I have been having a conversation with the Travelling Midwife and she sent me the document entitled The natural Caesarean. Now it’s been around for ages and I have always made a point of not reading. The idiotic thought that a section is normal is way out of my comfort zone. If a woman needs an operation then we shouldn’t be making it natural but should have good reason to make it happen as quickly as possible, to save the life of mother or baby or both. When having a normal birth is more detrimental than having surgery.
Early skin to skin contact as recommended by UNICEF is not difficult to initiate even in a surgical situation and all of the “routine” checks can always wait for hours and hours. This doesn’t mean that it’s natural, just that in the awful situation of surgery everyone is putting mother and baby first.
Update
I wrote that ages ago and never finished it. Since then I’ve attended a planned section where the woman reached down and picked up her baby. If you have to plan a section for a medical non emergency reason this actually can make the experience pretty amazing.
I haven’t changed my opinion on choosing a section for no reason, and if you have it as a life saving procedure this isn’t an option, however I am definitely richer for having been with this woman and watching her pick up her baby instead of going through the usual rigmarole involved with everyone but the woman eyeing and pawing the baby.
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You encapsulate my thoughts perfectly on this. It is frustrating to me to know that most women who have a C-section have their babies taken from them unnecessarily and only given a brief peek at the squalling “bundle of joy” before not seeing him or her again for hours.
-Kathy
I came across the article about natural c-sections a couple weeks ago. I’ve had 4 c-sections, so my next will definantly have to be a c-section as well. The thought of having the baby placed on my chest- skin-to-skin after birth intrigues me! Do you have any other advice for having a more “natural” c-section? If so, I’d love to hear!
Decide what it is you want at your section. i’e. seeing baby come out,picking baby up, lotus etc. Then Write a really clear birth plan get yourself a birth advocate or independent midwife and find a woman friendly Ob. You can still however VBAC. The stats really don’t change much on the risks.
I just found this article quite interesting as I've done some research & written about "natural ceasarean" but never thought of calling that. How cool.
So in terms of having a more natural caesarean, one thing I suggest putting in place (and this is for all births really) is waiting for the cord to stop pulsating blood before it's cut. This is especially important for caesarean babies as they're often born early, hence they need that final blood supply to all their organs, especially the lungs.
There's research suggesting that c-sections are linked to asthma due to the lack of full development of the lungs and that final supply of blood from the placenta.
This is where Lotus birth that Lisa talks about is additionally beneficial.
Put it into your birth plan, discuss it with your obstetrician, and providing there's no emergency or danger to yourself or your baby, then you can ensure it's implemented.
Happy birthing.
Well I had a caesarean birth only 2 months ago, and in a lot of ways, it was a natural caesarean, but I was most interested to read the article and approach taken by the medico’s, towards trying to make caesareans more gentle.
I didn’t expect to be in that situation EVER and had never read up about it, considering this was my 5th birth after 2 homebirths and 2 easy hospital births,but I almost wish I’d read this article before, as for me the most traumatic bit was hearing Balthazar, and knowing he was out, and not being able to see or touch him. And about the only thing I feel bad for him about, was being yanked out by his leg and shocked into life.
But apart from that, by all accounts my caesarean was almost natural! I was incredibly greatfull to have a team of respectful folk in surgery, who paved the way for me to have as little intervention as I could in the circumstances. And as soon as our placenta was out, they popped it in a plastic bag and handed him straight to me, no examinations or anything else inbetween him and me coming together again. He buried his head in my neck straight away, and shielded his eyes with his hands, and I haven’t really let him go since.
After having an unexpected caesarean, my judgements about it have drastically changed, and I’d love to hear more of a dialoge about how to do caesarean’s better, if that is the way it has to be for a mother and child.
I am about to undergo a planned Csection for my third child. My first was a natural birth, my second baby (just 15 months ago) was lying transverse and nothing but nothing would budge him, so when my waters broke I had a Classical Csection, my Ob has said apologetically that there really is no option for a natural birth in my case. So this article is of particular interest to me. This dear little baby is head down and ready to go already and I feel majorly annoyed for it and for me that a natural birth is out of the question, thankfully people are thinking about “natural csections” and for people like me they help us to find some peace with the process of medicalized birth.
Dear anonymous. Your Ob is WRONG
you can indeed have a normal birth I urge you to check out the facts for yourself.
Good luck