An Ordinary Mom's Musings

I see a lot of C-section shaming out there in the wilds of the internet. And if it isn’t outright shaming, its at least portrayals of C-Sections as the most awful thing that could have happened to you. They tell you that you will never get over the trauma of it.

Both my children were brought into the world by C-Section. With my first, I, of course, had no plans for a C-Section. I planned on having a natural birth and while I wasn’t against pain management options, my plan was to give it a try first without them. I knew that I have a low pain threshold and I would likely end up asking for pain management before it was over. But that was my “Birth Plan”.

The “Birth Plan” didn’t go as planned. What is that saying that goes something like, “When we make plans God laughs”? For one thing, my son was two weeks overdue and he had no intention of ever leaving the womb. (I have always said that if he could crawl back in, he would.) For another, we quickly found ourselves in an emergent situation where an emergency C- Section was necessary. Once all was said and done, I am VERY grateful that I was able to have a C-Section. My son would likely never have made it out alive due to various reasons when he was born otherwise. So for him it was a blessing for us.

When it came time for my daughter to be born, I had the option of having a VBAC, but I chose not to for many reasons. The first being that my husband was deployed in a war zone at the time and scheduling it meant that he could be there for her birth. But the overarching reason was that I hate labor! Give me recovering from a C-Section any day of the week over labor!

Not everyone feels that way. Everyone doesn’t have the same experiences that I did with C-Sections and I realize that. Some women have awful recoveries from C-Sections. But the alternate is true. Some people have awful recoveries from natural births. For me, I heal from C-Sections very quickly. With my first, I was up, around, and touring Washington D.C. with my family less than a week after with no issues.

I don’t mourn my loss of an opportunity for a natural birth. I rejoice that modern medicine has come so far that I was blessed with two babies that made it to a live birth.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a natural birth, a C-Section, or through adoption. Bringing beautiful children into our lives and into the world and raising them is exquisite, worthy, and one of the hardest things you will ever do.

No matter how you got them here, I salute you. I won’t judge you if you chose something different than I. Instead, I’m going to ask if I can hold the baby! Because who doesn’t want to hold that cute baby!! And then I’m going to ask, “How I can help?”