Giving birth is one of the scariest things a person can experience. It might be a matter between life and death.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), almost 800 women died every day in 2020, from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. That is why women have to fully exercise their reproductive rights.
I was triggered when I saw a tweet by Abdifatah Hassan Ali of Somalia, who said some woman died because her brothers and husband refused to allow the doctors to take her through a Caesarean section (C-section).
“A woman died today, because her husband and her brothers refused to give permission to go through C-section operation to deliver a baby! How can someone’s entire life depend on the decision of someone else? Esh! This barbaric practice has to stop now before other women lose their lives.”
There is no award for giving birth via a normal vaginal delivery. And women who go through C-section are not lesser than. The aim is to make sure the baby and the mother are alive during childbirth, not to test how much pain a woman can endure.
That is why such choices shouldn’t be given to men or anyone except the person who is having the baby.
Anything can happen during childbirth, and sometimes a C-section is the best way to save the mother and the child.
Why ask permission from people who have not and will probably won’t carry a child? That is a slap in the face to women and children’s rights.
Now the woman has lost her life, and the baby has been robbed of a mother because of selfish men who have no regard for a woman’s life.
People need to educate themselves and understand how complex pregnancy and childbirth are.
It is important to discuss childbirth methods during pregnancy with a gynaecologist, midwife or doula because anything can happen during labour.
In my last trimester, when discussing birthing methods with my gynaecologist, the first option was NVD and if my EDD (expected due date) passed without me going into labour, I would go to the hospital to be induced.
And if NVD didn’t work, then we would resort to C-section, that was our plan. Fortunately, I was induced, gave birth via NVD without any epidural and came out with zero tearing.
But for most women, that is not the case. The UN reports that “a woman dies every two minutes due to childbirth complications, despite maternal mortality rates dropping by a third in two decades.”
Now, imagine if the doctors can save your life, but then the men in your life decide against it because they want to see how much you can suffer, even if it results in death? What a shame!
That is why Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of WHO continues to fight for women to be fully responsible for their reproductive rights.
“While pregnancy should be a time of immense hope and a positive experience for all women, it is tragically still a shockingly dangerous experience for millions around the world.
“These new statistics reveal the urgent need to ensure every woman and girl has access to critical health services … and that they can fully exercise their reproductive rights,” Ghebreyesus says.
So, if you’re a man and think that just because your wife is pregnant with your child, you have the last say in her childbirth method, think again.
A C-section is not going to take away your wife’s womanhood.
Instead, it may save the lives of the mother and child because in some cases, forcing her to go through NVD even when the circumstances don’t allow may, result in losing the mother and the child. Choose life over ego.