Word: birth
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...tries to squeeze a baby through a narrow vaginal opening. The forces involved are such that when the baby's head emerges, it can do so with sufficient pressure to rip the mother's perineum and leave grind marks on pubic bone. In many ways, the act of giving birth resembles a medical emergency - in fact, if no medical intervention of any kind were made, up to 1 in 67 women would die in labor. Fear of birth pain is thus legitimate and it is no wonder that many women elect to have C-sections - especially when the procedure...
...Unkind Cut Cesareans are not without drawbacks however, and they begin the moment the last stitches are made in the stupefied patient's lower belly. The WHO recommends that babies be breastfed within an hour of birth, because vital antibodies and protective proteins - in effect, the baby's first immunizations - are delivered through those precious early drops of milk. But, as Dr. Atwood points out, breastfeeding "is difficult to do if you are coming out of anesthesia. That's a serious issue." Some women remain groggy for hours...
...Finally, as a woman contemplates future children, she may face the possibility of reduced fertility. A 2004 study found that women who had cesareans were almost four times more likely to have problems conceiving again, compared to women who gave birth naturally. The former will also experience increased risks of ectopic pregnancy and placenta previa or accreta (an abnormally located placenta, which may cause bleeding and other complications). And because many doctors will not permit a woman to undergo natural childbirth once she has had a cesarean - because the uterine scar may rupture during labor with potentially dire consequences...
...Thailand, the pleas of natural-birth advocates do not find a large audience. "It's like pushing a stone uphill," says veteran campaigner Dr. Tanit Habanananda of the Childbirth and Breastfeeding Foundation of Thailand. "We're frustrated. It's very easy to get a C-section in Thailand. We have some colleagues at hospitals trying to change things but it's very hard." His spouse, Dr. Melanie Habanananda, adds: "If you use the term 'natural birth' here, people think it means you have to go sit in a paddy field to have your baby." Cesareans, she says, "have become very...
...general terms, the medical establishment comes in for a hard time from natural-childbirth advocates, many of whom wrap their arguments in the valence of feminism - speaking of doctors systematically reducing women's belief in their ability to give natural birth, with mothers lined up, strapped down and sliced open like so many units of easy revenue...