The Pediatrician

Took Bella for her one year check up today with Dr Nunes.  Not only was she the pediatrician on call the day Bella was born but she is also one of dad's very good friend's sister.

All is perfectly well with Bella, she is growing beautifully, above average tall like her dad :-) and her weight has caught up nicely now and is also in the 95th percentile.

I told her we are expecting our second now and wanted to know if, in her experience, does having natural or planned cesarean have any effect on the baby's health and development.  She told me that there are a lot of theories but none can be proven.  There is no proof that planned cesarean does has any negative effects long or short-term.  I asked her about ADD and told her my friend has this theory that ADD is linked to cesarean birth and she told me that is absolutely not true.  ADD is genetic, and if there is a family history of ADD the chances are baby may get it, but it has nothing to do with the way that baby is birthed.

Elective cesareans for personal reasons aside, cesareans are a life-saving intervention.

She did say that what does happen, that she has seen happen to about 6% of early elective cesareans,  is that dates are miscalculated & when an elective cesarean is done at 38 weeks, baby is actually not ready, and is born when their lungs are not mature enough.  She calls it 'wet lungs' and then baby has to stay in NICU for 5 days.  So if you can try and rather go closer to 39 weeks or see how long your Gynea/ OB will allow you to carry before having an elective cesarean, it will be more ideal.  

I asked her about VBAC & she said she is not a fan but it is a personal matter.  If something should go wrong both mom and baby are in big trouble.  She suggested not doing a VBAC at a place like Genesis clinic, that has no NICU or facilities or staff to deal with such emergencies.  You end up getting transferred to a close-by hospital.  If your Gynea/ OB is willing, you do it under his nose in a properly equipped hospital facility where, if something does look like it might go wrong, the doctor is right there and can intervene immediately.  She did also state that generally they do do more cesareans there days due to litigation but she did not elaborate, and I also didn't ask.