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@ Why would I get fat?
2025-03-12 17:45:04
Jerm: "Isn't the outcome to get the baby out?"
Dr Stu: "Is it? The outcome is: How is the baby? How is the baby's life? How's the mother? How's the mother feeling? How's the mother healing? How's the mother's mood? How's the mother's depression? How's the mother's bonding? What about the mother's future babies?
"When you do a C-section on a first baby, for even an indication, where there might be a benefit to it, you've got to remember that now you've put that mother and all that mother's future babies at risk. So, it's not just a one-off. It's not just a focus on the live baby in the bassinet. But the medical model only focuses on that.
"And if you do a C-section on a woman who didn't need it, and when you're looking at an 80% C-section rate [in your country, South Africa], I would tell you probably 90% of those women didn't need it. So you're doing hundreds of thousands of unnecessary major surgeries a year with no concern for them downstream.
"And if that woman in a future pregnancy has a placental problem where the placenta grows into the uterus, it's called placenta accreta, which is increased after every Caesarean section you have. No one's saying, 'Well, let's look back and see why we did that first C-section. Oh, we didn't really need to do that? Well, then this is our fault.' No, they don't say that. They'll just say, 'Now we'll save you from the accreta,' that we probably caused, and 'Pat us on the back for being so good to save you from the placenta accreta.'
"They don't see what they're doing downstream because they don't look. [...]
"I'm an expert in breech delivery and I support women who breech delivery. [...] When I was still practicing, I would see women for a consult for breech, usually around 36 to 38 weeks when they find out their baby is breech and their doctor is only giving them the option of having a Caesarean section. No other option available. Doesn't mention the fact that breech birth is a reasonable choice. Maybe they don't know how to do it, so then they could say, 'I don't know how to do it, but you should go somebody who does it.' [...]
"They don't think about the fact that down the road that this woman may want a large family. She may want six children. And when she comes back with her next pregnancy they're going to start to tell her the dangers of vaginal birth after Caesarean. And they'll probably scare her into having a repeat C-section.
"And then what's the risk to the mother after two C-sections? How about after three? How about after four? There's no consideration for that. Those risks are far greater than the risk that you mentioned of something going wrong in a home birth, in a properly chosen woman, with a skilled midwife at her side, in a system that values communication, that values continuity of care, that's completely different than the medical model."
Dr Stuart Fischbein with Jerm @ 27:55—31:10 (recorded in 2024, posted 2025-03-06) https://podbay.fm/p/jerm-warfare-the-battle-of-ideas/e/1741328385?t=1675