My latest thought

After reading some of the responses to my post about the rising Cesarean section rate and thinking back over many stories and reactions I've heard from women who delivered surgically I had this thought:

Is not the fact that women fear Cesarean delivery before labor and feel sad, defensive or ambivalent toward it afterward the best evidence that it is being overused? I would think you don't have to go far back in history for the near-universal attitude toward surgical birth being one of thankfulness. For in the situations when a Cesarean is truly needed, to save the baby's life or the mother's, what a relief it is to have this option.

And if it were only used today when truly needed, women would not have to second-guess whether they or their doctor "caved" or whether there was something they could have done differently. They wouldn't need to worry that people would question their decision after the birth.

Instead, you would hear that someone had a surgical delivery and say, "Oh how lucky she and her baby are."