"Nobody asked if I was ok:" C-section experiences of mothers who wanted a birth with limited medical intervention

Abstract

This thesis project aims to address the following question: How do women who were planning a vaginal birth with limited medical intervention experience an unplanned c-section? Specifically, this research project involved: completing in-depth interviews with 15 women who planned a vaginal birth with limited medical intervention but instead experienced an unplanned c-section between six months and two years ago; discovering and describing the nature of the birth the mothers originally envisioned for their child; exploring the women’s experiences with, and feelings about, the birth itself and how it might differ from what they envisioned; developing a better understanding of how these experiences and feelings affected the women during the first two years following the birth; describing any challenges they faced and how, if at all, they managed such challenges; and identifying strategies that could be used to improve the experience of women recovering from an unplanned c-section who envisioned a vaginal birth with limited medical intervention.