Cesarean Section

A C-section will be done in an operating room or a special delivery room. Procedures may vary depending on your condition and your healthcare provider’s practices.

In most cases, you will be awake for a C-section. Only in rare cases will a birth parent need medicine that puts them into a deep sleep (general anesthesia). Most C-sections are done with a regional anesthesia such as an epidural or spinal. With these, you will have no feeling from your waist down, but you will be awake and able to hear and see your baby as soon as they are born.

You will be asked to undress and put on a hospital gown.

You will be positioned on an operating or exam table.

A urinary catheter may be put in if it was not done before coming to the operating room.

An IV ( intravenous) line will be started in your arm or hand.

For safety reasons, straps will be placed over your legs to hold you on the table.

Hair around the surgical site may be shaved. The skin will be cleaned with an antiseptic solution.

Your belly (abdomen) will be draped with sterile material. A drape will also be placed above your chest to screen the surgical site.

The anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist will continuously watch your heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and blood oxygen level during the procedure.

Once the anesthesia has taken effect, your provider will make an incision above the pubic bone, either transverse or vertical. You may hear the sounds of an electrocautery machine that seals off bleeding.

Your provider will make deeper incisions through the tissues and separate the muscles until the uterine wall is reached. They will make a final incision in the uterus. This incision is also either horizontal or vertical.

Your provider will open the amniotic sac, and deliver the baby through the opening. You may feel some pressure or a pulling sensation.

They will cut the umbilical cord.

You will get medicine in your IV to help the uterus contract and expel the placenta.

Your provider will remove your placenta and examine the uterus for tears or pieces of placenta.

They will use stitches to close the incision in the uterine muscle and reposition the uterus in the pelvic cavity.

Your provider will close the muscle and tissue layers with sutures. They will close the skin incision with stitches or surgical staples.

Finally, your provider will apply a sterile bandage.