Honeymoon Fresh

[pinkee]

Ok so the GP Doctor on Daybreak has just waded into the C-section debate saying that women in Hollywood, LA have C-sections to stay "honeymoon fresh" and protect their pelvic floor muscles, calling such a reason "frivolous" and going on about the extra medical staff who would need to be around.

Daybreak have the "too posh to push" headline which Christine Bleakley has been saying all through their news coverage.

Makes me very angry - I mean how offensive is it use this language about women in this manner, the assumption that a women felt a c-section was needed to protect her pelvic floor that this a frivolous reason incenses me, surely it could be a medical reason. Arghhhhh!

That's it really I just wanted to vent.

SardineQueen - a friend who is a midwife told me that (at least in her area) it is the history of how the midwife units came about that means they are often separate. Hers used to be a full consultant led ward with epidurals, sections, etc. However, new guidelines came in - such as having a dedicated operating theatre for the delivery ward - which the hospital could not comply with. To avoid closing maternity facilities completely, it became a MLU.

Purpose built new units (like one in Lewisham) do tend to be with the hospital or its grounds for easy transfer between the two.

the first time I heard that loathsome phrase was on Shameless, Frank's wife was discussing her upcoming delivery and said she'd ask the doctor to put another stitch in - 'so it'd be Honeymoon Fresh ' while Franks drink addled ruined tongue lolled from his mouth. cos he's worth it

That's interesting thanks secondtimelucky.

Hopefully over time then MLUs will be built on the grounds of the main hosp and then it will encourage more women to go MLU I think.

I'd love a MLU here - unfortunately we don't have one at all. I think they are a really good option. Although someone I know was in the curious position of being too high risk for a birth centre but being allowed to book a home birth (because they can't legally refuse, only advise against it.)

Grim!

There's also an unpleasant sense of entitlement there too ... the only reason a woman wants a functioning pelvic floor is to please their man

Bertie - we didn't when DD1 was born, and by the time of DD2 I was set on a homebirth. It makes me angry how patchy the provision is.

Going back to the main topic of the thread, I think the whole of this debate in the mainstream media smacks of misogyny and it really gets me cross when I think about it. The whole 'honeymoon fresh' 'too posh to push' business is not only nasty, it is generally a smokescreen hiding the extremely poor treatment of women in childbirth.

Ok, I know a few women (notably those who do not have children yet) who have said to me that they would request a section and think it's an easy option. Once you are educated, you realise there are no easy options. Sections are just hard in different ways, and different birth choices might be right for different mothers. Discounting the terrible handmaiden 'I have to give birth before Johnny goes off to Australia for the World Cup' sporting wives, etc women generally 'request' a section because of mental health issues, family history or horrible treatment/outcome in a previous birth. At every turn those women are let down (for example, by lack of compassionate midwifery in the earlier birth, by lack of counselling) and then belittled and made fun of when they try to make a choice to take back some dignity and control.

I am a strong advocate of natural birth, but I don't believe that for many women that is possible with the poor resources we allocate to birthing and the horrible environment they are placed in. For many women the rational response to that environment is to seek a section (although I went the other way and had a doula and homebirth second time).

TBH I attended NCT ante-natal and NHS ante-natal (PFB overkill ) and they were really down on intervention, with CS being painted as just the end of the world.

I know this is not the case everywhere! But I wouldn't think that unless there is a huge shift in the thinking of the entire ante-natal industry in the UK that many more women will request CS.

sakura, as SinicalSai says, the relation between C sections and maternal death is complicated both by emergency sections but also by elective sections planned because of maternal or fetal complications (such as diabetes, placenta praevia). To make a fair comparison, you'd really need to randomise women suitable for both CS and VB and see the results - and no ethics committee in the right mind would approve that study!

This is really interesting and I agree that 'honeymoon fresh' and 'too posh to push' are disgusting phrases with both manage to belittle virgins, people who have had sex, posh people and less well-off people!

It is interesting to me also that Christine Bleakley hasn't actually had any babies, so she is also being used by media to spew out these phrases which deep down effect all women.

I had a vaginal birth and my friend who had a baby 2 months before me had an emergency section. She had bought into the belief that she had failed and it hurt me to see her look at me and think that I'd done it 'right'.

FWIW, some other posters have mentioned being poorly spoken to by Drs or midwives, I agree. I was in hospital for 15 hours, in delivery room for 13 hours. When DS was born (my PFB) some of the first words out of the midwife's mouth to me were, "that took you a long time, my shift should have finished an hour ago."