What is an emergency C-section? How do I know if a C-section is necessary?
Here's today's truth bomb: If you are having a healthy, low-risk pregnancy (which means you're pregnant with your first baby, you aren't having twins, and your baby is not breech), your risk of having a C-section by simply walking into a U.S. hospital is one in three. One... in... three. That is nuts! According to evidence-based best practices, that number should be closer to one in five or even one in six for low-risk people.
So how did we get here? What's going on? The question of whether or not a C-section is necessary deserves its own real estate, because of all the questions asked in a childbirth class, this is one of two that gets asked most frequently. The other one being: How will I know when it's time to go to the hospital? And you'll just have to sign up for a HelloBirth class to find out the answer to that one! So if you're asking these kinds of burning questions, this post is for you. And because our approach means we're not the type of people to beat around the bush, here's what you really need to know.
An emergency C-section is different than an emergent C-section
A true emergency C-section means there are only minutes available to save the life of the baby, the birth-giver, or both. If there's not already an epidural in place, this means one will need to be placed immediately. Because time is of the essence and general anesthesia is the fastest epidural procedure, that's what will be done. That means that people who are not already utilizing an epidural who need a lifesaving C-section will need to be put under, otherwise known as "put to sleep" and will not be awake for the birth of their baby. This is a tough circumstance especially when it is unplanned. But it is thankfully relatively uncommon. In fact, emergency C-sections make up approximately 1% of all C-sections performed.
I had a C-section for a problem with the baby's cord, placenta, or something else unknown. Was this an emergency?
More than likely, a C-section that's done because the care provider was concerned about the health of the birth-giver or the health of the baby would be categorized as emergent. Most of these are going to be unplanned C-sections that are done in a relatively timely fashion. In other words, the care team is not sitting around for hours just waiting to see if things improve.
Hopefully they will communicate to the patient and their family members / support team members what is being recommended, why it is being recommended, and what to expect will happen over the next 1-2 hours in preparation for surgery. And in most cases, a standard epidural can be placed if it's not already in place, meaning the birth-giver can be awake for the birth. There is also usually enough time to discuss other birth wishes and work towards honoring those preferences.
Unplanned C-sections, many of which are emergent and more than likely necessary under the current set of circumstances, make up almost 60% of all C-sections performed.
Why is it so important to make this distinction?
So at this point maybe you're thinking we're splitting hairs and wondering why this matters. In our approach at HelloBirth hypnobirthing, language is everything. The language that we use to describe an event or a concept affects our experience greatly. And our goal with HelloBirth hypnobirthing classes is to provide a framework that includes language that's clear, direct and compassionate and gentle at the same time. It can be done! We are hell bent on childbirth without the dogma! We can achieve that while also reducing fear-based decision making.
So it's important to recognize that emergency C-sections are indeed rare. And with that, we can breathe a sigh of relief. But we also need to acknowledge that the other 99% of C-sections carry the potential to be reduced by a margin of about 13%. There's a lot that we can do to help prevent so many emergent C-sections from occurring in the first place.
In HelloBirth class, we teach students how to recognize normal birthing progress and how to encourage it, how to reduce the chances of normal birthing stress turning into distress, and how to encourage an optimal position for your baby through gravity, movement, rest, and other techniques. There is so much to learn and we're here to help!