Story here. My Thai wife and whitey I are childless by choice, so this has never come up, but I know there are a few Dopers out there also married to Asian ladies and who have had children with them. In Thailand, or at least in Bangkok, C-sections have become quite a fad, with Thai ladies demanding them regardless of who their husband is.
I’ve heard there are some dangers associated with C-sections, but since we’ve never planned to have children, I’ve never looked too closely into what those are. It’s always sounded to me to be a sensible alternative to the pain of childbirth if you can get it.
In the mid-1980’s, I was stationed in Turkey with the US Air Force. As one of 3 Family Practice doctors, I took Obstetric calls every month. We had a Turkish obstetrician as our back-up doctor to call if there were problems.
The Turkish obstetrician felt that a C-section was less traumatic to the mother and child than a vaginal delivery. So we always knew what his answer would be when we called him, and we tried not to call him unless we also felt the C-section was necessary.
(That philosophy probably helped him manage a very busy practice, and helped him get some sleep at night. I don’t know how many OB doctors there were in the town, but I had heard that there were 2 orthopedic surgeons for a population of a million people, one of which came to our base 2 afternoons a month to see patients.)
My last GF was a small Asian and wanted a C-section if and when she had a baby. IMO it shouldn’t ever be a ‘first choice,’ but I’m not a doctor so I don’t make a big deal out of it.
Well, then you have the pain of healing up after the C section. I’ve never had one of those, but I HAVE had a hysterectomy through the abdomen. That HURT. Ouch. Damn hard to move. I’ve had a vaginal delivery, and if a C section is as painful afterwards as a hysterectomy, I’d rather go the vaginal route. At least with a vaginal delivery, the main pain is over within a day. Yeah, the episiotomy sucks, but an abdomenal wound sucks more.
Why not? I’m a bit crunchy and wanted to have a completely natural birth so was disappointed to end up having an emergency C section due to fetal distress after 18 hours of labor. But, considering those 18 hours of labor left me honestly wishing somebody would shoot me in the head to end the pain (my eventual epidural didn’t take and I felt like I was ripping in two), I can quite get behind the idea of women choosing not to go through a natural labor or birth. Surely it should be up to the woman to decide what she can and can’t deal with? 3 months later and I’ve still got muscle pains and problems resulting from my C section but I’d go through the recovery again in a heartbeat compared to how bad my labor pains were, which I still feel fairly traumatised by.
My wife is Chinese and I’m as white as rice. Both our daughters were born naturally. She did have an episiotomy with each child though.
Yes, I looked it up.
Is the idea of elective c-section really that shocking to you? It’s not exactly rare in the US. And planned sections are safer than those that have to be done unexpectedly due to fetal distress or whatever. Besides, the article wasn’t just talking about elective c-sections but overall rates of c-section in the study group.
It is said, around here anyway, that the most damage to your body as far as returning to “normal” occurs in the last month of pregnancy. It is also said, around here anyway, that most wealthy women schedule c-sections and that it is considered pretty low class to deliver normally. When I was pregnant, I was shocked at the sheer number of women suggest that I opt for a c-section.
With a lifetime fear of labor and delivery, I have a bigger fear of being gutted. I went normal, but with all the drugs. I ain’t stupid.
As with most things in Thailand, the Hippocratic Oath tends to be negotiable here. But as other posters have pointed out, even ladies in the West often opt for one as a first choice. Perhaps it’s a matter of the school of thought the doctor subscribes to? It sounds like some doctors insist on, or at least advise, a natural childbirth, while others are not only okay with a C-section, they actively promote it as the best option for mother and child both.
I’m sure the recovery from a C-section is painful, but God! Thinking of all the scenes of childbirth just in the movies, I’d be begging for a C-section if I were a pregnant woman.
Good for you! Obviously a C section is a life saver for both mothers and babies, but when it’s not a medical necessity there’s a striking similarity to Brave New World
C sections absolutely suck, well the recovery anyway. I just had mine 1 month ago and still don’t feel like myself. We do too many unnecessary ones in the U.S.
Shocking, not at all. My wife is a childbirth educator and doula, and I’ve seen a lot of info on this sort of thing. Plus there’s quite a distinction between planned and elective. C-sections can be planned because there is a known condition and the C-section is the safest course of action. That, of course, I have no problem with.
I don’t actually have much of a problem with women wanting to have one, as avoidance of pain (well, one kind of pain rather than another)is one of the strongest human instincts. What I’m questioning is the doctors who do this. Any doctor worth his salt shouldn’t perform C-sections without any medical necessity. I shouldn’t be able to go to a doctor and say “hey, give me an appendectomy”, should I?
When I had my big physical sometime last year, I remember Board members thinking it odd that I could choose between a barium enema and a stress test. That was the purpose of my thread, asking which one I should choose. As I recall, a good number of posters thought the doctor should decide which one I needed and proceed with it rather than leave it up to me to decide. Wacky Third World.
In the military world, there are a fair number of asian women married to caucasian or black men. Anecdotally, it does seem that such pairs tend to have a higher rate of c-section, due to the baby growing larger than an asian pelvis can handle.
I’ve seen a lot of C-sections, and I wouldn’t have one unless it was a medical neccesity. First, they have to slice into the skin and fascia covering the muscle. Then the doctors tear…yes, tear…open the abdominal muscles covering the uterus, then slice open the uterus. They often then have to push pretty hard on the top of the uterus to help expel the baby. Compare this to a vaginal birth, in which the baby comes out of a ready made passage. Which do you think makes for an easier recovery?
You may be in pain for several hours with a vaginal birth, but you are in pain for at least several days after a C-section, and that’s if you don’t get an infection, or if your wound doesn’t open (which it can internally or externally), or any of many other complications that can occur afterward.
The study in that article confuses me: all they’re *really *saying is that smaller, shorter women who procreate with larger, taller men are more likely than larger, taller women who procreate with larger, taller men to need a c-section. This is news? Bigger babies inside smaller mothers require more c-sections? Color me shocked. (Not.)
The movies are just as good at portraying childbirth as they are at portraying fistfights, married arguments in the mall and the cuteness of small children - exaggeration abounds. I’ve attended pitocin induced 24 hour labor and deliveries, and even those aren’t as bad as the simplest sitcom delivery, or the best case Cesarean recovery.
Well, for the first week after a c-section you’re not allowed to go up or down stairs because of the risk to the incision. I’m sure post-vaginal birth moms aren’t keen on stairs, either, but at least if you live in a two-storey you don’t have the risk of your insides falling out.
It takes at least six-eight months post c-section or other major surgery to recover. Women who have had a section are at more risk for placenta previa if they have subsequent pregnancies. Placenta previa is bad.
I would way rather have had regular childbirth. It’s painful, but the post-op exhaustion, plus having a newborn, is flattening.
