More Truth About Cesaran Deliveries -- From the Baby's Perspective

I like to post comments I recieve on previous posts. "The Truth About Cesarean Deliveries (C-Sections) was a post by Heather a year ago.

Leavinglascrunchy has left a new comment on your post "The Truth About Cesarean Deliveries (C-Sections)":

While I agree with you that there are many risks involved in having a csection, there are also very valid reasons for having a csection. Each mom has to weigh in the risks of having a csection against the risks of waiting or not having one. I went into labor with my son early due to placental abruption. My son went into distress when I was about 8 cm dilated and they had to get him out quickly. In my case, I think the risks of doing nothing outweighed the risks of having a csection. Of course, I don't think that all csections are medically necessary but I think that doctors and patients can work together to decide when the benefits of having a csection outweigh the risks involved.

Of course, this is one of the few true emergencies and reasons for a cesarean delivery. I don't know anyone who debates that.

This is another opportunity for me to point out the main purpose of this blog --- to bring awareness to the needs and human rights of the human baby. EVEN when cesarean birth is done for medically necessary reasons, it is disruptive to the baby on the physiological, psychological, emotional, and spiritual levels. I know this will make many a woman rise up in anger to defend her child. That's a natural and normal, and desirable response. It still remains a fact that is logical, emotional, and scientific -- that the baby, child, or adult born by cesarean was disrupted and wounded. Disruption is a wounding. It has consequences. Long term consequences. Only one hundred years from now with the magnitude of that be known as common sense. People will look back and shake their heads at what humanity was doing to their newborn.

The baby born by cesarean doesn't get the lung compression needed to physiologically expel fluid and become an air breathing being. And, if the cesarean was done without labor, the baby didn't get the necessary compression of the scull and brain. Of course, vaginal birth is challenging; apparently, it was meant to be. However, it was not meant to be as challenging as it is made to be in modern hospitals. Every mammal is born this way. Pitocin induced labor is brutal and likely to be damaging to the baby, but undrugged birth is unlikely to be brutal.

It is a miracle that women are able to give birth at all when one considers the conditions that every other mammal requires and seeks out. A mama cat will typically not give birth even around her trusted humans. Women in hospitals give birth under the most dire, invasive conditions.

During a cesarean birth the baby is pulled through an opening that is not larger than the cervical opening -- partly to minimize damage to the mother's uterus and to minimize her scar. That is very important these days and it is part of the "maternal choice" movement that feigns feminism and women's rights. A woman has "a right" to choose to labor "under the influence" of narcotics and to expose her birthing baby to Fentanyl, a very dangerous synthetic opiod. It is used to counter the effects of the "caine" family drugs used.

Often forceps are used with ceserean birth -- see Anna Nicole Smith's video. An obstetrician who is foremost a surgeon, pulls the baby through very quickly with whatever body part presents ... arm, hip, shoulder, head. OR, she/he reaches in and moves the baby. Talk about pain and intrusion. This is baby's FIRST TOUCH. It imprints a message in the brain about touch, this world, people and lots of things. The mainstream research in multiple fields, including prenatal life and postnatal period tells us that the laboring and birthing baby's brain is as astute and experience and development is as critical as before and after birth. The brain is taking it in.

Many major universities have research lab and experts who are researching the prenatal period and how the prenate learns and interacts with the environment and how this IS the WAY in which the baby's brain is developed. Other major universities have infant labs that study the first hours to weeks to months of life and how the newborn human is aware and learning. It is ILlogical then that this society continues to promote that the human laboring and birthing human baby is not also engaging with the environment and making decisions, responding, and imprinting on a PRE-verbal and NON-verbal level of development.

So, every single word said, feeling felt, action taken by ANYONE in the environment of the laboring and birthing mother and baby is felt by both and their systems will react and respond, learn and grow, or survive and protect. The baby feels what the mother feels as well as what she or he himself feels. We know this about the prenatal baby and we know this about the newborn.
Physiologically, the baby is experiencing separation from the mother and will in a short but profoundly critical time of development, become a separate physiological being. Everything done during labor and birth has a physiological, emotional, psychological, and spiritual impact on the baby.

