i kinda want to deliver my children the way bears do- they hibernate, give birth and wake up to toddlers.

so i guess i could say that i’m pro elective c-sections and it would be great if they still did general anesthesia.

heatherw, having a cesarean as to avoid a stretched out vagina may be legitimate. But that would be speaking for mothers who typically have first time “elective cesareans”. These women account for LESS than 1% of the total cesarean rate. So while this could be a contributing factor, it is for an extremely small small subset of women. Media and others often run with these stories, because well, they sound juicy and interesting. But it’s just uniformed hype.

The phrase “too posh to push” makes me laugh, ever since I had a c-section. I also laughed when Christina Aguilara said she was having a planned section because she wanted a “pain-free childbirth” (or so they reported). There’s nothing easy about the recovery, and it’s hardly the easy way out. Nobody’s going to a soccer game the evening after that surgery!

I’m beyond caring about how other women give birth. If scheduling a c/s is what an individual woman or couple has decided works best for them, fine by me.

I had an emergency c-section – it wasn’t awful. But, I delivered when my baby was only 33 weeks gestational age, and I was scared beyond comprehension… for baby, for myself. I spent a lot of that pregnancy in fear and in hospitals – and then someone gets in my face and says that c-sections are horrible and incredibly dangerous. (As my beloved Mothering magazine has sort of done. I got so mad.)
My hippy dippy crunchy granola doctor, who HATES c-sections, suggested that I schedule one for the next baby. He knows the fear and worry and stress I went through first time around and has suddenly discovered that maybe going c-section isn/t the worst thing in the world.

I delivered vaginally (eek, there must be a better way of saying it) and am so glad for the experience. I have many friends who’ve had c-sections, though they weren’t elective. Like the other posters have said, their recoveries were far more difficult than mine. I think there are a lot of misconceptions about c-sections, like they take baby out, stitch you up, and you get off the table and jog home.

Really, though, this seems like yet another way to pit us moms against one another. Natural vs drug free, vaginal vs c-section, AP vs CIO, breastfeed vs formula… It seems like we’re being separated into different camps all the time. We’re all moms who love our kids, beyond that it doesn’t matter much, does it?

Carolyn
http://www.momsontheedge.typepad.com

Amen, Amanda! Our daughter arrived in the world after 24 extraordinary hours of labor…via C-section. Now I just laugh at the idea of a C-section being some kind of cop-out.

When I first began to read this article I was initially annoyed. I am a mother who has had two cesareans. And the ever popular saying “too posh to push” makes me ill. There is nothing “posh” about a cesarean. Many women who end up with cesareans first go through grueling labors and experience complications. And then on top of that they get to have major surgery and recover from that while taking care of a newborn and other children at home if there are any. There is nothing “posh”or “breezy” or “easy and glamorous” about it. I will say the same for those mothers who know ahead of time they will have a cesareans for whatever reason. Thank you for adding a reality check to these statistics, and for writing an article that doesn’t put mothers down who have or need a cesarean. For all the cesareans that may be unnecessary or requested without due cause, there are just as many, if not more, that make child birth a safe process for mother and child. We need to keep both of these scenarios in check when we throw out percentages and rude blanket comments. Whew! That was a rant, I can’t help but be passionate about this though.