I’m being asked a lot about the media furore going on at the moment around what is being presented as the Governments’ handing out of caesareans to anyone and everyone on a whim.
What’s actually happened is that NICE (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) have recently issued a new set of guidelines on caesarean birth. The essence of the recommendations is that a woman has the right to choose her baby’s manner of birth outside of medical or mental health concerns. She can obtain a caesarean because she wants one – for whatever reason.
Does this seem discordant with the NHS trying to lower the rate of CS in the UK? Doesn’t it go against the NHS embracing HypnoBirthing and its practices with the ongoing clinical trial and hospitals offering HB courses themselves? Well no, because as the guidelines recommend: “When a woman requests a CS because she has anxiety about childbirth, offer referral to a healthcare professional with expertise in providing perinatal mental health support to help her address her anxiety in a supportive manner”
Most midwives I’ve spoken with seem to agree that the guidelines are just setting out what has been practice for some time: if a woman is adamant about her wishes and clear about the risks and benefits of all her options she is normally able to obtain what she needs. Entirely reasonable.
Set aside the hysterical op-ed pieces in the papers and the guidelines cover all aspects of labour and caesareans from a medical perspective and there are welcome recommendations regarding the benefit of early skin to skin contact:
“Early skin-to-skin contact between the woman and her baby should be encouraged and facilitated because it improves maternal perceptions of the infant, mothering skills, maternal behaviour, and breastfeeding outcomes, and reduces infant crying.”
and welcome recognition for us doulas:
“Women should be informed that continuous support during labour from women with or without prior training reduces the likelihood of CS.”
I firmly believe in choice and I want women to make informed and empowered choices about their bodies, babies and births. If that choice is a caesarean then we’re lucky to live somewhere where that is a real option but it is a choice that should come from knowledge not because of  lack of information about their own bodies and the fear that creates.