Comparison of Impressive Caesura in Two Models of Delivery: Cesarean Versus Vaginal

Because cesarean section delivery has significantly increased in recent decades, it raises questions about the differences between the mode of delivery — vaginal delivery versus unplanned and planned cesarean section delivery — and its influence on parental behavior and infant well-being. Many prenatal researchers and infant therapists consider cesarean section to be traumatic, physically and psychologically, for both the mother and the newborn, with implications for the individual’s life as an infant, as a child, and as an adult.
This paper focuses on the deprivation in duration and continuity and the all-or-nothing quality of the physical and psychological stimulation associated with cesarean section delivery and the possible influence of this procedure over a person’s life span.
The theoretical basis for this discussion is Bion’s “caesura” model drawing on a statement by Freud, “Continuity exists between life prior to birth and following birth even though there is an impressive ‘caesura’ between them.” Freud developed the idea of a connection between postnatal thought, emotional life and prenatal experience. The birth process and the caesura itself are the most dramatic and sharp separations in human life.