Tell me why a C section’s better

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW I tend to get quiet during birth experience stories because I had an amazing planned C, and I was so happy and thrilled with the experience that I feel bad talking about it with people who had much worse vaginal birth experiences.

I can't imagine what's "amazing" about having major surgery. Most people would choose not to do so. I wouldn't classify my vaginal birth as "amazing" but I was up and walking around the day after birth and I didn't have to stay in the hospital for 4 days to recover from surgery.

I am the PP who wrote that. Yes, amazing is the right word. For me, I had such a feeling of pure, incandescent joy after my scheduled C-section that lasted for hours and hours. I couldn't fall asleep for many hours afterwards because I was so thrilled. It sounds like you didn't experience what I've heard described as a "birth high," which is okay -- lots of women don't -- but it was a remarkable experience. I directly attribute it to the ease of my scheduled C-section. I had almost no pain: all I had was this deeply emotional feeling of happiness, which I could focus on because I wasn't feeling pain, and wasn't tired and exhausted. In terms of logistics, I was up walking the same day (later in the day) and went home 48 hours later. My pain was entirely managed -- I don't remember feeling almost any pain -- and by the end of the week I wasn't using any painkillers, not even ibuprofen. I breastfed for years afterwards.

But there's a lot of people who are really really invested in all C-sections being horrible awful experiences that women endure. I've found that they don't really want to hear about my positive birth experience with a scheduled C-section, so I keep pretty quiet about it. I also feel really sorry for women who have terrible birth experiences (vaginal or C-section), and it seems tacky to talk about how awesome mine was. I only really talk about it in anonymous places like DCUM, and even then, only when people like OP are asking for positive experiences.

Based on conversations I've had with other women who had scheduled C-sections, my experience seems pretty common. But we don't talk about it with anyone else.

I had a birth high after my marathon vaginal birth. It was amazing and I felt like I could climb a mountain. I was full of energy and felt great for about three days before my body was like, "ok, you need to take it easy now". I mostly don't talk about it because people expect three nights of early labor to be an awful birth experience.

Why do you think this is relevant to OP?

Nobody is saying that you can't have birth highs from vaginal births, while the PP above basically said that no C-section birth could be amazing. That's simply not true. I mean I am glad for your experience but it's irrelevant to this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW I tend to get quiet during birth experience stories because I had an amazing planned C, and I was so happy and thrilled with the experience that I feel bad talking about it with people who had much worse vaginal birth experiences.

I can't imagine what's "amazing" about having major surgery. Most people would choose not to do so. I wouldn't classify my vaginal birth as "amazing" but I was up and walking around the day after birth and I didn't have to stay in the hospital for 4 days to recover from surgery.

I am the PP who wrote that. Yes, amazing is the right word. For me, I had such a feeling of pure, incandescent joy after my scheduled C-section that lasted for hours and hours. I couldn't fall asleep for many hours afterwards because I was so thrilled. It sounds like you didn't experience what I've heard described as a "birth high," which is okay -- lots of women don't -- but it was a remarkable experience. I directly attribute it to the ease of my scheduled C-section. I had almost no pain: all I had was this deeply emotional feeling of happiness, which I could focus on because I wasn't feeling pain, and wasn't tired and exhausted. In terms of logistics, I was up walking the same day (later in the day) and went home 48 hours later. My pain was entirely managed -- I don't remember feeling almost any pain -- and by the end of the week I wasn't using any painkillers, not even ibuprofen. I breastfed for years afterwards.

But there's a lot of people who are really really invested in all C-sections being horrible awful experiences that women endure. I've found that they don't really want to hear about my positive birth experience with a scheduled C-section, so I keep pretty quiet about it. I also feel really sorry for women who have terrible birth experiences (vaginal or C-section), and it seems tacky to talk about how awesome mine was. I only really talk about it in anonymous places like DCUM, and even then, only when people like OP are asking for positive experiences.

Based on conversations I've had with other women who had scheduled C-sections, my experience seems pretty common. But we don't talk about it with anyone else.

I had a birth high after my marathon vaginal birth. It was amazing and I felt like I could climb a mountain. I was full of energy and felt great for about three days before my body was like, "ok, you need to take it easy now". I mostly don't talk about it because people expect three nights of early labor to be an awful birth experience.

Why do you think this is relevant to OP?

Nobody is saying that you can't have birth highs from vaginal births, while the PP above basically said that no C-section birth could be amazing. That's simply not true. I mean I am glad for your experience but it's irrelevant to this thread.

I'm sorry I offended you. I was responding to the PP and agreeing with her. A "really great birth" is a subjective experience and can look all kinds of different ways. A c/s can be a really great birth experience and a really long vaginal birth can be a great birth experience. They're not mutually contradictory. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who try to silence women who had a great experience that didn't conform to their narrative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW I tend to get quiet during birth experience stories because I had an amazing planned C, and I was so happy and thrilled with the experience that I feel bad talking about it with people who had much worse vaginal birth experiences.

I can't imagine what's "amazing" about having major surgery. Most people would choose not to do so. I wouldn't classify my vaginal birth as "amazing" but I was up and walking around the day after birth and I didn't have to stay in the hospital for 4 days to recover from surgery.

I am the PP who wrote that. Yes, amazing is the right word. For me, I had such a feeling of pure, incandescent joy after my scheduled C-section that lasted for hours and hours. I couldn't fall asleep for many hours afterwards because I was so thrilled. It sounds like you didn't experience what I've heard described as a "birth high," which is okay -- lots of women don't -- but it was a remarkable experience. I directly attribute it to the ease of my scheduled C-section. I had almost no pain: all I had was this deeply emotional feeling of happiness, which I could focus on because I wasn't feeling pain, and wasn't tired and exhausted. In terms of logistics, I was up walking the same day (later in the day) and went home 48 hours later. My pain was entirely managed -- I don't remember feeling almost any pain -- and by the end of the week I wasn't using any painkillers, not even ibuprofen. I breastfed for years afterwards.

But there's a lot of people who are really really invested in all C-sections being horrible awful experiences that women endure. I've found that they don't really want to hear about my positive birth experience with a scheduled C-section, so I keep pretty quiet about it. I also feel really sorry for women who have terrible birth experiences (vaginal or C-section), and it seems tacky to talk about how awesome mine was. I only really talk about it in anonymous places like DCUM, and even then, only when people like OP are asking for positive experiences.

Based on conversations I've had with other women who had scheduled C-sections, my experience seems pretty common. But we don't talk about it with anyone else.

I had a birth high after my marathon vaginal birth. It was amazing and I felt like I could climb a mountain. I was full of energy and felt great for about three days before my body was like, "ok, you need to take it easy now". I mostly don't talk about it because people expect three nights of early labor to be an awful birth experience.

Why do you think this is relevant to OP?

Nobody is saying that you can't have birth highs from vaginal births, while the PP above basically said that no C-section birth could be amazing. That's simply not true. I mean I am glad for your experience but it's irrelevant to this thread.

I'm sorry I offended you. I was responding to the PP and agreeing with her. A "really great birth" is a subjective experience and can look all kinds of different ways. A c/s can be a really great birth experience and a really long vaginal birth can be a great birth experience. They're not mutually contradictory. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who try to silence women who had a great experience that didn't conform to their narrative.

You didn't offend me. I just think it's kind of remarkable that in a thread where OP asked specifically about positive stories with C-section, at least half the posts are people talking about vaginal birth. It's a little nuts.