After many years of witnessing first hand and studying the current status quo of Caesarian sections in childbirth in South Africa, I am presenting a Cape Town VBAC Stats and Facts Workshop at Mtwana Birth Centre on 11th July 2016.
Mother love follows on from the experience of pain during labour and birth andthe pain may be the key to the protective instinct and bonding behaviour of the mother towards her offspring
For a healthy woman, home birth is an option that is not often considered in South Africa. Many women seem to desire to give birth in any number of private hospitals where their caesarian section rates are approximately 80%. Most women do not know that home birth is an option, especially when a natural birth is desired.
Homebirth is safe when the mother is healthy and the risks are low. A hospital is safer for birth when a mother shows signs of ill health and the risks are higher.
It is these kinds of actions that will help us as a society to prevent the loss and despair in the newborn, described by John Bowlby so eloquently, and enable a mother to provide the right kind of interaction and closeness for her baby’s emotional and neurological development. It is out of such actions that mutual co-operation and loving partnerships will grow for our children.