That was quite a frequent response when people found out that I was not planning on having a cesearean birth but planning on letting nature taking its course. It seemed that the main reason that people believed I was brave was because of the perception that natural childbirth is painful. I can’t comment on whether or not that is true, from people who I have spoken to it seems to be. What I can tell you is that a cesearean birth may be pain free but the recovery is anything but that. You see while we had planned on a natural birth, Lucas had other ideas and so we ended up having an emergency ceasar early on a Monday morning in May last year.
I still experience twinges around my incision site, especially when I am tired, and not being able to drive for six weeks was rather logistical.
I did still have a beautiful birth, and I am glad that I got to experience some of my labour…and yes, it was well named.
But I wonder about all of the messages that we get told about giving birth…that it is scary and dark and traumatic, rather than something powerful and beautiful. And it is only a very small part of our journey.
I saw a post on Facebook the other day saying, don’t fear childbirth — they can give you drugs for that. There are no drugs for parenthood, and that is also true.
Love and a random musing,
Trisha