Have C-Sections become common practice?
June 19, 2007
In the past year several friends of ours have produced children. Starting last July, kids seemed to be popping out all around our circle of friends and family. The latest edition was born at the end of May, and with her birth, I started to wonder about how frequently c-sections are used these days.
Counting myself, I personally know six women who have given birth in the past year. I realize that this is a very small sample, and it is in no way random. However, out of the six women who gave birth, only two did it naturally. Everyone else had a c-section. The reasons for c-sections were all different, and only two women went to the same hospital – some were north of me, some south, one in Pittsburgh, PA and one in Nebraska (both the out of state babies were born by c-section).
Although my personal experience can’t be extrapolated to the rest of the world, it seems like 4 c-sections in my small circle of friends is a pretty high anomaly. I’m curious about any other mothers who read this blog, and what their birthing experiences were like – and those of their friends in recent years.
In google searching this topic, I uncovered an interesting blog post from Health Mongers. The statistics they list show that c-sections in the US reached a record high of 29.1% in 2004, though they don’t say what that number increased from. Their theories about the reasons for more c-sections are interesting, though I’m not sure that I agree with them, I guess I’ll have to do more of my own research. It’s an interesting topic though.
First, I would like to apologize for my lack of posts in the past few weeks. As you may have guessed, I finally had my baby. So, for the squeemish, let me warn you that the rest of this post will have some details regarding the labor and delivery. The next post will be more warm and fuzzy about the joys of new parenthood.
We named him Alexander Grady, and are calling him Xander. Apparently Xander had been facing the wrong way – “sunny side up” and had refused to move into the birth canal, hence the c-section. At 6:39 pm on Wednesday September 20th Xander was born, after approximately 38 hours of labor. It was a very long few days, and an emotional rollercoaster for both 
Well, the little one is now technically considered “full term.” From what I understand, most of the development is done, and the baby is pretty much just adding weight from here on out – which, from my point of view, is a rather scary thought. My sister-in-law, who has 3 children of her own, told me a few months ago that I would eventually hit a point where I just did not want to move because it would take so much effort. A few weeks ago I thought I had hit that point. I was wrong. I have definitely hit it now – whether I’m sitting at home or at my desk at work, if I need to get up to do something, I hesitate now. I find myself actually saving up tasks so that I’ll only have to get up once (use the bathroom, print something, photocopy something and get the mail all in one trip, etc.). When I’m at home I find myself asking others to get things for me more frequently. Everyone has been great about that, but I still feel like a lazy slob sitting on the couch having people wait on me. Even walking up stairs or lifting my legs to put on pants requires so much effort these days. The pressure from the baby dropping makes my whole lower section ache every time I move. I have a suspicion this baby is pretty comfy and isn’t coming out early or on time, which means I’ve got even more weeks of this discomfort to look forward to. While I can tell myself that labor will be a temporary state, and that I will survive, at this point it feels like pregnancy is going to last forever – that I’ve got a permanent condition of “basketball belly.” So, please send me happy thoughts of a 6.5 pound baby, and a delivery that happens sooner rather than later 
My friends and family have been wonderfully supportive throughout my entire pregnancy. From the moment broadcast the good news, we’ve have encouragement and support, people bring by gifts for no reason other than they’re excited (and they just can’t resist the adorable baby stuff).