The separation from the mother and the placenta is a profound change for the baby. During cesarean birth the baby's cord is cut immediately and the baby will begin life outside the womb with up to 50% loss of blood volume. The cesarean born child has two major disruptions of a process designed by nature to ensure a healthy being. BECAUSE of the lack of compression on the chest and BECAUSE of the extreme blood loss, the baby must be forced to breath with fluid still in the lungs. It is well-known that cesarean born children have breathing and asthma issues, yet cesarean is still promoted as "safe" and even more desirable by many, especially doctors, emissaries of the medical and pharmaceutical systems.

While fluid in the lungs and minus their blood intended to start their lungs to breath air, cesarean born babies have to be stimulated to breath. In any other situation, this treatment of a newborn would be seen as at least painful, if not abusive by observers. I attended a surgical birth where the baby's skin on his chest was rubbed off by the neonatal doctor and this baby was doing well for a surgical birth.

During this process, separated from his or her mother, the baby is surrounded by masked and gloved strangers who are doing something that is violating and abusive. It is. It doesn't matter to the baby in that moment if it is for life saving reasons. It doesn't matter to the baby in that moment if the medical person is a nice, caring person. All one really has to do is try to imagine if the very same thing happened to them, right now, as an adult. Most of us would FREAK out about it ... and we would cry and rage about it trying to get someone to understand, until our friends and families would just send us to the counselor or the doctor for some drugs to calm us.

What the baby needs NO MATTER WHY THE BIRTH WAS CESAREAN is someone, ESPECIALLY the MOTHER and father to GET IT. The BABY needs the adults who brought him or her in to this world to understand that they EXPERIENCED their birth and it is now a part of their brain programming. They see, feel, and experience the world differently. They need the mother to deal with her own loss, disappointment, anger, violation, etc. that all leads to mother's guilt. Ironcially, mother's guilt also leads her to not be able to see how the situation impacted her. She is usually just left to believe that she should be happy and thankful that she had an alive baby.

Embracing the good and the bad ... the trauma and the joy ... acknowledging what happened, processing what happened is what allows whatever happened ... at birth or anytime in life ... is what facilitates healing and integration. Babies are not allowed this. So wherever birth is, with whomever birth is, and whatever happens, babies just need to be acknowledged and seen. Every time the mother or father tells the child's birth story and the REAL experience has never been shared by the baby and heard by the parents, the baby (whatever age) within is silenced.

We have profound new techniques and therapies to facilitate healing of our earliest woundings (i.e., unwanted at conception, stress and diet during gestation, trauma and separation at birth).

www.birthpsychology.com
www.bepe.info
www.myrnamartin.net
www.beba.org
www.wondrousbeginnings.com
www.healyourearlyimprints.com/
www.pnri.net
www.transformingdragons.com
www.emersonbirthrx.com
www.castellinotraining.com

Fetal Research on Pain and Consciousness

The brain and nerve fibres must be functioning for anyone to feel pain.

Brain cells which are essential for consciousness in the adult are known to be present in the foetus by 10 weeks. (Fetus on left is 10 weeks old.) Nerve fibres which transmit pain impulses are known to be present before fibres inhibiting pain are completed.

According to a scholarly study of the available evidence, this "implies that the first trimester foetus may be more susceptible to pain than slightly older subjects."10. The first trimester of pregnancy is the first three months.

In other words, if the baby can experience pain before the body's mechanisms to suppress pain have developed, this means that the baby may be able to feel pain at a much earlier stage than was previously thought, and perhaps even more keenly in the first three months of pregnancy than later.

The same study concludes that there is a likelihood that the "foetus has started to acquire a sentient capacity perhaps as early as six weeks, certainly by nine to ten weeks of gestation. Anatomical examination of such foetuses indicates the probability that differentiation sufficient for reception, transmission and perception of primitive pain sensation has already occurred."11

Practising for life outside the womb

"At 11 weeks after conception the foetus starts to swallow the surrounding amniotic fluid and to pass it back in his urine. He can also produce complex facial expressions and even smile."12 Swallowing prepares the baby for taking in milk at birth. Thumb-sucking has also been recorded in the foetus.13

Foetal breathing movements have been detected as early as 11 weeks 14.

