Q: Good day Dr Ketch, I had c-section last year December and I just realized I’m a few weeks pregnant this month. Is it safe for me to carry this baby and also deliver normally? I’m so disturbed, please advice accordingly. Thank you.

A: Thanks for writing in. This is a common question amongst women who have had a Caesarian Section. How soon can I get pregnant again? This is an especially important question as the argument about how much time the body needs to heal rages. It only makes sense that the longer the body is allowed to heal, the stronger the better the wound healing. Different schools of opinion exist from 6 months to 1 year to at least 2 years. However, generally, a gap of 6 months is considered fair to have given the body sufficient time to heal. So, is it safe for you? You are around 10/11months since your last baby and so, technically you’re fine. I strongly recommend that you register for Antenatal classes as soon as possible to ensure a problem free pregnancy.
Can you deliver normally? I prefer to ask, ‘can you deliver vaginally? There is nothing abnormal about having a baby through Caesarian Section. You’re as normal as the woman next door and you feel the same maternal urge as she does…maybe, even more 😀 It’s because we think C-section is abnormal that women who would benefit from this procedure turn it down and then end up dying because they wanted to do it ‘normally’! We need to change this mind set! For women who think ladies who had C-section are lesser mortals than them because they had a vaginal delivery, try cutting up yourself with a knife and then sewing it back up and you would know who’s more super-human! By the way, just in case you wondered, I’m not taking it personal because I had a C-section. I had all three of my children vaginally but would most certainly have opted for a C-section if I was advised to do so. But I digress….

So, can you deliver vaginally? Absolutely! Unless there are issues that may have led to your having a Caesarian section (indications) even if you hadn’t had one before. A few years back, having had one C-section meant you could still try for a VBAC (pronounced Vee-Back and means Vaginal Birth After a Caesarian) but once you’d had two C-sections, you could only have subsequent children with the same procedure. That thinking has changed now and having had 2 C-sections may not be an automatic sentence to the knife, anymore 😀

Now, these are general rules of thumb. Your specific medical history may be different, requiring a different approach. So, be sure to discuss the options open to you with your doctor.

And please, remember to discuss contraception/family planning options with your doctor during your 6 weeks appointment if you’ve had a baby. I’ve had quite a number of people writing in to ask if breast feeding protects against pregnancy and if it was possible for them to get pregnant even before their periods return or if it was safe to breastfeed a baby while pregnant (The answers by the way, are yes to getting pregnant while breastfeeding, yes to possibility of getting pregnant before periods return and yes to breastfeeding while pregnant); this means that there are probably a couple of people getting pregnant earlier than they had planned. Let’s take the right decisions.
Don’t forget to visit my blog, http://www.chatwithdrketch.com to search for any health/wellness topic you want information on. If you can’t find the answer you need, bring it here 😀

Good night, y’all 😀