This Video of a Baby Being Born Via Gentle C-Section Will Blow Your Mind
“Gentle” c-sections have gotten a lot of press in recent years for giving women another birthing option that could have health benefits for mothers and babies. A gentle c-section is a surgical birth like a regular c-section, but with a gentle c-section the doctors make the surgical incision, and then let the baby be pushed out on its own, rather than reaching in and pulling the baby out. It can make women feel more in control of the birthing experience and more in touch with their babies, but it’s hard to visualize how exactly it would work. But now a doctor in Venezuela posted a video of a baby “popping out” during a gentle c-section, and it’s blowing people’s minds.
It’s astonishing to see the baby’s head “crowning” through the incision in his mother’s abdomen. There’s no grabbing or pulling. He just sort of pops out.
And, of course, the saga continues. The rest of him comes out here.
The wild thing about this is just how quiet and chill the baby is the whole time. He looks comfy and nearly asleep until the moment his feet are delivered and he’s fully out, and then he squirms in that, “Wait, WTF? I was comfy in here!” way that newborns have.
With a gentle c-section, many hospitals offer the option of putting a clear drape in front of the mother so she can see what’s happening if she wants to. Any wires and sensors are usually attached to the mother’s back, so she can put the baby on her chest for skin-to-skin contact right after birth.
One thing that makes a gentle c-section different than a traditional c-section is that the baby being squeezed out through the incision mimics the squeezing that occurs when a baby goes through the birth canal. That squeezing can squish any remaining fluid out of the baby’s lungs, which can help spare them a bit of post-birth wheezing and coughing that is particularly common among babies delivered via c-section.
What do you think of the gentle c-section? Let us know in the comments.
