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Five years has past since my first and only C-section. I shared my experience, and my feelings about my C-section last week in the post, My C-section- Five Years Later. This was the third part in a series of C-section posts I have written. The first post in the series, The Reality of C-sections, has generated a wide variety of thoughts, feelings, and comments. One comment that kept coming up was, my experience was only one out of millions. Some readers felt that in no way, was my experience the only reality of a C-section.
I agree. No two C-sections are the same, just as no two births are the same. I decided to interview a random sample of women, who had given birth by C-section five years ago or longer. I wanted to find out how women felt about their C-sections after time had passed.
I put the call out on Twitter, for any woman willing to answer my questions about their C-section, five years ago or longer. At the time, I had about 2,500 followers, and posted the tweet over several days, at different times, hoping to get a wide range of women who would respond. Some asked what angle I was looking for, but I told them the truth- I wasn't looking for any angle- I just wanted their true feelings and thoughts. Ten women answered my questions.
I was fascinated, surprised, shocked, and shed a few tears over their C-section experiences. I have struggled on how to present their stories to you, and have decided not to. I am going to let their own words tell you their experiences.
Brenna lives in Oregon, and owns Clementinenw.com. Jane (not her real name) asked to remain anonymous, and is the owner of a family magazine. Kristi has an on-line shop, Zuzugirlhandmade.com. Emily, was the first woman to respond to my request. Renae blogs at Life Nurturing Education. Beth G. is the owner of the site, Confessions of a Mom. Justine runs the website, JulianArts, which provides state-of-the-heart-education during the birth years and beyond. Beth S. blogs at Savvy Saving Mom. Natalie, who lives in Texas, and blogs at Tell Me About It, and Jill blogs at Writing My Life One Blog at a Time.
This post is broken into two parts. Here is part one of these women's experiences with their C-sections:
How did you feel about your birth experience with your C-section, during the first year post-partum?
Brenna- "I was disappointed that it didn't work out the way that I had wanted though, [I] felt that there were several circumstances that stacked the cards against me. I didn't have my doctor as she was out of town. They had to induce with Pitocin because my water broke and labor did not really start on its own. I felt like my water broke before my son was ready to be born. Because of those things I wondered if everything was done in the best way for me and my son, although I tried not to play "what if" too much since I couldn't go back and change anything. I did feel very lucky to have had a happy and healthy baby."
Jane- "I was always sad when I thought about it because the hospital where it was performed kept Mom and baby apart during recovery. I didn't get to hold my baby for more than 5 hours after he was born. And while I was in recovery, my husband kept coming in to check on me and I got so mad at him for leaving our baby alone!!! I was beside myself that our little one had only been on this planet for a few hours and he was all by himself!!! Right after he was born in the operating room, they put him by my face - but I couldn't touch him - arms are stabilized. Very, very sad. I licked his little head a little bit - just so I could make contact with him."
Kristi- "I went through a terribly long and painful labor with inadequate medical attention. My first c-section came at a point in the labor that I was so exhausted and scared and really just wanted the baby out. I did not have any regrets and honestly didn't think about it much!"
Emily- "For the most part I felt ok about my birth experience with my C-section during that first year after it. I went through a few moments
