Dear all:

The woman who runs the childbirth education center where I do groups now calls 
deliveries where women undergo surgeries --- exactly that --- SURGICAL deliveries.  The 
terms "cesarian" has been neutralized into not really considering the impact of the 
SURGERY.

That having been said, I have to speak up for women who undergo surgical deliveries in 
terms of why it would make much more sense to go home earlier than to remain in the 
hospital.

1) For women who are short, like myself, the hospital may not have beds that lower 
adequately to get in and out of the bed without major stress on the abdominal muscles.  I 
literally had to jump down the last four inches.  At home, the bed was low enough that I 
did not have to experience the excruciating jump up and jump down every time I needed 
to use the bathroom. 

2) In hospitals that are understaffed on postpartum wards such as the hospital I delivered 
in, you are often much better off in your own home environment if you are not going to 
have much help anyway --- or you can hire help such as a doula that is in sync with your 
own personality rather than having to endure a constantly changing array of personality 
types that may not mesh with your own.  The good thing about hiring a doula is that if 
you don't mesh -- you can hire someone else.  You have no control over the personnel in 
a hospital setting.

3) You can create a soothing environment without interruptions.  I could turn off the 
phone, lower the lights and wasn't interrupted all day.  I remember that there was a 
constant array of intruders -- mopping the floor, wanting to sell me baby photos, making 
a footprint of my son's foot and a thousand other annoying interruptions in the hospital.  
The lighting made me feel ill as did the beeping and the silly baby channel that showed 
deliveries I did not want to watch.  

4) You can eat MEALS when you want.  At home, I was able to go back to small meals 
five times a day rather than waiting around ravenously hungry only to discover that they 
did not send me the item I wanted.  My biggest meltdown was when I got lunch at 2 pm 
and it was not what I ordered.  Appropriate tasty food served attractively can really have 
an important psychological impact.

Now, if you are wondering why I am not mentioning the items that are usually associated 
with breastfeeding --- it is because having gone through a surgerical delivery --- I think 
these little things repeated constantly can add up to far more of a negative impact than 
the meds, the IVs and the surgery itself.  

5) Personally, I have become completely paranoid about hospital germs with MRSA.  
Having lived in many a developing country I am not particularly concerned about bacteria 
per se, but the potential for concentrated pockets of resistant organisms in the hospital 
terrified me after my surgical delivery.  I have seen a couple of really horrible nipple 
infections that clearly started in the hospital.  

Best, Susan Burger

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