This article from the Australian newspaper The Age, tells the story of one mom who had an “assisted cesarean section,” where the mother is conscious and even is the first to touch her child–by helping pull the baby out of the womb.
Called “assisted caesarean”, the procedure allows the mother to be the first to hold her child, with her hands guided into the womb by medical staff. In what is believed to be only the third assisted caesarean in Australia in recent years, Perth mother Naomi Chapman, 38, helped deliver her third baby, Thomas, on April 2.
It’s definitely an interesting concept, which aligns with the desire of midwives to include women in the birth process. With the help of midwives, mothers and fathers have been catching their own babies for years now. But is this just an attempt to make an entirely medicalized process seem more mother-friendly? Luckily both the mother and doctor in this situation don’t want this procedure to encourage c-sections:
But women should not consider assisted caesareans ahead of vaginal birth. “I still think a vaginal birth is the best way to birth your baby,” Ms Chapman says. “I don’t want women to choose to have a caesarean because of this,” [Dr. Gunnell] says. “We need to be very clear that this is not a good alternative to a vaginal birth; the caesarean section rate is very high.”
Radical Doula 