Caesarean birth (C Section)

Our aim is to help make your caesarean birth experience a positive one.  If you are considering a caesarean birth, please discuss this with the team who are caring for you. We will try and facilitate these as much as possible. These may include:

• bringing your own music

• skin to skin contact for your baby in theatre with you or your birth partner, we offer special jackets for birth partners to facilitate this

• 'gentle' caesarean

Optimal cord clamping (where the cord is not clamped for at least two minutes after birth) is performed as standard if your baby is well. 

Most people who have a caesarean birth are admitted to hospital the morning of the procedure. Following the procedure, you will be transferred to the ward. For further information see: 

• Skin to skin contact with your baby.pdf

If you have had a caesarean birth before, you may choose whether you wish to plan a vaginal birth or another caesarean. For further information regarding this please see: 

• Giving birth vaginally after a previous caesarean section[pdf] 523KB

If you feel that your preference is for a caesarean birth - even if this has not been advised by a doctor - please inform your community midwife, who will arrange an appointment for you to discuss this further. For further information see: 

• Choosing to have a Caesarean Section[pdf]

Information for before your operation

We also provide gentle caesareans. If you would like to know more about this, please speak to your midwife or obstetrician.

A new animation film - believed to be the first and only of its kind in the country – has been launched by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) to maximise support for new parents who will be having a planned caesarean birth. You can access the animation video here.

There are over 10,000 births at NUH (Queen’s Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital Maternity Units) a year, making the Trust the fourth largest maternity service in the country. 11% of ladies who give birth at our hospitals have a planned caesarean birth.

The video – made possible thanks to a unique collaboration between NUH and Nottingham Trent University – was produced by animation students with input and feedback from maternity patients and clinicians.

The animation includes accessible information in an easy to follow format on the following:

• Preparing parents-to-be for their planned caesarean birth - including advice on eating and drinking the day before surgery
• When you’re in hospital - including information and what to expect on arrival at hospital, who’s who in the team and birthing partners
• The operation  - including what to expect, including caesarean birth anesthesia
• Recovery and aftercare advice - including information parents will receive before leaving hospital and support available from community midwives

 

Dr Amelia Banks, Lead Obstetric Anesthetist at Nottingham City Hospital, said: “We want the experience of giving birth to be the most positive it can be and as personal as women wish it to be based on their individualised care wishes.

“We are incredibly grateful to the students at Nottingham Trent University for working with the Trust to produce such a fantastic and unique resource that we hope will be helpful to new parents and put their minds at ease ahead of their planned caesarean birth.”

Andy Love, Course Leader in BA Hons Animation at Nottingham Trent University, said: “Digital animation can help improve people’s lives and give people a sense of perspective which they otherwise may never have had. This video will help reduce the uncertainty many people feel when approaching their first ever planned caesarean section operation and help them realise how magical this form of childbirth can be. It’s a fantastic real-life project which has allowed our students to create something unique and meaningful which will make a difference to the lives of many parents to be.”