THE RISE of the GENTLE C-SECTION

How a new surgical practice is transforming women's childbirth experience

During her son's birth via C-section in May, Jenna Jonaitis watched her baby come out of her body. She held him skin-to-skin afterward, then started breastfeeding right away. Jonaitis had what's known as a "gentle C-section." Compared with standard ones-in which the mother's view is blocked by a drape, she is mostly uninvolved, and the baby and mother of ten aren't united right away-this modernized version comes with the goal of making cesareans more humane. The family- and patient-centered approach to surgical birth has been practiced in the U.S. for about 15 years but has only recently become more common. Cesareans account for almost one in every three births, and some women find the experience traumatizing or alienating, saying the surgery makes it feel more like a medical experience than a major life event. Gentle Csections, on the other hand, can help women regain control and agency.

"It was very powerful and emotional," says Jonaitis, a 36-year-old Michigan-based writer, who'd had three previous C-sections that looked very different from this fourth birth. "I was able to be present with this one."

RETHINKING STANDARD PROCEDURE
Developed in the early 2000s in the United Kingdom by an obstetrician, a consultant anesthesiologist, and a midwife, gentle cesareans incorporate aspects of vaginal birth during and after surgery in order to emphasize the mother's participation in the experience and support her relationship with her newborn.

For starters, surgical teams swap out the opaque blue drape-erected to keep the surgical field sterilefor a clear drape, or a drape that has a clear window so the mother can watch the birth. ("No, you won't see your insides with a clear drape-just the baby as it comes out," Jonaitis explains.) And gentle C-sections often also include placing the baby skin-to-skin with the mother right in the OR, as well as helping mothers breastfeed as soon as possible.