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Cesarean Delivery (C-section): How to Prepare and What to Expect
What is a C-section?
Babies are born through either the vagina or via a C-section. A C-section describes when a baby is born through an incision in your abdomen and uterus. Cesarean deliveries are major surgery.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cesarean sections (c-sections) account for 32% of births in the US. Your doctor may recommend a C-section before you go into labor or after your labor has started.
As you near the end of your pregnancy, it’s natural to start to wonder what your labor and delivery “story” will look like. Naturally, you would have formed some expectations of this event based upon stories passed on through family, friends, books, and other resources.
You may have imagined being awakened by contractions in the middle of the night, shaking your husband awake while breathlessly announcing, “I think it’s time!”