What If I Have a C-Section? [SIGNED]

An award-winning health writer answers all the questions a pregnant mom may have about this increasingly performed procedure-now used in nearly one in every four births

Thirty years ago, 1 in 20 babies was born by a c-section. Today that number has swelled to almost 1 in 4. Yet despite the steep rise in C-sections, there are very few books available to help moms-to-be sort out their options, allay their fears, and navigate their way through this serious and emotionally complex procedure.

Rita Rubin, USA Today's medical reporter, tells women:
- The main reason Cesareans are performed
- Exactly what the procedure entails
- How to communicate with their doctors-to insure the birth experience they want
- Strategies that will help them recover from the surgery quickly and relatively painlessly
- How to decide whether to have an elective C-section-and how to cope should surgery be medically necessary
- How to sort out the controversy about VBAC-Vaginal Birth After C-section

Whether the reader is considering choosing an elective C-section, worrying about what she will face should she need one, or recovering in the days after her delivery, she'll find the facts in this unbiased, authoritative, reassuring guide-along with steps she can take to make the birth of her child the healthiest, most joyous occasion possible.

Rita Rubin is a prize-winning health journalist and the medical reporter for USA Today. Formerly medical reporter for U.S. News & World Report, Rubin has written for Health, Ladies Home Journal, The Journal of General Internal Medicine, and Reader's Digest, among many other medical and lay publications. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland.