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Top 10 reasons why vaginal childbirth is better for you, and better for you baby, than a c-sectionAll else being equal, vaginal childbirth is safer, healthier, and usually more satisfying than a c-section for both the mother and the baby, assuming a healthy mother and a healthy baby after a complication-free pregnancy. 1. You are less likely to die as a result of vaginal childbirth than a c-section. Without being alarmist, the fact of the matter is that your chance of dying as a result of complications from a c-section are increased. Cesareans are major surgery, and that includes all the attendant risk of a major surgery, including infection after the surgery, or a fatal thrombosis (blood clot that obstructs the flow of blood in your blood vessels to somewhere important, like your brain or your heart), complications with the anesthesia, and surgical injury. Medical technology has come a long way in recent decades, so your absolute risk of dying is still very small. Actual numbers are hard to pin down, and each study says something slightly different. With that said, one study that examined births between 1983 and 1992 in the Netherlands found that the risk of maternal death was 0.04 per 1000 vaginal births compared with 0.53 per 1000 cesarean deliveries. While that's a small absolute risk, based on these numbers, you are still 13 times more likely to die from a c-section than from a vaginal delivery. But one study is no study, as some who are familiar with research like to say. So while there is no consensus on the actual numbers, there is a consensus that an elective c-section versus vaginal childbirth does carry a higher rate of mortality for the mother. Obviously, if there are other, more likely risk factors present for either you or the baby, those may outweigh the relatively tiny risk of you dying. 2. Your baby is less likely to die as a result of vaginal childbirth than a c-section. Your baby's risk of dying increases, too. The sources of mortality come from difficulties breathing, an increased likelihood of prematurity, increased risk of infection after the surgery. Again, the number problem arises, so it is hard to know exactly what the increase in risk is. One study from 2006 showed a neonatal mortality rate of 1.77 per 1,000 live births among women who had c-sections, compared to 0.62 per 1,000 for women who delivered vaginally. 3. You will recover faster from vaginal childbirth than from a c-section. Recovery after a vaginal birth depends on a lot of factors, including the length of labor, the difficulty of the pushing stage, whether delivery was assisted with any tools such as forceps or a vacuum and whether an episiotomy was performed. For women with a relatively short labor (24 hours or less), short pushing stage who were allowed to push in their own preferred position and their own pace, and thus avoided an instrumental delivery or an episiotomy, recovery is very quick. Generally, women with normal, natural labors are able to move around on their own pretty much immediately after birth and are able to tend to their babies independently immediately. By contrast, women after long labors, instrumental deliveries, episiotomies or perineal injuries may find sitting uncomfortable in the first few days, but are usually able to move around and tend their babies independently within the first few hours. Recovery after a c-section also depends on a few factors, such as the type of anesthesia used, and hospital policies regarding painkillers, but usually women after a c-section are unable to move independently for at least the first 6 hours after surgery, and typically need assistance to take care of their own needs in the first 24 hours. They may not be able to take care of their baby independently until the second or third day, and complete recovery from the pain of surgery doesn't happen for 4 weeks or more for most women. 4. Your child will have fewer breathing problems after vaginal childbirth than after a c-section. When babies are squeezed by the contractions in labor, and then through the birth canal, the pressure forces fluid out of their lungs. (This is one of the points of labor pain.)There is also a theory that the hormones involved in labor help mature the lungs and get them ready to breathe air. So when you skip both the hormones of labor and the squeezing action of the uterus and the pelvic bones (which is what happens during an elective cesarean), babies are more often born with what is called a "wet lung" or more technically termed transient tachypnea of the newborn. This condition usually resolves within the first 24-48 hours, but babies in the meanwhile may need to be given supplemental oxygen and antibiotics. 5. You will be able to bond with your baby sooner after vaginal childbirth than after a c-section. This statement is extremely controversial. And I have to start with a disclaimer: just because you didn't get to vaginally deliver your child does not mean that you will not be able to bond with or love your baby. Humans and human love are far more complex than to be able to pare it down to any single event, such as pushing babies out of our bodies. And yet, research has shown that our levels of oxytocin are highest after a vaginal birth. Mothers and babies are awash in the stuff. You may have heard of oxytocin as the hormone responsible for uterine contractions. Well, oxytocin is also known as the love hormone; it is the hormone that is released when you hug someone, when you cuddle, when you have sex, when you have an orgasm, or when you simply trust someone. For females, stimulating their vagina causes a release of oxytocin and bonding. This makes sense when generally, the people women allow near or in their vaginas are mates and/or loved ones. However, even a vaginal exam by a doctor causes a release of oxytocin (which may explain why some women bond so inexplicably with doctors even when those doctors may not deserve it). A baby passing through the vagina releases the most amount of oxytocin a woman is likely to experience in her lifetime. Research has also shown that the brains of those women who gave birth vaginally are more responsive to their baby's cries than the brains of those women who had a cesarean delivery. And animal research shows that oxytocin is crucial for developing parenting behavior. If it is missing, parental behavior may also be absent. Don't despair if you missed out on the oxytocin rush caused by a vaginal delivery. Lots of cuddling, skin to skin contact, and breastfeeding your baby will also serve to release lots of oxytocin and aid in bonding. 