This is what a cesarean ought to look like.

Child centered, mother centered, and incorporating all the best research into their methods. When a cesarean is necessary, this is how it ought to be done.



Warning: there are a couple of graphic moments showing the open abdomen.

Courageous birth

Most of us who are "into birth" got there via some kind of activism. We're pushing for change and we tend to focus on unnecessary interventions and coerced cesareans and birth assault. In our zeal for a better birth culture, sometimes we can come across as, well, zealots. Sometimes we think that we have all the answers and sometimes we may sound like there is only one right way to have a baby. Sometimes we don't seem very loving.

This author? She has noticed, and beautifully written, a very important truth:

"...no matter how educated or uneducated, coerced or informed the choice that woman on the operating table made or didn't make, whether that cesarean was elective or emergency, necessary or unnecessary - it takes a lot of courage to get there. Our birth culture may be saturated in fear-based decisions, but behind every cesarean and "unnecesarean" is a woman of courage."

Read the rest here.

H/T to Jen for the link.