Caesarean Birth: A positive approach – goes to 2nd Edition

The update came about because conversations with many women in the 7 years since this book was first published reveals little has changed in terms of a woman’s experience of a caesarean or the extent to which it is included in antenatal education and the need for up-to-date information is as vital as ever.

That said, once a caesarean is agreed, ideas about how to improve the experience are being more readily accepted by some practitioners and the ‘natural caesarean’ approach is now more commonly discussed. However, the barriers faced by women wanting to discuss their options in the first instance are still many. Hospitals and individual practitioners, driven by economics and/or professional bias, continue to make things difficult for some women wanting more say their birth options.

Despite the World Health Organisation’s retraction of their recommended target levels (retracted in 2009), which clarified that the “optimum rate is unknown”, hospitals continue to be threatened with unachievable targets and women labelled ‘too posh to push, are blamed for driving the caesarean rate up.

This update:

• Adds new research
• Updates facts and figures pertinent to both caesarean and vaginal birth
• Adds learning from women and birth partners who have shared their experiences with the author
• Highlights the needs and issues of same sex birth partners – in this last case the needs of this group are frequently over looked and while much of their experience of birth is the same as for male birth partners, research suggests that these co-parents actually have a significant number of additional emotional factors to deal with and the impact of this is only just beginning to be researched and understood