6. You will be able to breastfeed sooner after vaginal childbirth than after a c-section, and you are more likely to successfully continue breastfeeding. Ideally, immediately after a vaginal birth, even before the umbilical cord is cut or the baby is weighed, measured or cleaned, the baby should be placed on the mother's stomach in skin to skin contact, and breastfeeding should be allowed to commence. Babies are actually capable of finding the nipple on their own within the first 30-60 minutes after an unmedicated birth if they are placed skin to skin with their mother. Unfortunately, skin to skin contact and initiation of breastfeeding is often delayed in favor of various hospital procedures that are not urgent (such as cleaning, weighing, measuring and clothing the baby), and these may actually interfere with the initiation of breastfeeding. Even so, mothers after a vaginal birth are usually able to hold and nurse their babies within the first hour, depending on the hospital's procedures. Ideally, during a c-section, as soon as the baby is lifted from the uterus and is wrapped, the baby can be placed skin to skin on the mother's chest, and breastfeeding can be initiated with the aid of another person who can help hold the baby in place. In some northern European countries, this is how they treat babies after a c-section, and the breastfeeding success of these babies is much higher. Unfortunately, what happens in many places is that the baby is taken away for examination, cleaned and wrapped, shown to the mother briefly, and then taken to a nursery for observation, where they fall into a deep and exhausted sleep, often aided by portions of formula delivered through a bottle. All these factors (the interrupted contact with the mother, the lack of skin to skin contact, the delay in putting the baby on the breast, and the introduction of an artificial nipple with artificial food) decrease breastfeeding success. Click here to read an article about my top 10 tips for breastfeeding success. Additionally, mothers after cesareans often have difficulty moving, and may delay breastfeeding due to pain or a fear that the baby will ingest pain medication with the breastmilk. (Click here to read more about breastmilk and medications.) 7. You will be in less pain after vaginal childbirth than after a c-section. Very few women after a vaginal delivery will ask for pain medication. In my career as a doula, I've seen it once, and then by a mother who received an episiotomy. By contrast, every woman after a cesarean will be in need of pain meds to be able to get up, move around, take care of her own needs (like go to the bathroom or sit up to eat), or to take care of her baby (like lifting the baby to the breast, changing diapers, dressing the baby). 8. You and your baby will get fewer infections after vaginal childbirth than after a c-section. Women who had a cesarean birth have a 5 to 20 times greater chance of developing an infection after the birth than women who had a vaginal delivery. The numbers here are: 1 or 2 women out of every 20 who underwent a cesarean will get an infection. This can further slow down and complicate c-section recovery and caring for your baby. As for babies, the main risk factor for an infection is actually not the c-section itself, but rather the delay in breastfeeding. After birth, baby's guts need to be colonized by friendly bacteria, usually those from the mother's skin as the baby first takes the mother's nipple into his or her mouth. With the same sucking motion, the baby also receives breastmilk from the mother which contains antibodies to the bacteria on her skin. Thus, mother's friendly bacteria colonize the baby's gut, breastmilk coats the baby's gastric passages, and protects the baby from infection. This is another reason why breastfeeding early after delivery is so important. 9. You will be able to go home sooner after vaginal childbirth than after a c-section. Depending on your institution, you will be allowed to go home in 1-3 days after a vaginal birth, but will have to stay in the hospital for 2-5 days after a cesarean. And that is if there are no complications, which are more common with cesarean deliveries, so complications for you or your baby may increase the length of your stay, too. 10. You will be able to have more babies after vaginal childbirth than after a c-section, and subsequent pregnancies and births after a cesarean are more risky. Here's the part they don't often mention with regards to c-sections. They limit the number of babies you can have in your lifetime. I know for some women that is not a concern, since many women plan on having no more than one or two children in their lives. However, if you are planning on having more than 3 children, you need to be aware that the risk of the cesarean procedure increases with every single surgery performed. women who had just one previous caesarean section are more likely to have problems with their second birth. Women who delivered their first child by c-section have an increased risk of malpresentation, placenta previa, antepartum hemorrhage, placenta accreta, prolonged labor, uterine rupture, preterm birth, low birth weight, and stillbirth in their second delivery. And the more cesareans a woman has, the riskier each subsequent pregnancy and birth becomes. So there are lots of good reasons why vaginal childbirth is better for both you and your baby. However, I firmly believe that women should have the right to choose the manner of their birth, whether that be a home birth, a hospital birth, and including choosing an elective cesarean. But just as women who choose home birth need to be aware of the risks and make an informed decision, women who choose an elective cesarean need to be aware of the risks and make an informed decision, too. If you are pregnant for the first time, and worried or even fearful about what vaginal childbirth entails, I would encourage you to browse some of the other articles on this website about what the big deal about natural childbirth is, about the point of labor pain, about hospital procedures and how they impact your birth, about c-sections and what exactly happens during them. And finally, click here to see videos of vaginal childbirth.
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