Making Babies: Emergency C-Sections

Um, we're talking, I suppose, more specifically about C-sections-

Yeah

... and emergency C-sections, Shane, this afternoon.

Yeah.

And really the things that, um, people need to know in advance.

Yeah, look, I mean, we just, we, we use different terms to describe cesarean sections, but essentially the surgery is the same m- almost all the time.

There is a type of cesarean section called a classical, which occurs very, very rarely, m- most commonly in very premature deliveries.

Um, but for the most part, you have a l- what's called a lower uterine segment cesarean section, and the, the, the, the use of the term scheduled emergency refers more to the timing.

So if you have a scheduled cesarean section, it's planned in advance.

Mm.

You might have it because you have a breech presentation.

You might have it because you've had a previous cesarean section or previous surgery in your uterus.

So you know well in advance.

Emergencies, uh, are, are essentially the same surgery but that they're not scheduled.

You come in, you might be in labor, the baby's not d- tolerating labor well, you might have had a bleed, you might not be making progress.

They're an emergency cesarean section, and they're the same surgery, but the reality is there's no real preparation for those.

They happen on the day when something doesn't go quite according to plan, and you're taken to theater.

For the elective cesarean sections, there's an opportunity for the patient to prepare by way of fasting.

We h- now have a policy of enhanced recovery after cesarean, where they can drink overnight, um, have some apple juice the morning of the cesarean section to en- enable their recovery to, um, happen more, more, more streamlined-

Yeah

... more, more, more easily.

So but essentially boils down to the same surgery.

Um, w- which happens more frequently, the emergency or the elective?

Um, ach, it's almost probably half and half-

Oh, is it? Right