My pregnancies were far from easy. Yes, I did decide to have my children slightly later than the average woman, but other than that, I was in pretty good health and mentally prepared to have a child. Physically, my body had a whole different agenda. Just a little crash course in pregnancy number one (for background info): subchronic hemorrhage at 12 weeks (literally 4 days after we announced we were expecting), high blood pressure starting at about 15-16 weeks, 6 hospital stays starting at 25 weeks due to symptoms of possible preeclampsia and failed my initial glucose test. Needless to say, I didn’t have much of a “plan” and knew that nothing about my pregnancies were going to be textbook.
Fast forward to 35 weeks, and after another blood pressure spike, my doctor decided it was time to go. They would begin my induction with my son at 35+6 on a Tuesday afternoon. By Wednesday evening, I had made it to 1 cm without any contractions, a whole slew of medications and the doctor told me they were thinking about a C-section for the morning. And you know what? I was actually relieved. Call me crazy, but I was never excited about the idea of labor. I am a big wuss and while I wanted children my entire life, I wasn’t quite sure how I’d do with the whole labor process. I remember telling my nurse that my birth plan was simply “give me all the drugs and wake me when it’s over”…partially joking but also partially dead serious.
When it came time for baby number two, it was a no-brainer for multiple reasons. First, my pregnancies were 10 months apart, so they recommended me for a C-section anyway to avoid any complications. Second, my blood pressure did not cooperate the second time around either, so they felt better about keeping things controlled with a C-section. And lastly, I already had been through this experience once and was fully aware of the process and recovery. I wasn’t mad one bit and at least this time around, I knew exactly what to expect. Literally.
But this is just my story. My personal experience. And ultimately, I didn’t CHOOSE this, but I listened to my medical team, and we agreed together how to proceed, looking at what was best for both me and baby. What I will tell you is that having a C-section is NOT taking the easy way out; I don’t know of any situation where a woman walks into a doctor’s office and opts for a C-section without some prior medical condition or justifiable reason to do so. Even if you do voluntarily opt for a C-section, that’s YOUR choice. I know some people are scared out of their minds that their birth story could end up in a C-section, and that’s completely understandable. It’s major surgery and not to be taken lightly. I know there are also individuals out there that truly believe that giving birth via C-section isn’t actually “giving birth” at all, to which I just laugh and shake my head. My goal throughout both of my pregnancies was do anything and everything I could to keep myself and my babies safe and healthy.
Do I have a pretty sweet scar to remind me every day of where my babies came from? Yep, I sure do. My doctor even cleaned up my first incision the second time around to make it cleaner and “prettier” as she said. I am done having babies in this lifetime, but if I were to do it again, I would choose C-sections all over again. Do I feel like I missed out because I never felt one contraction? Nope. Do I wonder what the whole labor process would have actually felt like? Yeah, maybe for a second but after some of the stories I have heard from my friends, I think I’ll stick to my C-section birth stories. Regardless of how your babies got here, whether through your pelvis, lower abdomen, someone else’s uterus or any other combination of those, the best part is that it’s YOUR story and that is all that matters.
