Cesarean Birth
Cesarean births have greatly increased in frequency in the United States, and many questions have been asked about parents’ adaptation following elective or emergency cesarean birth. Should this area be discussed in detail in childbirth classes when in some hospitals the percentage of cesarean births has reached 25% to 30%? What preparation should be made in the hospital for parents with a planned cesarean birth? In our unit in Cleveland, Ohio, we are fortunate to have local anesthesia used for the surgery, and fathers may be present in the delivery room. The father sits behind the mother with the anesthesiologist, receives the infant, holds the infant, and shows the infant to the mother.
Twenty minutes following the birth the mother, infant, and father go to the small labor room where they have privacy and the infant can be placed next to the mother with a heat panel. Here the mother can have the normal 45 to 65 minutes together with her husband and newborn infant. The only procedures interrupting this period are pulse rate and blood pressure measurements, which are made every 10 to 15 minutes. It is usually fortunate that during this period the mother’s anesthesia continues so that she is free to explore and enjoy her new infant with her husband. This simplifies an extremely difficult procedure for the families. It occurs before the common depression associated with the surgery, pain, and the failure to have had a vaginal delivery set in. We are pleased to see a number of studies now beginning to explore this expecially difficult area.