Although the baby does not breathe air inside the fluid-filled amnion, these movements help develop the respiratory organs.

http://www.spuc.org.uk/ethics/abortion/human-development

Let's Get Real About the Sentience of the Human Baby

“You are your brain.”

Dick Swaab, Dir. of the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research

I like to say, "You are your PRENATAL brain."

.... brain function and behavior are critically influenced, even permanently modified in major ways, by the environmental condition that exist during development. How we think, reason and see are not just inherited characteristics. Brain function, behavior, mood, IQ, and emotional stability are not solely a product of our genes.

—Peter Nathanielsz, MD (OB), PhD (Vet) in “Life in the Womb



On the left is the adult version of the twelve week old fetus -- everything in the adult was formed by twelve weeks.

It is scientific and logical that physiologically the structures begun at conception and completed by the end of the second month of gestation DO establish the biological, hormonal, emotional, and mental foundation for who we are to be our entire life. Every experience thereafter, whether in the womb, laboring and birthing, or life long is part of one long continuum of brain development. YOU are YOUR prenatal brain.

From conception forward, the baby (brain and body) has developed in the maternal relationship and response to the environment. The human baby's experience and feelings of safety, love, support, worth, being wanted, etc are established prenatally through infancy. From before conception, in the sperm and the egg, we are fully living tissues of our parents and influenced on a cellular level by their lives. Every system and brain is literally built according to mother's physiology, her life experiences, and her perceptions of herself, the baby's father, and the world. During gestation there is not one second of time that is not critical in building the baby's brain and body. It is recorded (imprinted, remembered) in the cells. Nor, is there one second of time during labor and birth that is not critical to the baby's billion neurons and so, to his brain and to his experience.

L. Janel Martin (Miranda), MA, http://www.itsthebabysbirth.com/

The human newborn is the most amazing creature on the planet. The baby is a fully sentient being. The first neurons fired in the prenatal brain by day forty-two. It grew from the developing neural tube that developed from the zygote that formed with the union of two live cells, the egg and the sperm. From prior to conception sperm and egg cells are fully functioning within the parent bodies and they are live cellular tissue experiencing and responding to the everything that happens. Was conception consensual, welcoming, chemical-free, loving? We know it matters, but did you know it matters on a cellular level? Picture to right is of conception.

The picture to the left below is the embryonic spinal cord at 14 days. Everything the mother has experienced, felt, and ingested is already a part of this baby's basic structural, cellular, and emotional development. The heart is almost ready to take it's first beat. Ever wonder about that moment? When yours or you baby's heart took that first beat?

While "scientific research" clearly shows us the sensate world of the prenate who is responding to the outer environment medical practice does not honor this. We already "know" on one level how amazing the newborn human is -- even though most of humanity treats the human baby as if the brain and other systems hit the "pause" button during labor and birth. The facts are ignored -- that birth is the baby's birth and s/he is brilliant, aware, and she is experiencing birth and learning and wiring her brain. How can it be that modern obstetric medice is so barbaric to the baby? And, gets by with it?

Last week I posted a long entry that included many, many links to scientists who study the role of the prenatal period. It is well know and well-established science -- it permeates obstetric medicine and their demand for "prenatal care." Our society expects, though we can't seem to enforce this, that women do not smoke, drink alcohol, partake of "illicit" drugs (though prescription drugs have squeaked by our rational meters so that doctors promote and women believe that many of the depression and bi-polar meds are safe -- and the research is in. They're damaging. Such a surprise.) We also hold a woman to certain expectations for parenting her newborn/infant.

Embryo here at right 42 days old. The nervous system (brain) has already fired it's first neurons. It is preparing to come "online" with the heart. Ever wonder about that? That moment in development when your heart and your brain began to work together? "Embryonic Rising" is the term we use. The moment that your heart and brain "fired up" together --- is a critical experience, as is the moment your mother first learned of your existence. The concept of body-mind connection or "heart-mind" connection is gaining awareness and popularity, but rarely does it involve looking at the moment of when the two connected. If you believe the statistics that more than half of all pregnancies are unplanned or unwanted so that a women is feeling and experiencing dramatic emotions around the time her baby's heart is forming and beating for the first time, her baby's brain is forming and firing it's first neurons for the first time, and the two have a moment in time where they begin to work together. It's a profoundly significant moment that will afffect the rest of development and the rest of life.

