There’s an article circulating that correlates c-sections to a higher risk of chronic disease, such as a 20% increase in asthma. You can read the article here. Needless to say there are a lot of mom’s who are highly offended. Here’s my take.
This article is the latest and largest added to a body of research concerning the risks associated with c-sections. It certainly is not about shaming mothers, and it does not claim that all born via cesarean will develop a chronic disease anymore than it says all not born via cesarean will not develop chronic disease.
It also does not comment at all about WHY the cesarean occurred. It is about identifying risk. Follow up research should include why so many cesareans are occurring. The evidence shows that only 10-15% of cesareans are actually necessary, so we need to discover why the rate in the U.S. 30+% (the Danish who did this study have a 21%). Do 30% of birth actually need to occur via cesarean? What is it that our maternal care is lacking that leads to so many cesareans? What is it about our labor and birth processes? There’s tons of evidence in both these areas. Are doctors following and thus recommending what the evidence is showing? There’s a ton of evidence regarding that as well.
We were designed to be born vaginally, that’s not a judgement, that’s a fact. When that can and does happen we are less likely to experience future issues (that’s not saying life is holly jolly when born vaginally).
As we pass through the birth canal our skulls are actually molded, without that pressure we are more likely to experience neurological/meningeal distress which can lead to a host of problems, not necessarily as an infant but as an adult, more problems than this article even suggests. If it shows as an adult very few people can comprehend how the birth process contributes. As we pass through the birth canal the pressure helps our lungs expel amniotic fluid better than suction ever can. It also stimulates the alveoli of the lungs to release surfactant so that the lungs can function best as they were designed!
As we pass through the birth canal we don’t get our first sexual experience! Some people actually suggest that! That is above and beyond disgusting and perverted and points out a huge conceptual problem our society has with a female body, but we do get our first dose of bacteria which colonizes our digestive tract and skin developing our own microbiome. The depth and variety of our microbiome will have lasting impact our our physical, immunological and mental wellbeing throughout our life, there’s tons of evidence regarding that as well.
Even when born vaginally, most mothers are on their back which leads to a more traumatizing birth for both mother and child, and many babIes are forcefully pulled from the birth canal by their heads via hands, forceps or vacuum (same occurs with cesareans though more force is used in cesareans because you must pull against the vacuum of the abdominal cavity vs pull with the pushing forces of the vaginal canal), therefore neurological/meningeal stress can and does still occur. In fact, multiple studies suggest that 80% of infants experience this distress!
The supine birthing position also leads to a cascade of events that very often, not always, results in cesarean, this is where babies show distress when they aren’t biomechanically capable of moving past the sacrum which becomes immobilized in the supine position. Even when born vaginally most mothers don’t take probiotic prior to conception or during pregnancy. Imbalanced microbiome is a risk factor to preterm labor often needing cesareans. Many women are put on antibiotics during labor (vaginally or cesarean) further impacting an already weakened microbiome. This changes the microbiome that’s available to pass on to baby and again has a lasting effect on the health of baby. When all of this is considered it’s obvious there’s a lot of risk involved in childbirth.
But there are also things that can be done to lessen that risk. In my personal clinical experience very few mothers are told anything about what I just told you. More worrisome is many, not all, women, in my personal clinical experience are very apathetic about their upcoming birth until they are past 30 weeks and at that point you’re well on your way of the conveyer belt that is our maternity system. Everyone wants a baby that is as healthy as possible. That’s a fact. It’s incredibly important that we make informed decisions. In my experience, and as mentioned, not everyone is informed and you don’t know what you don’t know. That’s not your fault, my own OB and nurse midwives told me almost nothing regarding how to take care of myself to ensure I had the birth outcome I desired. They didn’t even ask me what I wanted. I ask pregnant women this and they don’t know how to answer it. You don’t know what you don’t know.
As more evidence comes to light and as we learn more personally it’s very likely that we’ll make different decisions. I made very different decisions regarding the birth of my first and second child. That doesn’t mean I made bad decisions in either case, it just means I made the best decision for myself and my children with my current level of understanding with consideration of the current situation. No one can shame me for that because I won’t let them. And understanding the risks I undertook in both cases I did everything I could that I knew of to lessen those risks. Considering my education I know much more than the average person, so my concern is who is telling everyone else how to lessen their risk? And when an article like this is available to the public and provides an opportunity to expand your current knowledge base, too many people take it personally, provide invalid reasoning and shut down to the available learning opportunity. That’s a major problem because it ultimately shuts down our ability to grow.
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