Normal Birth Is An Individual Event By Abimbola .F. Lasore

To all our pregnant mothers please do not miss your antenatal appointment. Very important to see your midwives in a country where midwives are functioning well, midwives are the specialist in delivering vaginal birth. Otherwise, if your pregnancy is eventful and challenging see both midwife and obstetrician, popularly called Doctor.

Do not see C section as a taboo and start praying against it as we do mostly in Africa. C section is meant to save mother and babies when there are events beyond asking for vaginal birth due to complications such as big baby, malpresentation, breech, placental preavia, multiple pregnancies with 1st baby presenting as breech or both as breech, fetal compromising issues arising in labour can lead to emergency C-section, other maternal issues may warrant elective c-section..etc. Stop praying against c section, if you need it you need it. On the other hand, stop asking for c-section if you do not need it and your pregnancy is uneventful and you can birth vaginally.
Midwives are or should be there to support and guide you through the labour position to facilitate vaginal birth. A very active, mobile and upright woman will deliver her baby vaginally.
Normal birth is an individual event.

Vaginal birth is normal and c section is normal, none is abnormal. Each is normal to what normality means to an individual woman. A case of complication will have c section as normal because of no other choice or else we can regret any delay..so it is the normal birth for that case.
Stop calling one normal and other abnormal..stop the stigma.

Stop the stigma and let us save lives.
African women refusing Csection, not only because of cost but because of family or husband bullying and stigma of making them feel they are not woman enough to push the baby out vaginally. Women are dying in labour and we are losing babies that we could have saved if consent to c-section were not delayed
While most c-sections have been reviewed and found some were unnecessary, we also appraise the one done to save lives positively.

Written based on current evidence-based research from WHO to support mothers in Africa.

Abimbola. F. Lasore
BSc.Nursing and Midwifery (UK NMC Licenced RN, RM & Teacher ), MSc. Int.Public Health.