February 2, 2022, twelve noon. Anna Teixidó She went to the Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona with a scheduled cesarean section. It is her second child without a vaginal birth and she knows what she is going for but she is relaxed because, if there are no last minute surprises, she has everything planned. The Barcelona hospital, where she has worked as a gynecologist for years, was a pioneer in 2018 in establishing the so-called prolink cesarean sections or humanized, designed to try to resemble vaginal birth as much as possible and increase the emotional bond between mother and baby.
The main objective of these procedures, in which, as in natural births, priority is given to safety of the medical act, is that the patient stops having the perception that she is a passive element in surgery, and can participate directly in the birth of her baby, feeling all the positive emotions that mothers experience in a natural birth. To this end, the Barcelona center allows future mothers to design, as if it were any important anniversary, the act of welcoming their child into the world.
Unlike cesarean sections just a decade ago, for years this hospital has allowed patients to be accompanied by one or more family members, play music in the operating room, lower the surgical curtain that prevents them from seeing the intervention, and place their baby on top of them. when the umbilical cord has not yet been cut, and even being able to help the gynecologist extract it from the womb, something, the latter, of which the Catalan hospital is also a pioneer, and which is reserved only for “women very committed to this type of childbirth,” as the doctor explains in statements to ABC Anna Suy, responsible for the Obstetrics Section of the Vall d’Hebron Women’s Hospital and president of the Perinatal Medicine Section of the Spanish Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics (Sego).
Anna Teixidó35 years old, is a clear example of this latter patient profile. As he explains to ABC, he had his first child Max in 2020, when the humanized cesarean section plan of the Vall d’Hebron Hospital had not yet been generalized as a protocol. Despite this, he chose that his partner Adria was present at the cesarean section, that the surgical curtain was lowered so that both could see the arrival of their baby into the world, and that it was placed on the chest just after birth. Everything so that the experience was as similar as possible to a eutocic delivery.
«It was special for me and a definitely positive experience, but I enjoyed it more with my second child Pol. I already knew what I was facing and I asked for more things, including being able to help extract my son from the womb,” explains the mother. When she had her second child, in November 2022, the most acute phase of the pandemic had already been overcome and hospitals were beginning to return to normal. He Vall d’Hebron Hospital I had five years of experience in this type of cesarean sections and everything was shot.
“It was spectacular”
Anna experienced the arrival of her other child into the world as an experience that bordered on natural childbirth. «The atmosphere was practically the same as that of a delivery room, I felt very free and enjoyed the moment. Everyone was predisposed to make this look as similar as possible to a natural birth. Was moments of ecstasy like when I noticed the baby on my chest. Being able to help remove it from my womb was an added bonus. “Everything was spectacular,” explains the mother. She is aware that not all women who give birth by scheduled cesarean section would choose her option, but she feels satisfied with having been able to live this experience.
«I helped my son out of my womb and carried him to my chest out of pure instinct. deep down we are animals. “My body asked for it,” says Teixidó, currently pregnant with her third child, for whom she also has a cesarean section scheduled in mid-November. “I will repeat the experience, without a doubt,” he tells this newspaper.
Before entering the operating room, as in any intervention, future mothers sign a document about the possible risks of the surgery, although days before, together with the specialist who has monitored their pregnancy, they outline how they want the act to be. «They tell us if they want relaxing musicif they agree with the tarp being lowered to see the intervention, if they want to help extract the baby, etc…; a range of possibilities that they can choose from, even pointing it out verbally during the surgery itself,” he says. Anna Suy, who clarifies that “their will is respected to the maximum as long as it does not entail risks for the patient.”
Currently, virtually all scheduled cesarean sections performed on Vall d’Hebron They are humanized, although there are differences depending on the profile of the woman. «The majority of patients ask to lower the curtain, to be accompanied by their partners, and accept that the devices to monitor them be placed on their back so they can enjoy skin-to-skin with their baby. However, the option of helping to extract their baby is only chosen by the bravest,” the specialist points out.
According to the latest data from National Statistics Institute (corresponding to 2022), the rate of these interventions in Spanish public health is 25.9% (85,400 births of the total of 329,251 that were registered that year). The percentage shoots up to 35% in private healthcare.
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