Family-centered cesarean birth has clear benefits

It’s easy to see why GRHS uses clear surgical drapes in the operating room for scheduled cesarean sections, instead of traditional opaque blue. With the expectant mother awake but numbed from the waist down, a clear drape provides a window through which she and her partner can witness the special moment of their baby’s birth.

The clear drapes are part of an approach called family-centered cesarean birth that is now the standard of care for nonemergency surgical births at GRHS.

Another feature of family-centered cesarean birth is that the baby is placed on the mother’s chest within 10 minutes of delivery to encourage bonding through skin-to-skin contact. Mother and child can snuggle – and even breastfeed – while the mother’s surgery is completed. Skin-to-skin contact enhances the mother’s milk production, encourages bonding, stabilizes the baby’s temperature and blood sugar, and increases the mother’s satisfaction with the birth experience.

In a family-centered cesarean birth, the mother receives post-anesthesia care in the Best Beginnings Birth Center so she can continue to bond with her baby after the surgery is over.

“Overall, the family-centered cesarean birth experience is more like a vaginal delivery than a surgical procedure,” says obstetrician-gynecologist John Mark Johnson, DO, FACOOG. “There is a lot more opportunity for contact and bonding.”