Author: Lisa Douglas

The history of the cesarean section dates back to Ancient Roman times and is believed to be named after Julius Caesar, who was born by the method. Way back when, C-sections weren’t performed very often (most of the time they were under emergency conditions), and not much was known about them. Fast forward centuries and how things have changed! These days, over 30 percent of babies every year are safely birthed via C-section.

Even with hundreds of years of research and medical progress behind us, having a C-section can still be a stressful experience. Well-meaning friends and family often try to help with their own tips and advice, but that usually just serves to make the whole thing even more confusing. With all of the rumors and myths flying around about C-sections, let us help ease your worries. Read on about what you need to know about giving birth via cesarean.

Once you have one, you can never go back.

Many women worry that once they have a cesarean birth, they’ll never be able to birth a child via vaginal delivery, known as vaginal birth after cesarean or VBAC. But studies show great success rates of vaginal delivery—60 to 80 percent—after C-sections, according to Dr. Adam Paxton OB/GYN at Newton Medical Center in Newton, NJ.

The Guide to Effective Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth also concludes that “the available evidence does not suggest that a woman that has had more than one previous cesarean section should be treated any differently from the woman who has had only one cesarean section.”

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists suggests there are a number of factors that would determine the decision whether to give birth one way or the other and that a mother should work with her doctor to determine the safest option for her and her baby.

You can’t breastfeed.

This is a common worry among expecting mothers that is thankfully unfounded. Shilpi S. Mehta-Lee, assistant professor of Maternal Fetal Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, told the Huffington Post that a woman’s method of delivery does not affect her ability to breastfeed.

All women, no matter how they have given birth, should have the opportunity to provide for their newborn. 

It’s important to note that the initial transition from colostrum to mature milk may be slower (possibly a day or two) in women who have given birth via C-section, but there are ways to bond with the baby and increase milk production.

As a mother’s milk does emerge, she should consult with a licensed lactation consultant or attending nurse, because they’ll be able to provide breastfeeding positions and baby lifting/carrying options that will minimize stress on a C-section incision and help ease belly discomfort.

You can only have a certain number of C-sections.

Doctors concur that there is no predetermined number of C-section surgeries that is safe for a woman to have. She may be able to have multiple C-sections over a lifetime, or a doctor may suggest that she have only one.

Although some studies have shown that medical risks may go up with each procedure, it’s important to note that each pregnancy is individual and should take a mother’s medical history and previous experience into account.

You can’t hold your baby after.

Everyone agrees that skin-to-skin contact is really important for mom and baby after birth, but sometimes the medical staff gets nervous about a new mom holding a baby when she has just undergone surgery.

The best thing for an expecting mother to do is talk to her doctor about possible concerns, discuss the hospital’s protocol, and ask if there’s a possibility for someone on her birth team to oversee the process.

You can’t exercise for 6 weeks.

The ol’ stay-in-bed-for-weeks-and-heal routine is so old scho
ol. The truth is doctors want new mothers to get moving! They want them up and walking to promote healing the day after they give birth.

A three-mile walk may be a little lofty of a goal, but they usually recommend a daily slow lap or two around the hospital floor to get the lungs and muscles working properly again after surgery. 

If there have been no extensive issues like blood loss, blood clots, or bladder injury, a doctor may allow a mother to start doing upper-body exercises and longer walks at week three. After the six-week checkup she should be cleared for general exercise.

It may take some time, post-surgery, to build up strength and endurance (and certain squatting and leaning exercises may still be too uncomfortable), but rest assured that muscle memory will kick in and she’ll be moving and grooving in no time!

Your abdomen will never be the same.

The C-section involves the cutting of the abdomen, which is major surgery, but the good news is the shape of your abdomen will eventually return to normal! It will take a bit of time though.

Doctors recommend that a new mom can start doing ab exercises to tone her belly after 6 weeks. The key is to start slowly with basic exercises and gradually increase the intensity.

Although your belly will start looking better pretty quickly, it’s important to remember that many women report it taking up to a full year to really feel and look normal.

And your scar? The good news about C-sections being around for centuries is that these doctors have gotten really good at sewing your abdomen up and making the scar as small and unnoticeable as possible. Postpartum support garments and Spanx can help with healing in the early weeks.

Getting intimate will never be the same again.

Getting intimate after childbirth ranks up there in a couple’s top concerns (and fears). When can you start? How is it going to feel? Will it still be good? Will it hurt? Will your partner still find you attractive? This topic has been known to give many a new mom a set of panic attacks.

Doctors recommend that as long as your body is physically ready (and your head is emotionally ready), there are many benefits to getting it on after having a baby: physical benefits like hormones being released to help the uterus return back to its normal shape and psychological benefits like feeling more loving and connected.

It’s recommended that you wait 4 to 6 weeks after you give birth, though, to allow for the cervix to close, for bleeding to stop, and for any tears to heal.

You’ve failed as a mother.

Nothing enrages new moms who have given birth via C-section more than the occasional know-it-all, super crunchy mom who responds to her surgery with a pitying look and a patronizing “I’m so sorry you couldn’t give birth naturally.” In fact, there are support groups dedicated to this!

Last time we checked, if a mother was pregnant, then a baby appeared out of her body, she in fact has given birth…regardless of the mechanism. 

There will always be pressure from certain communities to give birth a certain way that they claim to be natural (e.g., without induction, without pain medication, vaginally), but circumstances, babies, and moms are all unique, and no one should be bullied into other ways of thinking.

The important thing
to concentrate on is delivering a healthy baby and staying positive and healthy to care for your newborn—no matter how you gave birth.

