An interesting article shows that research in maternal response towards their babies is less in CSD babies as opposed to VD babies (VD = Vaginal Delivery).
My mind seems to agree with this … because I can’t see why Allah (SWT) should put women through so much pain in normal birth … I reject wholesale the Christian basis that because of the original sin, women were made to suffer the pangs of birth. Rather I follow an enlightened Islamic understanding that coming to Earth was to honour us and the pain of the mother is directly related to the rank she holds over us and in a more obscure sense enables her to be a “more naturally responsive” mother … of course it does not make her a better mother, because it is possible that C-section mother is brilliant because she may operate out of a sense of duty. However, the vaginal delivery mother may find it easier to emotionally rise to the mothering challenge than her counterpart.
AbstractA range of early circumstances surrounding the birth of a child affects peripartum hormones, parental behavior and infant wellbeing. One of these factors, which may lead to postpartum depression, is the mode of delivery: vaginal delivery (VD) or cesarean section delivery (CSD). To test the hypothesis that CSD mothers would be less responsive to own baby-cry stimuli than VD mothers in the immediate postpartum period, we conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging, 2-4 weeks after delivery, of the brains of six mothers who delivered vaginally and six who had an elective CSD. VD mothers’ brains were significantly more responsive than CSD mothers’ brains to their own baby-cry in the superior and middle temporal gyri, superior frontal gyrus, medial fusiform gyrus, superior parietal lobe, as well as regions of the caudate, thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala and pons. Also, within preferentially active regions of VD brains, there were correlations across all 12 mothers with out-of-magnet variables. These include correlations between own baby-cry responses in the left and right lenticular nuclei and parental preoccupations (r = .64, p < .05 and .67, p < .05 respectively), as well as in the superior frontal cortex and Beck depression inventory (r = .78, p < .01). First this suggests that VD mothers are more sensitive to own baby-cry than CSD mothers in the early postpartum in sensory processing, empathy, arousal, motivation, reward and habit-regulation circuits. Second, independent of mode of delivery, parental worries and mood are related to specific brain activations in response to own baby-cry.
I totally disagree…Totally ! Who are these idle people who carry out these stupid researches? Did they carry out research where woman told them " I love my vaginal delivery wala Bacha more than c-section wala"? If they actually found such women,then they need to treat them rather than including them in their study
Re: Mothers are more apathetic towards their children if they were CSDs
^ THANK YOU.
Contrary to popular belief, C section deliveries are not painless. So a VD mom loving a kid more due to pain associated with birth , yeah that argument fails.
Re: Mothers are more apathetic towards their children if they were CSDs
That is your right to disagree … But I contest that you failed to understand what I wrote. I was not talking about mother’s loving their children more or less, neither is the article.
Re: Mothers are more apathetic towards their children if they were CSDs
I think the article states a biological fact rather…wrongly. Yes, C-section deliveries/mothers have a different response (delayed or no release of oxytocin, I think, that ‘triggers’ motherly behavior/bonding with baby). However, that doesn’t make them love their children any less or treat them differently than a mother who birthed naturally. In either scenario - a mother loves her child unconditionally.
Re: Mothers are more apathetic towards their children if they were CSDs
Yeah and that’s another thing - the article doesn’t say that they love their children any less…but just that they respond to babies cries slower or what have you. But anyone reading that will probably not take that away from it and immediately assume that a mother with ‘less maternal response’ simply doesn’t love her baby as much.
Mothers are more apathetic towards their children if they were CSDs
Well. I’ve had had both…completely normal vaginal birth with my first one, and with my twins, one was born vaginally and the other delivered via csection and I can safely say that there is was no difference in my baby cry response time towards my csection baby lol…no apathy or discrimination there.
Sorry to blow this theory out of the water.
And I’d like to say that this statement of yours
comes off as sounding extremely condescending and pretentious.
There are some things men in general should just not even presume to comment on. And the physical act of childbirth is one of them. I don’t care how many “studies” are conducted by some Y chromosome lab rat, until you have a uterus of your own and grow and sprout a human life from it, it’s best to not go there.
Re: Mothers are more apathetic towards their children if they were CSDs
Please don’t pull out the “men” card … You can accuse me all you like of being condescending, but my intentions were not that way, and are pure. I apologise if that is what you get from this article and thread … But this is just a point of interest for me and I have no intent to get your backs up or belittle this topic. And if you find this out of taste then you can ask the mod of this forum to delete it.
Re: Mothers are more apathetic towards their children if they were CSDs
It probably has more to do with the pain, medications, and longer recovery time after csections, than it has anything to do with actual human emotions.
