Descriptive Essay: Caesarian Section
During my sister’s first pregnancy, the doctor told her that her unborn child had an abnormal heart rate. Because of this problem, she could not give birth through the birth canal; the caesarean section was the better option. I had accompanied her to the hospital and overheard the doctor telling her about the other complications that may make a mother be required to have a caesarean section, including fetal malpresentation, labor dystocia, as well as fetal macrosomia, among others. Additionally, the physician told her that in such cases, both the expectant mother and the infant are highly vulnerable to losing their lives if parturition is allowed to take place naturally.
As a way of preparing for the procedure, the doctor asked my sister to avoid eating anything twelve hours before the scheduled operation time. She was also requested to abstain from clear liquids, light meal, and regular food, two, six, and eight hours respectively, prior to the surgery time. My brother was a nurse in the hospital and requested my sister and me to accompany him to the surgery room. They pleaded with the doctor who was in charge of the operation, and he allowed me to stand beside them throughout the procedure. In the surgery room, my sister was injected with the spinal and epidural anesthesia to sedate her abdominal and waist areas. However, she later told me that she could only hear and blurrily see the surgery team attending her since the rest of her body was conscious. The drug prevented her from feeling any pain throughout the operation up to a later time after the operation.
During the surgery, the healthcare provider started by keenly making a horizontal incision on my sister’s abdominal wall, above her pubic bone. Nevertheless, one of the nurses told me that the cut would have been vertical if it were an emergency case to enable the healthcare provider to separate the baby from the mother within a short time. The physician performing the surgery was very keen to avoid cutting the stomach muscles. He pulled the muscles apart to enable him to reach the uterus. He then made a vertical cut in the uterus.
After cutting the uterus, the physician performing the operation removed the amniotic fluid and then the baby. The newborn was delivered with the head coming out first from the uterus. Her mouth and nose were cleaned immediately for smooth breathing. After separating the baby fully from her mother’s body, the physician carefully pulled the entire placenta from the uterus. The nurses who were assisting in the operation were asked by the physician in charge to close the mother’s abdomen, rectus muscles, and the underlying peritoneum. One nurse who had become my new friend told me that there are many closure methods and the choice is dependent on the physician’s preference as well as the condition of the patient.
The entire cesarean section took approximately 49 minutes. The baby was removed from the uterus within the first five to fifteen minutes and the rest of the time was dedicated for the closure of the incision. Although the procedure seemed scary to me, I think we would have lost either my sister or her baby if she had been let to give birth naturally. For that reason, I call it a life-saver.