Being pregnant can be a wonderfully exciting time, but it also can be quite confusing. Thank goodness that in the 21st century pregnant women can rest easy knowing that they’re often on the right track by following medical advice that’s been backed by hundreds of years of research and studies. This wasn’t always the case, unfortunately.

Being female and pregnant in the Middle Ages was pretty risky. Most male doctors were prevented from treating women for any issues related to sexuality or reproduction, so obstetric and gynecological care was provided by midwives and “wise women” (lay healers). Medical training for midwives was nonexistent. They used the teachings of Aristotle and Hippocrates, looked at bodily fluids, and sometimes turned to superstition to provide advice and care—which, as you can imagine, was often really odd and unconventional.
Ever wonder what it was like to be pregnant way back when? Step back in time with us and check out the weirdest advice for pregnant women in history.

Always wear a corset.

Women in the Victorian era loved their corsets! They represented femininity and social status, and every female was expected to wear one (most women wouldn’t dare to be seen in public without one). Pregnant women were no exception.

Lane Bryant, a popular fashion company, summed it up with their marketing slogan, “For your own sake, and for the sake of the baby to come, you must be correctly corseted during the maternity period.”
We’re not sure whether they meant that it was unhealthy or not proper (or both), but in either case, wearing a corset during pregnancy proved to be problematic. Corsets were intended to restrict the size of a woman’s waist—not offer support—and women ran into trouble when they wore their undergarments too tight.

The practice known as tightlacing caused ill effects on a woman’s body such as lung issues, constipation, lower back pain, and muscle atrophy. And it could, unfortunately, cause a woman to miscarry.

Don’t take baths.

Soranus of Ephesus, a Greek physician, believed that it was especially harmful to take a bath in the first week of pregnancy. Because so many people know when they’re only a week pregnant…

Anyway, he thought that the water’s hot temperature could not only cause a drop in blood pressure and make a woman dizzy (not so unrealistic), but (and this is where he loses credibility) could also “loosen the texture of the whole body” and weaken the fetus.

Don’t throw a mouse or a frog on a pregnant woman.

Just in case one needed a reason to not throw things at a pregnant woman, Paré (a doctor to French kings and author of On Monsters and Marvels) explained further that it was really important to take care to not do so because the unborn baby could be permanently scarred.

For example, throwing a mouse or a frog on a woman’s teats could turn the child into a monster, and throwing a cherry pit could “stain” the baby.

Watch what you eat.

Soranus, that Greek physician, believed that what a woman ate could potentially harm the fetus. He preached that flatulence could cause ill effects (it’s unclear what ill effects), constipation could suffocate a child, and diarrhea could actually wash the child away.

The Distaff Gospels, a 15th-century book of old wives’ tales, went into more detail about the culinary choices of a mother and the consequences to her baby. It taught that a woman should not eat fish heads because that would cause a baby to have a mouth that was more pointed than normal.
It was also believed that in order to give birth to a healthy and dry-tempered male child (the preferred sex) a pregnant woman should eat warm and dry foods and avoid fruit altogether (unless she wanted to give birth to snake-like objects).

Don’t have intercourse.

As much as a woman might want (or not want) to have intercourse, medieval doctors discouraged them from doing it while they were pregnant. They warned that a woman’s lustful thoughts and actions could have severe and permanent effects on a developing fetus and cause it to be unchaste.

They further cautioned that if intercourse could not be avoided, then care should be taken to not engage with a man with dirty and stinky feet or the child could be born stinky. If it were a male child, it would have unpleasant breath and if it were female, a stinky rear end.

Medieval lore also warned that it was important to not have intercourse too often. It could “wear out” the woman’s baby-making machinery, and too much “seed” in a woman’s body could produce multiple babies.

Eat what your body tells you to eat.

Now this is some advice that modern-day pregnant women can get behind! Medieval doctors believed that a woman must give in to her culinary cravings, no matter how odd. Failing to do so could cause a baby to be born without vital organs or with birthmarks.

But if the expectant mother was craving the head of a hare (as one does), she should resist at all costs. Eating one would result in a child with a split or cleft lip.

Bring the hyena in.

If being pregnant for 9 months during the Middle Ages seemed daunting, the actual act of childbirth was even more so. Without modern-day equipment and hospitals, women had to rely on superstition and prayer.

Pliny the Elder was a Greek scientist who was a self-proclaimed expert on childbirth. He believed that the smell of fat from a hyena’s loins could put a woman into labor. He also thought that a woman must take care during the birthing process because if she placed the right foot of the animal on herself it would be an easy birth, but if the left foot was placed on her, she could die.
Some other childbirth advice included rubbing an expectant mother’s hips and privates with violet or rose oil, giving her pepper so she could “sneeze the child out,” tying a snakeskin around her hips, or eating butter with baby-producing words carved in it.

Watch where you look.

It was of the utmost importance for a pregnant woman to take special care to watch where she looked throughout her pregnancy and during childbirth, because it could have permanent effects on a child’s physical appearance. (Translation: If a woman looked at ugly things while she was pregnant, her child would end up being ugly.)

Paré warned that a woman gave birth to a child covered in hair because she looked at a picture of John the Baptist dressed in animal skin as she conceived. He also explained how a two-headed beggar was banned from her town because of the ill effects she might have on pregnant women and cause them to give birth to two-headed babies.

It was also common knowledge that a pregnant woman was supposed to avoid looking at her pets or other animals because her baby could end up looking like them.
Although modern-day childbirth is often pretty grueling, we can all agree that current practices surrounding pregnancy and giving birth are leaps and bounds ahead of some of history’s most eyebrow-raising practices.