In Part III of our six-part video series with Dr. Sarah Buckley, we discuss ways to close the hormonal gaps created by cesarean birth. 

Around the world Cesareans are becoming epidemic today – often spurred on by unneeded interventions. Cesareans can be life-saving, but the reduction in unneeded cesareans is the first step in reducing the impacts on Motherbaby. 

While pre-labor cesarean birth can lead to hormone gaps for MotherBaby, beginning labor before the cesarean birth can limit these effects. This allows hormones such as catecholamine to surge and ready the baby to exit the womb. Skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding are post-labor ways to bridge the hormone gap as well.

Find out more about Dr. Sarah Buckley’s perspectives on gentle cesarean births.

Watch below to learn more

Gentle Cesarean 

Will you consider a gentle cesarean birth if you need to give birth surgically?

About Dr. Buckley

Dr. Sarah Buckley in Bali during the filming of Your Hormones of Childbirth Film Series

Sarah Buckley is a New-Zealand-trained GP/family physician with qualifications in GP-obstetrics and family planning. She is the mother of four home-born children, and currently combines motherhood with her work as a writer on pregnancy, birth, and parenting.

She is also a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland,, where her research is focused on oxytocin and the autonomic nervous system in labour and birth, and the impacts of interventions.

Dr Buckley’s work critiques current practices in pregnancy, birth, and parenting from the widest possible perspectives, including scientific, anthropological, cross-cultural, psychological, and personal. She encourages us to be fully informed in our decision-making; to listen to our hearts and our intuition; and to claim our rightful role as the real experts in our bodies and our children.

Her bestselling book Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering: A Doctor’s Guide to Natural Childbirth and Gentle Early Parenting Choices, published by Celestial Arts/PenguinRandomHouse (US, 2009), builds on her acclaimed first edition, published in Australia as Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering: The Wisdom and Science of Gentle Choices in Pregnancy, Birth, and Parenting (One Moon Press, Brisbane, 2005, available as ebook here ).

Dr Buckley has an ongoing interest in the hormones of labour and birth, and this has culminated in her groundbreaking report Hormonal Physiology of Childbearing (2015 Childbirth Connection, a program of the National Partnership for Women and Families). This report, available for free online,  has been described as “…one of the most revolutionary and influential publications on maternity and newborn care ever issued.”

Learn more about Dr. Buckley – https://sarahbuckley.com/