The birth process squeezes mucus out of the baby's lungs and stimulates the nervous system. Surgical delivery necessitates intubation to clear the lungs and often resuscitation to stimulate a baby unprepared to enter the world. Sophie Alexander , MD provided citations from the scientific literature on this topic. See References at the end of this article. Decreased success with breastfeeding and bonding A woman with a major abdominal wound may find it impossible to hold her baby.
Recovery is prolonged and painful, so mothers are less able to care for their infants.
Both cases necessitate a fever diagnostic workup for the baby with blood tests and sometimes a spinal tap. Sarah is a postpartum doula - she is trained to support mothers in the weeks after birth. Marsden Wagner , former director of maternal child health for WHO - World Health Organization, and opponent to Harer on the ABC broadcast, reports chances of death are four to eight times greater with cesarean section compared to vaginal birth. Even a 'routine', scheduled cesarean section with no medical complication as the reason for surgery carries a two times greater risk that the woman will die from surgery. I wish that I could go back and choose c-section and avoid the consequences of an uncomplicated vaginal delivery.