"Walking the baby out"

Yesterday I found this well-done video. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a vaginal birth all the way kinda girl. I realize that point of view isn't everyone's. I also realize that for a host of reasons some women physically aren't able to deliver their child vaginally, resulting in a necessary cesarean section. Sometimes c-section is the last resort and its an emergency situation. Sometimes women elect to schedule the operation from the get go. No one can really tell any woman that their choice of birthing experience is wrong. I've got my strong opinions, but I'll be the last to point the finger of shame. Birthing a baby is an important, hard job. Only women do it. We rock because of that (and so much more, if course)! 


If I had to have a c-section, I'd like to have it at this hospital with these professionals. They make birth in a sterile operating room feel as special, intimate and supernatural as it should. Each surgery is personalized for the parents. Mothers are treated with kindness, gentleness and respect. The baby is gently "walked out", not ripped violently from the comforts of the only home it's ever known. The mother is able to see her baby break forth into the world. There's immediate skin-to-skin contact. Breastfeeding is encouraged within the first hour of life. The pain medications used for the mother are less intrusive so that she is as alert as possible for the birth of her child. Is it just me, or does this model pale in comparison to how cesarean sections are viewed in this country? We're backwards, I tell ya.


Birth. Its incredible, complex, and mind-blowing. It should be special and beautiful. According to the ideas presented in the video, "natural cesareans" can make that so. I like that.