LIFELONG EFFECTS OF C-SECTION ON MOTHER AND CHILD
- Madhukar Dama
- 2 days ago
- 10 min read
A clear, complete, and honest guide in simple words
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INTRODUCTION
A C-section (Caesarean birth) is a surgery done to take the baby out of the mother's womb through her belly.
Sometimes, it is truly needed to save lives — like when the baby is stuck, or the mother's life is in danger.
But today, most C-sections are not needed medically. They are done because of fear, hurry, hospital rules, weak bodies, wrong beliefs, or pressure.
In many cities of India, 1 out of 2 babies are born through C-section.
This was not the case in our grandmother's time.
C-section may look like an "easy" way to have a baby, but it comes with lifelong consequences — not just for the mother, but also for the baby.
This guide explains those effects in simple, real-life language.
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PART ONE: LIFELONG EFFECTS ON THE CHILD
1. WEAK IMMUNITY
The baby misses the mother’s vaginal bacteria, which are needed to build strong gut health.
These bacteria protect against illnesses like allergies, asthma, infections, and eczema.
C-section babies often get more colds, fevers, stomach issues, and need more medicines early in life.
2. PROBLEMS WITH DIGESTION AND NUTRITION
Their gut is slower to develop, so they may face gas, bloating, constipation, or food intolerance.
They might not absorb nutrients fully, leading to low energy or weak growth.
3. TROUBLE WITH BREATHING
In natural birth, the baby is squeezed through the birth canal, which pushes fluid out of lungs.
C-section babies miss this step and often have breathing difficulties, wheezing, or asthma.
4. MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL EFFECTS
The baby may have weaker bonding with the mother, especially if taken away quickly after birth.
This can lead to insecurity, emotional neediness, or detachment later in life.
These children may also be more prone to anxiety, restlessness, or trouble sleeping.
5. HIGHER RISK OF FUTURE PROBLEMS
Studies show C-section babies are more likely to face:
Obesity
Diabetes (type 1 and 2)
Autoimmune diseases
Learning and attention issues (like ADHD)
Mood disorders in teenage years
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PART TWO: LIFELONG EFFECTS ON THE MOTHER
1. PHYSICAL HEALTH ISSUES
It's a major surgery. Healing takes time.
Many mothers face:
Chronic pain in belly or back
Scar tissue and inner adhesions
Tiredness and weakness for months
Trouble lifting, walking, or doing housework
Problems in future pregnancies (like placenta issues or uterine rupture)
2. BREASTFEEDING DIFFICULTIES
After surgery, milk may come late or in low quantity.
If the baby is separated, it gets even harder.
Many mothers stop breastfeeding early and switch to formula — which affects both immunity and bonding.
3. EMOTIONAL & PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT
Many women feel guilt, failure, or shame for not giving birth naturally.
Others feel numb, empty, or disconnected after a C-section.
Some mothers even face postpartum depression, especially if the surgery was unexpected or forced.
4. SOCIAL AND FAMILY IMPACT
Difficulties in moving can affect caring for baby or other children.
Relationship with the husband may suffer due to pain, body image, or stress.
There is often extra cost, medication, and longer hospital stay.
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PART THREE: WHY ARE SO MANY C-SECTIONS HAPPENING TODAY?
1. Hospital profit and convenience – C-section is quicker and more profitable.
2. Fear – Women are scared of pain, injury, or baby’s health.
3. Weak bodies – Poor lifestyle has made natural labour harder.
4. Too much scanning and interference – Every minor variation is treated as an emergency.
5. Scheduled deliveries – Doctors and families want to choose the date and time.
6. Misuse of “risk” language – Terms like “cord around the neck” are exaggerated.
7. No patience – True labour may take 12–24 hours. Hospitals won’t wait.
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PART FOUR: HOW TO PREVENT UNNECESSARY C-SECTIONS
1. PREPARE DURING PREGNANCY
Eat fresh, simple, traditional food.
Walk daily and stay active.
Reduce stress — take help, rest well, avoid overthinking.
Practice squatting and gentle exercises after 6 months.
Learn about natural birth from midwives or birth educators.
Read real birth stories and avoid fear-based media.
2. CHOOSE THE RIGHT PLACE AND PERSON
Look for midwife-friendly, low-intervention hospitals.
Ask doctors about their C-section rates (should be below 20%).
Avoid doctors who hurry, scare, or say “baby will suffer” too early.
Trust your body and your baby. They know what to do.
3. DURING LABOUR
Be patient. Don’t panic if pain lasts long.
Have a birth companion (doula or trusted elder).
Stay upright, walk, and breathe deeply.
Avoid unnecessary internal checks or panic-inducing monitoring.
Don’t accept C-section unless there is real danger and no other way.
