Today, more and more children are born by cesarean section. This “unnatural” way of giving birth saves lives, but like any operation, it poses risks to the mother and fetus.
Therefore, we must leave ourselves in the hands of the doctor, who decides which is the best way for the emergence of new life in this case.
And as for how cesarean birth affects children, there are many untruths and myths in society.
Here are some of them:
– After a cesarean section, the mother has no breast milk and the baby must be fed formula – This is not true. It is true that sometimes there are difficulties with breastfeeding in the beginning. The reason is that babies are usually put to the breast later to spare the mother because she has had surgery. Maternal antibiotics are often used, which can also delay breastfeeding.
The bad thing is that this way the child is deprived of the valuable colostrum (the first concentrated milk). The strongest stimulus for lactation is breastfeeding, and when it slows down, breastfeeding is more difficult. And the little one, getting used to the easy one (bottle with a pacifier), then finds it difficult to agree to breastfeed. Therefore, after a cesarean section, breastfeeding may be more difficult and usually a little slow. With good will and perseverance, however, there is no problem for the baby to switch completely to natural nutrition. Which only satisfies all the needs of the baby.
– Those born with cesarean section lag behind in their physical development – It is true that during the operation the anesthetic drugs suppress the baby’s nervous system, he suffers temporarily from lack of oxygen, his respiratory and cardiovascular system suffers, which makes adaptation more difficult.
Therefore, those born with a cesarean section lose a little more weight than those born in a normal way. But how the child will develop further depends not only on the way of birth, but also on how the pregnancy went, what diseases the mother has, how the baby is raised, what she eats, etc.
But the compensatory mechanisms of the developing organism are huge, so it is not necessary for a child born with a cesarean section to lag behind, sometimes it even develops faster than those born “normally”.
– Those born with a cesarean section cry more and are hyperactive – These children do not cry anymore, anesthesia can even make them calmer in the beginning as it temporarily suppresses the nervous system.
As for hyperactivity, which appears as a symptom of impaired maturation of the nervous system, the section is considered a risk factor.
But it should be noted that this syndrome is not a mandatory companion of all children born by cesarean section. And with the right approach and treatment, the problem is overcome.
