I don’t know about you, but I didn’t go into pregnancy thinking that it would end up having a C-section. I knew it was a possibility, but most of us tend to think that things will happen just like they do in the movies, right? You know, our water will break, we’ll go into labour, we’ll push out a baby and we’ll look fantastic afterwards!
Well, that’s not always the case. (Although, I wish the last part was!)
April is C-Section Awareness Month, and as a mother who has had two of them, I think it’s great that we’re creating awareness that they’re are a lot more common than we think. It’s important that we prepare women for the possibility that their ideal birth plan might not happen. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a plan, I’m just saying it might be a good idea to be flexible. Keep an open mind.
With my first son, my body basically refused to go into labour. I was 10 days overdue and the doctors tried to induce labour for TWO days. Notice I say “tried”. At the end of the second day, after sleeping through pretty massive contractions I don’t remember feeling, the time came to see if it was time to get the show on the road. My doctor said that if I was even one centimeter dilated, she could break my water. Well, my cervix was closed. CLOSED! I still remember the look of pure defeat on her face. I asked what she would normally do in a situation like this and she admitted she’d never had a situation quite like this before. She decided that a C-section was our only option.
So, they scheduled me in and one hour or so later, a beautiful 11-pound, 1-ounce healthy baby boy came out. Yes, 11 pounds. This is where I was pretty relieved that my body refused to go into labour. The surgeon even told me there was absolutely no way that he would have come out vaginally, so I would have ended up with an emergency C-section anyway.
With my second, my doctor suggested we schedule a repeat C-section due to everything that happened with my first. He was born a week early and was still almost 10 pounds. (I grow HUGE babies!)
In the birthing process, things happen that are absolutely out of our control. Yes, I would have liked to have my babies the “normal” way and head home from the hospital one day later instead of staying for three days, but that wasn’t the case. And in the end, the most important thing is that my boys were born safely. They’re here. I’m here. We’re all happy and healthy.
To me, that’s all that really matters.
Did you end up having a C-section or two (or more)? If so, share your experience below. Let’s start talking about this more, for all the future C-section mamas’ sake!
