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Advice for Women About Cesarean and Vaginal BirthAs early as possible in pregnancy:
Arranging for continuous labor support can help you avoid an unnecessary c-section. The booklet What Every Pregnant Woman Needs to Know About Cesarean Section (PDF) can help you set and reach your goals. It has a section with many tips to help you avoid an unnecessary c-section and have a safe vaginal birth. If this is your goal, it is important to become informed as early as possible and make and carry out your plans due to the current climate where more and more cesareans are being performed. You can also download Vaginal Birth and Cesarean Birth: How Do the Risks Compare? (PDF), the companion at-a-glance summary. For most pregnant women who had a c-section in the past, a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) is a reasonable choice. If this is your goal, it is very important to become informed as early as possible, plan ahead and put care arrangements into place. To learn more, decide and take action, see Should I choose VBAC or repeat c-section?. You may have heard that vaginal birth is harmful, and a c-section will prevent incontinence later in life. There are many problems with this line of thinking. Before undergoing major abdominal surgery for this reason, get the facts:
Most recent page update: 2/22/2007
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Every woman has the right to full and clear information about benefits, risks, and costs of the procedures, drugs, tests and treatments offered to her, and of all other reasonable options, including no intervention. She should receive this information about all interventions that are likely to be offered during labor and birth well before the onset of labor.
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