Tag Archives: cesarean section

Girl Talk: Don’t Judge Me Because I Had A C-Section

Gillian TellingNovember 19, 2010 //

When I was pregnant and watching DVDs about the birthing process, the OB-GYN onscreen kept insisting that no matter what, “You do NOT want a Cesarean!” She herself had managed to have twins out the viola without drugs, and if she could do it, so could you! She drove this point home over and over: natural childbirth is good, without any drugs is even better. C-sections are BAD. Bad, bad, bad. Epidurals, bad. Pitocin, worst of all.

Of course, I immediately told my husband, “Good God, I am never having a C-section, how horrible! She says the healing process takes two months and it’s super traumatic for the poor baby and so bad for you as a woman! I’m totally going to have a nice and easy vaginal birth.” Well, of course I didn’t have a nice and easy vaginal birth. I ended up having a C-Section. With both Pitocin and an Epidural to boot. Keep reading »

I Had A C-Section

Joie Jager-HymanMay 5, 2010 //

Right before I signed the paper, I looked into my husband’s fearful eyes and felt a wave of disbelief at the realization that I was about to consent to the very thing that I had desperately wanted to avoid. During the previous six months of my pregnancy, I huffed through prenatal yoga sessions, dragged my big belly to childbirth classes, spent $500 on acupuncture treatments and even hired a birthing coach (known as a “doula”) to insure that my firstborn would make a serene entrance into the world. As my due date approached, my thoughts became preoccupied with images of the idealistic birthing experience that was about to change my life. I carefully selected songs for my “birthing playlist,” and envisioned the perfectly disheveled picture that I would post on Facebook to introduce my little guy to the world. With all the energy I put into personalizing the experience, it never occurred to me that I would end up feeling like a statistic—one of the 38 percent of new mothers at our New York City hospital who delivered her baby through Cesarean Section. Keep reading »