Re: Mothers are more apathetic towards their children if they were CSDs
WTH! I totally do not agree. It was painful and heartbreaking that I couldn’t quickly rush to pick up and soothe my crying baby post op and a few days after. And others had to tend to baby or hand baby over to me.
Also c-secs now save lives of many many women and babies, who would have died previously when VD was the only or preferred or forced upon option.
Psyah Bhai, I respect you, I really do, and I had no issues at comprehending this study, nor your response to it. But the fact of the matter is, there is no way to conclusively say that ALL csection mothers are apathetic towards their baby’s cry response times vs mothers who delivered vaginally. That just doesn’t make any sense. Doesn’t this study say that 12 women were selected for the study…12?! 12!!! That’s a pretty ridiculously low number wouldn’t you say? Out the millions of women in this world, 12 are going to are going to decisively prove this point? Sorry, I’m not buying it.
And as far as the “man card” goes, unfortunately their is NO way any man can EVER comprehend the experience of childbirth (and the feelings, pains, emotions etc that entail)…that’s not be being facetious, that’s Allah ki khudrat. The comment wasn’t a stab at you personally. And yes, you did sound condescending, but rest assured, had it been any other male poster, my response, and I’m fairly certain, that of the others would have been he exact same.
Like SO2 pointed out, there are away too many other varying factors like pain meds, postpartum blues, hormonal fluctuation etc that are more realistic contributing factors, not solely csection vs vaginal deliveries.
Re: Mothers are more apathetic towards their children if they were CSDs
my issue is with religion being dragged in to explain something that needs no voodoo justifications. nice try but not thanks.
and so what if the post-partum mothering instinct may be a little suppressed for the first few days in those moms who didn’t give vaginal birth? it is not like a tiger will show up and eat their babies while she turns the other way. C-sections happen for medical reasons (well maybe not in india and pakistan), not every baby and mom will make it alive/healthy via the birthing canal route.
Re: Mothers are more apathetic towards their children if they were CSDs
This is ridiculous. I’m not even sure what the point is other than making women who have a CS feel bad.
12 women? Really? They’re going to come to a conclusion about hundreads of millions of mothers around the world after “studying” 12 women?!
Everone knows that in general, CS recovery takes longer. The study makes no mention as to whether or not the CS mom’s were still recovering from the surgery and/or still on drugs. If they were still in pain, having a difficult time recovering, or still on strong medication b/c of pain…it would certainly have an effect on their brain’s response. Even with the 6 women with VD…we don’t know if they had a easy labor/delivery…or were they stuck in labor for HOURS and ended up with major trauma (ie. 4th degree tear or other issues that required surgery to correct it).
For all we know, they could be comparing mothers who had a easy VD delivery with no tearing or any other issues…versus CS mom’s who are still recovering, might be dealing with a infected incision, and/or could still be on strong pain meds. I find it ridiculous that they would state a conclusion stating that VD mothers are more sensitive to their babies crying that CSD mothers based on such little data.
The authors present no evidence that the brain image pattern has anything to do with the mother’s response to her baby’s cry. There is a flawed assumption that the two different brain image patterns they observed reflect a fundamental difference in the actual reaction of the mother, not just a matter of chance.
I’m not sure what you mean by all this. What is “normal” delivery? Vaginal birth? Do you think mothers who have C-Section don’t experience pain? As for Allah putting “*women through so much pain in normal birth”…*isn’t Allah also the one putting women in pain after CS? What about Allah putting women in situations where after HOURS and HOURS of labor…baby still isn’t coming out and/or a situation where the mother or the baby’s life is in danger and the doctors have no choice but the cut the mother open in order to keep her/baby safe?
I’m not really a fan of using terms like “normal” to describe things like how a baby is born. If a VD is ‘normal’…then is a CS ‘abnormal’? It makes it seem like there is some type of competition between having a baby ‘normally’ vs the ‘abnormal’ way. Maybe this is why CS mom’s are more prone to postpartum depression…because we keep telling them that they didn’t have a “normal” delivery! Every delivery is unique and has it’s own circumstances. The focus should remain on having a delivery where mom and baby are safe.
Re: Mothers are more apathetic towards their children if they were CSDs
^ believe me after having two babies by VD (one was obstructed labour, one okay-ish) , I have concluded C-sec is supposed to be called a ‘normal’ and VD ‘abnormal’
It makes it seem like there is some type of competition between having a baby ‘normally’ vs the ‘abnormal’ way. Maybe this is why CS mom’s are more prone to postpartum depression…because we keep telling them that they didn’t have a “normal” delivery! Every delivery is unique and has it’s own circumstances. The focus should remain on having a delivery where mom and baby are safe.