When you give birth via caesarean section, it's a serious operation. There's an operating theatre, doctors in scrubs, a sheet so you don't see anything upsetting and your baby is whisked away while you lie there, alone, getting stitched up. But all this is set to change with the development of the 'new caesarean' that focuses less on the operation and more on the creation of new life.
Professor Nick Fisk, professor of obstetrics at Imperial College in London, has completely redeveloped the caesarean birth. His new method is called 'skin-to-skin caesarean' or 'walking the baby out'.
Professor Fisk said he starting thinking of ways to improve the caesarean birth due to the increase in the rate of caesareans. He told The Guardian, "While couples having normal deliveries have been given more and more opportunities to be fully involved in childbirth, very little has been done to see how we could make the experience more meaningful for those having caesareans."
He immediately realised caesareans have to be slowed down. Unless there is an urgent medical situation, there is no reason for them to be so rushed which would allow parents to be more involved in the birth of their child. He also felt it was unnecessary for parents to be screened off from the mother's abdomen and babies don't need to be rushed off. They can spend time with their parents first, just like in a traditional birth.
He said, "When the baby is being born she's still attached to the umbilical cord and is still getting oxygen from the placenta. Caesarean birth can be gentle, just as vaginal birth can be gentle."
Doctors are clinging to many outdated beliefs when it comes to birth and Professor Fisk says one is that it's being squeezed through the birth canal that helps a child breathe. "But by leaving the baby's body inside the uterus for longer once the head is out, the body is squeezed and you see the lung liquid coming out of the baby's nose."
What you can expect from a gentle caesarean:
* Doctors and nurses to explain everything to you as it happens;
* Music playing in the operating theatre;
* The birth is not rushed;
* You can see the baby being born with mirrors;