The cultural stigma and religious foolishness around C-section.
Why is there a deliberate effort to portray Cesarean section, a means of giving birth as evil or demonic?
If I ever become a Commissioner of Health, or even hospital CMD, those unfortunate songs pregnant women are made to sing which demonise Ceserean Section (CS) will be banned.
The cultural stigma and religious foolishness around CS have killed many Nigerian women.
Awon orin werey.
Give pregnant women sensible simple lectures on diet, exercise and when to call/come to hospital for advice.
Have group sessions where pregnant women share, hug and encourage each other.
Not gather to sing useless nonsense songs like masquerades preparing for New Yam festival.
Antenatal sessions are NOT for jamboree.
They are for serious business.
That’s NOT the time for silly jingles and useless songs that demonise lifesaving medical interventions like CS and reinforce dangerous mindsets that only ends up with the women and children dead.
There are medical indications for a CS.
Some are nonnegotiable, others are.
But regardless, the reasons for a CS is because the risk of a vagina delivery for the mother and child is too high to take.
Doctors don’t just wake up to make these sort of decisions. It’s well thought.
There’s NO big deal to a CS. It is one of the safest/easiest surgical lifesaving procedures that doctors have done worldwide for hundreds of years.
It’s very safe. It’s quite easy. It’s usually painless.
The bleeding can be well controlled.
As long as it’s an expert doing it.
There are two ways of giving birth- Through the vagina Or through the abdomen (via CS).
NONE is superior to the other.
NONE is inferior to the other.
It is extreme medical ignorance and religious stupidity to assume that one method is automatically better regardless of context.
“But Cost implications of CS is the major concern. It can cost up to 100k” Well, a woman and her child’s life is worth a lot more than “cost” of a procedure that is lifesaving.
Besides how is stigmatising and demonising CS as a culture going to somehow bring down costs?How?
A C-Section is just an operation to deliver a baby through a surgical cut made on the tummy and the womb.
The cut is made across the lower tummy, just around the bikini/pant line.
And after baby is taken out, the cut is sewed back. Chikena.
Finito. Less than an hour, mostly.
And if you get a very good doctor, they can do the cut in such a way that nobody will ever know or see any scar.
It would be very minimal, tactically hidden and you will still be able to go to spa, go to beach, go swimming and wear any outfits you really like to wear.
Olorun.
The cultural stigma and religious foolishness around C-section must stop
Credit: Huffpost
Only people who really hate women, who don’t care about lives of women as well as unborn babies subtly or overtly disapprove a medically recommended CS.
There’s no other explanation.
How else to explain the hatred for women that we will rather have them die than do a CS. How?
So why do doctors advise a CS?
If baby is in an abnormal position in the womb,
if your Labour is getting over 12 hours and no progress,
if your baby is showing signs of exhaustion in the womb from prolonged labour, if you have very high blood pressure, if your placenta is… is located at the entrance of the womb blocking its opening, if you suddenly start bleeding internally and the child/mother is getting distressed, if the child is really big or too big for your pelvis, those are usually the main reasons.
ALL of which can kill.
So these are all the kinds of information you should be getting in simple understandable terminologies as a pregnant woman during your antenatal care
Antenatal Care should be run over many weeks and you should be educated on simple things like delivery options and what you want.
You should have about 10 appointments- or more- depending on you and your general health. Someone should check you and check your baby’s health.
Advise you on safe diet, supplements, exercise and answer any confusing questions you may have. Tell you about scans and blood tests.
They would tell you about scans to see if baby has any serious disease like a heart problem or something; and they will also screen you for things like HIV just to be sure of how best to prevent baby from getting it- So Antenatal is NOT market meeting for singing and dancing.
Don’t get me wrong.
Good songs are nice.
Dancing is a form of exercise.
However the songs should contain healthy positive messages, not silly cultural myths that are terribly dangerous and does nobody no good.
That’s my point and perspective.
I hope this is clear enough.
This topic was discussed on a group I’m part of. And read some stories: Everybody seems to know or have heard this kind of tragic stories.
Innocent young women pushed to death on a daily basis by deluded pastors, misguided family members all driven by a terribly antiCS stigma.
Some reactions/reponses
