How to avoid an unnecessary caesarean

BEFORE LABOUR

Read and educate yourself on childbirth and its related processes.

Help ensure a healthy baby and mother by eating a well-balanced diet.

If your baby is breech, ask your care provider about exercise to turn the baby, external version (turning the baby with hands), and vaginal breech delivery. You may want to seek a second opinion.

DURING LABOUR

Stay at home as long as possible. Walk and change position frequently. Labour in the position most comfortable for you.

Continue to eat and drink lightly, especially during early labour, to provide energy.

Avoid drugs for a slow labour. As an alternative, you keep prying.

If your water bag breaks, don’t let anyone do a vaginal examination unless medically indicated for a specific reason. The risk of infection increases with each examination.

Request intermittent, instead of continuous electronic foetal monitoring or the use of a fetoscope. Medical research has shown that continuous electronic foetal monitoring can increase the risk of caesarean without related improvement in outcome for the baby.

Avoid using an epidural. Medical research has shown that epidurals can slow down labour and cause complication for the mother and baby.

Do not arrive at the hospital too early. If you are still in the early stages of labour when you get to the hospital, instead of being admitted, walk around the hospital or go home and rest.

If your healthcare provider has suggested a caesarean and you are in a non-emergency situation, take the time to really discuss your options regarding the procedure. Find out why it is being used in your case, what are the short-term and long-term effects on you and your baby, and what are your other options.

Other problems to expect with caesarean

Stillbirths. Women who have had a baby by caesarean have a higher risk of a stillbirth in a later pregnancy, an audit of thousands of births has revealed.

The data came from records of women in Oxford-shire and West Berkshire who had babies between 1968 and 1989 and the study is reported in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.