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PART FIVE: IF YOU ALREADY HAD A C-SECTION…
Do not blame yourself. You did your best with the knowledge and support you had.
Focus on healing your body and emotions through:
Regular movement and yoga
Abdominal massage and breathwork
Skin-to-skin bonding with baby (even if delayed)
Talking openly about your experience
Breastfeeding if possible, even later
Natural parenting and low-toxin living
For future births, explore VBAC (Vaginal Birth After C-section) — it is possible and safe with the right team.
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CLOSING WORDS
A baby’s birth shapes not just one day — it shapes a lifetime.
C-sections are life-saving in rare emergencies. But they must not become the default method of birth.
Nature has designed birth as a powerful, hormonal, emotional, and physical experience — for both baby and mother.
When we cut that process short, something gets lost.
Let us remember:
Natural birth is not about pain.
It is about power, connection, and trust.
You can reclaim it.
For yourself.
For your child.
For future generations.
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HEALING DIALOGUE
“We Cut Through More Than Skin”
A conversation between Madhukar, a forest-dwelling healer, and a group of five OB-GYN surgeons who feel the quiet weight of regret
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Characters
Dr. Meera (52) – Practiced in a corporate hospital in Mumbai for 25 years.
Dr. Rafiq (48) – Known for high-speed C-sections, now battling insomnia.
Dr. Alamelu (55) – Rural government hospital veteran, silenced often.
Dr. Pranav (39) – Recently resigned, disturbed by hospital pressures.
Dr. Kavitha (44) – Still working, but questioning everything.
Madhukar (43) – Former scientist and veterinarian, now a forest healer.
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Scene
The group sits on mud stools under a large banyan tree behind Madhukar’s home near Yelmadagi forest.
There are no fans, no AC. Just shade, birds, and uncomfortable honesty.
Each has come not to defend, but to confess.
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Dr. Meera (staring at her palms):
I did over 3,000 C-sections.
How many were truly needed?
Maybe a few hundred.
The rest… were fear, protocol, demand, or sheer timing.
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Dr. Rafiq:
We called it “precaution.”
But precaution became routine.
No one told us the price.
Now I see it.
I see mothers who never bond.
Children with asthma, gut issues, anxiety.
Some look at me like… like I stole something from them.
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Dr. Alamelu (quietly):
We silenced the women.
Told them their pelvis was small.
Told them the cord was around the neck — even when it wasn’t tight.
Told them they were too tired, too weak, too slow.
We turned their bodies into emergencies.
And they thanked us.
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Madhukar (softly):
And now?
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Dr. Pranav:
Now I hear it in my sleep.
A scream that never came — because she was numb.
A baby taken away before it could touch its mother.
A husband standing useless outside the OT.
I used to be proud of my speed.
Now I wonder what I was rushing through.
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Dr. Kavitha:
My hospital brags about being the "C-section capital of India."
As if that’s a badge.
We sell sterilized trauma.
We separate what nature tried to hold together.
And the worst part?
We told them it was safer.
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Madhukar:
It was safer — for the system.
Not for the soul.
You didn’t just cut flesh.
You cut rhythms, instincts, rituals.
You interrupted the grand opening act of life.
And the body remembers.
Even when no one speaks of it.
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Dr. Meera (tears welling):
What do we do now?
We can’t undo what’s been done.
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Madhukar:
Then don’t try to erase it.
Name it.
Mourn it.
Speak it aloud — in every classroom, every conference, every waiting room.
The world needs your truth more than your guilt.
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Dr. Rafiq:
But how do we make peace with the mothers?
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Madhukar:
By becoming one of them.
Not physically.
But emotionally.
By standing beside them, not above them.
Tell them: “We failed you because we were made to fail ourselves.”
Let them see your tears.
Not your title.
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Dr. Alamelu:
They still respect us.
But we don’t respect ourselves.
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Madhukar:
Then begin again.
Not as saviours.
But as students.
Of birth.
Of silence.
Of breath.
Of life that knows its way out of the womb without you.
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Dr. Kavitha:
Can a healer be born from a surgeon?
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Madhukar (smiling):
Only a wounded surgeon can become a true healer.
The knife is not the enemy.
The blindness is.
You have cut too much.
Now it is time to stitch what you can — with stories, with truth, with stillness.
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(Silence. No one rushes to speak. The wind moves. A baby cries in the distance — and this time, they listen.)
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FOLLOW-UP SCENE
“The Return of Birth”
One year later — when the surgeons stopped obeying fear and started obeying nature
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Scene:
A quiet, sunlit birthing center inside the old wing of Dr. Meera’s hospital. No white lights. No metal tables.
Walls painted in earth tones.
A soft mattress.
A rope hanging from the ceiling.
Midwives sit beside mothers, not over them.
And outside, a small sign reads:
“This is not a factory. This is the beginning of life.”
