Butterflies and Cesareans: What the Struggle is all About
This is an old story that has been going around for a while:
“A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.
What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were nature’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If the universe allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!”
–Author Unknown
See any parallels with birth? Cesareans save lives every day. There is no doubt about that. However, when they are done unnecessarily for no medical reason, they have many consequences for mom and baby. One side effect is that the baby does not pass through the birth canal, and therefore the fluids are not properly squeezed out of baby’s lungs, which can lead to upper respiratory issues and even asthma.
ALL THE INFORMATION YOu ever wanted on epidurals:
In my previous blog post, I spoke about the need to really explore and find some stuff out for yourself. Luckily, I did most of the work for you (but always check my facts and call it into question, same thing with doctors and nurses)! It’s always good to know things on several different levels. So, here it is. Here is some general evidence based information on epidurals thanks to CAPPA:
What are the steps to receiving an epidural?
Mom will be given at least one bag of IV fluids, if not two. After this, she will be positioned on either her side or sitting on the edge of the bed curling over and around her belly.
The doctor will push on the moms back to find the right spot on her spine. The epidural is administered between L4 and L5 or L3 and L4 in the lumbar spine.
A local anesthetic will be injected into the site to numb the area
A larger hollow needle will be inserted into the epidural space
After a bolus is injected into the space, a soft catheter will be placed in the space and the needle removed.
The catheter remains in the space to keep a continuous flow of medication from an attached pump, and mom will usually be able to push a button to receive more meds.
Pain relief usually comes after 5-15 min, but occasionally the epidural does not take and needs to be repositioned.
An automatic blood pressure cuff will be placed around moms arm to monitor her blood pressure every 5 min, then every 15 min once it stabilizes. Because mom looses feeling in her legs, she usually needs a catheter to relieve the bladder.
