If you would like to see your baby born but have no interest in watching the surgery (which most doctors discourage anyhow), ask your providers to hang two screens: the blue screen they use at every cesarean, plus a clear screen. The blue screen will block your view of the surgery and the clear screen will allow you to see the birth. When the baby is about to be born, someone can remove the blue screen so you can see your baby emerge. Or, as in the photo above of Athena’s son’s birth, the doctors simply lowered the blue screen so Athena and her mother could see the baby (see Naturally Mamma found in Inspiring Birth Stories).

“Even if a baby needs to go to the warmer and cannot have immediate skin to skin contact, it may be possible to see the baby as she emerges or show the baby to the mom on the way to the warmer as was the case with my second birth. A nurse was walking Hazel to the table and said, ‘Suzanne, turn and see your baby.’ Seeing my baby covered in vernix and blood really created a connection in my mind that she had come from my body as opposed to being delivered to me all bundled and wearing a hat. I was lucky enough to have skin to skin in the operating room, but even if I didn’t have that chance, seeing Hazel before she was wiped off was transformative for me.”  Suzanne Chesney