Our initial feelings were that Amy had been cheated out of giving birth, and she had. But then we also felt blindsided by the fact that she had just had a cesarean section. With all the research Amy had done into giving Courtney a peaceful, natural, drug free home birth, it never occurred to us that it would turn out the way it did.

As the weeks and months went on, Amy felt increasingly more pain and sadness over the cesarean, since it had become clear that it was so unnecessary. Because of the feelings she was having, she ordered her medical records from the hospital and found that there was no mention of high blood pressure or the possible onset of preeclampsia.

The doctor’s attitude was “you’re full term (39 weeks), and you’re here so you should just do it instead of going home and possibly going into labor with preeclampsia and have the additional possible problems of a breech delivery.” Seems he had a bit of a different agenda. Since hospital staffs aren’t trained for breech deliveries, or anything else that takes longer than 10 minutes and might cut into their free time, he had a young doctor who apparently needed some OR time and this might be a good time to show him how to perform a c-section when the baby is in the frank breech position.

We were coerced, betrayed and scared into a pointless c-section. My wife has a big scar on her abdomen that should not be there. This has affected her deeply and she is still healing from it. One of the first books she read in the healing process was Silent Knife by Nancy Wainer Cohen and Lois J. Estner.

Amy has learned an immense amount about unassisted home birth and has been teaching me well. What it ultimately comes down to is this: Would you go to the hospital to have a bowel movement? If not, then why would you go there to give birth? It’s a bodily function and not a medical condition.

Scott