C-Section (Caesarean Delivery)

Sometimes the birth plan changes weeks ahead, when a scan shows the baby is bottom-down or the placenta is lying over the cervix. Sometimes it changes halfway through labour, when the baby's heartbeat dips or labour stops moving. Either way, a caesarean is how a great many healthy babies arrive.

In a caesarean section (C-section), your obstetrician delivers the baby through a cut in the lower abdomen and the uterus. Most are done under spinal anaesthesia, so you're awake to hear your baby's first cry but feel no pain. The skin cut is usually horizontal, just above the pubic hairline. The cut on the uterus is made low down and side to side, because that heals strongest and keeps a vaginal birth possible next time.

It is major abdominal surgery. Recovery takes longer than after a vaginal birth, and each caesarean leaves scar tissue that makes later pregnancies a little more complicated. When there's a clear reason for it, though, it can be the safest way for both of you.

Prakash Hospital's gynaecology and obstetrics department has a fully staffed labour and delivery ward for normal and high-risk pregnancies. Obstetricians work alongside anaesthesiologists, and neonatologists attend high-risk deliveries. If your baby needs special care, our paediatric team runs a NICU with round-the-clock monitoring.

A caesarean is planned when a problem is known in advance, and done as an emergency when one appears in labour.

You'll be recovering from surgery while looking after a newborn, so accept every offer of help. Most women feel much better by two weeks and close to normal by six.