is quite a lot of evidence that VB babies have better microbiomes and stronger immune systems:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-49740735.amp

There are links to peer-reviewed research in there, including articles published in Nature.

This 👆X1000

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Disagree wholeheartedly. Had a 4th degree tear and recovery was far better than my section and pain free.

OP you are being the judgmental one!

I think u now what you're driving at here, but at the end of the day a vaginal delivery is the most natural way to give birth... and if you're someone like me who didn't even need stitches, I was bouncing around within a couple of hours of giving birth each time. Also abdominal surgery prior to then having to take care of a newborn doesn't seem the ideal way to start the experience.

My thought process was that it was the way women have been giving birth since the dawn of time and I wanted to experience it. But for various reasons my VB was quite traumatic and lead to complications so I'd now probably choose a C-section but given the poor care I received I'm not risking my life with another.

My first was an emergency c-section, high risk and therefore second was recommended an elective c-section by the doctors as I was still diabetic and it was during covid. I was high risk and they didn’t think a natural birth was the way to proceed. I had infection post both my c-sections and recovery took a while but overall it was ok. It is major surgery though and not to be taken lightly.

Weren't babies always born vaginally? I mean for the last ten thousands of years?

The thought of cutting open a female's stomach/uterus horrifies me.

My dad is a obgyn.
He told me to have a c section. He’s seen too many disasters for both mother and baby in “natural” births. A planned, controlled c section delivery is the safer option generally. Natural doesn’t equal better - I mean it’s natural to
die in childbirth!
A couple of NCT friends were also doctors, one an obstetrician. Both had elective c sections! No indications for c section, but neither wanted to risk the natural route!

Haven’t read the whole thread, but isn’t it a bit of a myth that c-sections are more expensive?

A woman opting for a planned c-section means no emergency c-section, no complicated vaginal delivery etc. and far less chance of having to pay out compensation for injuries etc.

im sure I read a study that showed women choosing sections don’t cost the NHS anymore than if they chose vaginal birth