The gestating baby to the left here is twelve weeks old -- fully formed, all systems and organs are done. Baby will live with mother's lifestyle decisions and with her emotional and psychological imprints.

Baby to the left below is 8 months gestation. The caption in the book called this the Racing Mind. Researcher and technology have come together to show us conclusively that the prenate hears, particularly the mother's voice and responds, comforts himself, tastes, feels, experiences, learns, and responds to the environment.

In that post last week I included a large number of links to scientists doing research in the newborn/infant behavior, language, abilities, and learning. My point was that there is well-received scientific research to show that the PRENATAL brain is functioning as it DEVELOPS, from conception forward. The prenate EXPERIENCES, LEARNS, and REMEMBERS and this is all recorded in the brain which functions in orchestration with every other system. This is a significant part of the third trimester development.

We hold a woman to certain expectations for gestating her baby and then parenting her newborn/infant. What about our expectations for a mother and doctor to treat baby with same regard --- because it affects the baby?

The baby to the right is in the second stage of labor/birthing. There is NOTHING in the scientific literature to suggest or confirm that the laboring and birthing baby is UNAFFECTED by her experienced. Everything leads us to the obvious conclusion and understanding that the birthing baby does feel and experience labor and birth. The human baby's brain is recording and remembers birth. There is no "OFF" or "PAUSE" switch. Drugs numb the mind, but the body remembers. Or, in other words, the laboring and birthing brain/baby is jsut as capable of learning or being affected by sounds, substances, experiences of the mother, etc. than the prenatal brain/baby. EVERYTHING suggests that the laboring and birthing baby's brain is "ON" in record mode, and functioning as the gestating baby's brain is known to do. When you add to that the PHYSICAL experience of birth, either through the pelvis or being pulled out, it's logical that our FIRST injuries of our head, neck, shoulders, and hips occur during birth. The TISSUES remember. Science proves that now.

The newborn below is thirteen hours old. She clearly experienced a violent birth -- induced, epidural, malpositioned. Her face obviously rammed again a hard, bony part of the mother. Both their bodies remember this -- even when disregarded by medcine. This baby's brain, sensations, and awareness was never "OFF" or on "PAUSE" to accommodate doctor's schedules and malpractice avoidance. She may have been "numbed" by narcotics, but her brain recorded that to. It's part of her brain development now -- thanks to doctors and the med-wives/CNM who used their wares on a healthy mother and baby. The baby experienced her birth and her brain processed the experience as it does everything other moment of life.

If this baby had gone home normal - without this bruised face -- and returned the next week with the same condition, the medical establishment would contact child protective services and she would have been taken from her parents. It would have been all over the news. However, when this abuse occurs because of medical caregivers in the hospital it is totally ignored -- because THEY promote the MIS-science that babies don't really feel it or remember. It's CRAZY. NOT A WORD was spoken BY physicians, nurses, or midwives about the bruising on this baby's face. No one dares. Parents are so disempowered, in shock, and are shy about confronting the medical machine, and yet, the obvious damage was done by the medically induced birth. Why are these people allowed to abuse babies and not subjected to the same mandatory reporting laws?

How are doctors getting by with promoting the propoganda that what they do is safe when the literature clearly shows otherwise? How are they allowed to continue to harm babies and take away women's choices and responsibility for her baby's birth?

The debate about the safety of birth at home versus hospital, sadly, ironically does not include what is actually safest for the fetus/newborn in that amazing transition being from fetus in the womb to newborn in the world. It's a relatively short period of time but it is such a profoundly significant experience that will DEFINE in the BRAIN of the HUMAN BABY HOW s/he will BE IN the world.

The laboring and birthing baby is just as alive, learning, growing, experiencing as the prenate and newborn. Good, God, let's get real. And, do the right thing. Doctors and women.

What do you suppose would have happened had someone hotlined the CNM, OB resident and attending in a Naval Hospital for the obvious trauma this baby experienced?

to be continued .... for sure ...

Pictures are used not with permission but with the greatest regard and appreciation from the book:

From Conception to Birth: A Life Unfolds by Alexander Tsiaras

Buy your own for $35.00

A great website:
http://www.anatomicaltravel.com/CB_site/Conception_to_birth4.htm