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Dr. Meera (addressing a small group of nurses and junior doctors):
From now on, birth will belong to the woman.
We are here to protect, not perform.
To support, not rescue.
To trust, not control.
We will not speak unless asked.
We will not touch unless needed.
And we will not cut unless death is near.
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Dr. Pranav (guiding a husband in the birthing room):
You don’t need to cheer.
You don’t need to fix.
Just hold her hand.
And breathe with her.
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Dr. Rafiq (training interns):
Forget everything you were taught about “progress.”
A woman who walks, squats, cries, and shouts is not a case to manage.
She’s returning home through her own body.
Your job is to keep that path open — and not scare her off it.
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Dr. Kavitha (speaking to a pregnant mother in the waiting room):
There is no shame in C-section when it’s truly needed.
But most of the time, your body knows.
You are not weak.
You are not too old.
You are not too small.
You are just right.
Trust your pain.
It is not punishment.
It is power.
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Dr. Alamelu (now retired, watching proudly as midwives lead the process):
We finally stepped back.
And birth stepped forward.
No more shaving.
No more lying flat.
No more counting dilations like a race.
Just breath.
Warmth.
Waiting.
And wombs that open on their own time.
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Scene shift:
In the emergency room, a rare C-section is underway.
A woman’s blood pressure is dropping fast.
The cord is truly tight.
The baby is in distress.
The team acts quickly.
Calm. Efficient. Kind.
They save both lives.
No guilt. No confusion.
Because this is what surgery was meant for:
the last door, not the first.
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Final Scene:
On the wall of the birthing wing, a framed quote reads:
“We used to cut because we were afraid.
Now we trust, and the world is born whole again.”
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“We Were Gods with Gloves”
(from the rotting gut of an OB-GYN who finally saw the blood was not the crime — the lie was)
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we wore the coats.
we held the knives.
we memorized the terms:
“failure to progress,”
“foetal distress,”
“precautionary section,”
“just to be safe.”
safe for who, you ask?
for the hospital schedule.
for the bonus cheque.
for the rich lady’s due date on her anniversary.
for the surgeon’s golf game.
for the God Complex.
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we cut skin like ribbon.
we opened wombs like windows in a burning building
— but forgot
that the fire was started
by us.
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a woman would come in
body sweating,
mind tangled in fear,
eyes darting between husband, nurse, and machines.
we’d smile.
press the probe.
make a face.
say the line:
“cord is around the neck.”
she’d nod, broken already.
we never told her
the cord is around the neck in 1 out of 3 births —
and babies dance with it just fine.
but lies are faster than labour.
and god forbid we wait.
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I’ve done 7,000 surgeries.
half of them while listening to music.
some while arguing with my wife on the phone.
one while high on cold brew and self-loathing.
they clapped.
they said I was efficient.
hell, I was a hero.
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but I kept seeing it.
the mother,
numbed below the waist,
trying to look past the sheet,
wanting to see her baby,
but the nurse already whisked it away
to some goddamn sterilized glass box
because policy said:
“first check oxygen, weight, sex —
bonding can wait.”
and it always does.
and it always breaks.
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years passed.
the babies grew up.
but something was off.
they didn’t sleep well.
they didn’t feed well.
they didn’t trust touch.
they didn’t trust life.
they were angry before they could speak.
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mothers kept coming back.
tired.
disconnected.
scarred from the inside —
not from the stitches,
but from the silence.
they said,
“i don’t know why
but I feel like I missed something.”
and I would smile,
nod,
and hand over the report.
I was a god with gloves.
not a priest,
not a butcher,
not a healer —
just a paid witness to regret.
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and one day
a midwife said to me:
“you never trusted the body.
you only trusted the scalpel.”
and that night
I couldn’t sleep.
not from guilt.
from truth.
truth is a rat that chews the wires behind your eyes.
you see too much after that.
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so I stopped.
I sat in a room
with no lights,
no gloves,
just breath and blood
and a woman trying to birth like her ancestors.
I didn’t interfere.
I didn’t perform.
I just waited.
and something opened.
not just her body.
but mine.
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birth is not a job.
it is a rhythm.
you either dance with it —
or you ruin it.
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now I teach young doctors:
“cut only when death is closer than life.”
some laugh.
some call me outdated.
but some…
some weep in the hallway
after their first honest birth.
not because it was clean,
but because it was holy.
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we were trained
to cut, wash, suture, and leave.
now we stay.
we cry.
we bow our heads when the baby cries
because we didn’t cause the cry — life did.
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this is not repentance.
this is resurrection.
we were not murderers.
we were cowards with protocol.
now we are midwives
with scars.
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Let them keep their charts.
we’ll keep the truth.
the truth that says:
the womb is wiser than us.
and all we had to do
was stop pretending
we were gods.
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