Strollerderby

I saw this too and cringed, seriously considering canceling my subscription in protest and then letting that task get buried under other entries on my to-do list. You nailed it.

<i>The truth is, we think any choice a mom makes is great -- we just don't want anybody to feel guilty if having her baby wasn't all flowers and sunshine.</i>

That really doesn't sound like a caricature of med-free birth... that sounds like a genuine feeling of not wanting women who needed pain medications, or labor-progression meds, or c-sections, or any other interventions to feel guilty for needing those things...

I was hoping for flowers and sunshine and a sweaty, painful, real this-is-what-my-body-was-built-for delivery, but I didn't get one.  Instead, I had an emergency c-section without ever going into labor.  And I had a lot of guilt about my body's inability to do this one huge thing: deliver my daughter.  

Everyone is too quick to assign judgment and negative motivation to those who make different choices, and apparently to those who simply support others' making different choices.  Needed a c-section?  Couldn't breastfeed?  Can't deal with a sling?  Working instead of staying home with the kids?  Hell, some of them aren't CHOICES!  Give people a little slack.

Mine was all flowers and sunshine, thanks to the epidural!

I didn't see the original article to see what they are apologizing about.  But I don't see anything wrong with the apology.  If there is a reference to the "Orgasmic Birth" movie in the original article, then it makes sense.  Women are describing childbirth as ORGASMIC for crying out loud.  For those of us that did not have that experience, we need our validation too.  My god, it's not enough for women to have a med free birth, we have to get off on it too?  For the record, I thought I wanted a med free birth the first time.. didn't have one and decided not to even delude myself the second time.  There is a lot of pressure in certain circles to at least want a med free birth and to be disappointed in yourself/the establishment/whatever when you don't get one.

How is it that women who have a medicated birth need to be validated? 80% of women have the freakin' epidural, is that not validation enough? I am sick of feeling like people think that just by the fact that I had an unmedicated birth I am somehow judging someone else's decision. I don't care at all how anyone else birthed. Not one bit.

There are many many judgemental women out there--on both sides.  But really, who cares???  I know all this stuff means so much at the time, but in 20 years, are you really gonna still be mad because you did or didn't get a chance to breastfeed or your birth isn't what you expected??  

Because that is a LONG time to be mad at something you have very little control over.  

I did find the "flowers and sunshine" a bit condescending. Mostly because I went into labor knowing it would be hard, painful, and quite possibly the longest physical activity I have ever been a part of. But I also knew that for me a big fat needle anywhere in my body would be worse than that pain.