Whats the deal with guilt over c-sections?

Question

Is it just me or does anyone else out there not even know why someone would feel guilt over a c section? I heard some woman sad about "missing out" and "giving up"! I was in labor for 28 hours with a 10 lb baby, and although the decision was made for me to have a c section for failure to progress, and I know, I know, it possibly coulve been done vaginally, I had absolutely no qualms about the proceedure, before or after. It needed to end, it needed to STOP! I did all I could and was so grateful that my OB gave up, I had given up hope hours and hours ago LOL.
Now pregnant with my second, I am planning to attempt a VBAC as long as its what is in my babies best interest. I hear a lot of conflicting info on the safety, so all I could do at this point was find a doctor I trusted, and will trust until the moment of delivery. It's gonna be up to him because I am not a medical professional and have poor judgement, ie; 28 hours of labor with an impossiblely large baby. No guilt!

Answer 1

I had to respond. People have issues with c-sections just as they have issues with women who choose to formula feed instead of breastfeed. My opinion is this, c-sections should only be used when medically necessary. When they are used by a women so that she can have the birth on a certain date or when she says that she can't bear the pain of delivering vaginally, I do not agree with that reasoning. It is major surgery and if she thinks that the pain of a vaginal birth is bad, she has no idea what it is like being cut open to deliver a baby. As for the guilt, I had 4 c-sections, all medically necessary. I tried a VBAC with pregnancy #2, severe complications arose and I had to have an emergency c-section. After that, with pregnancy #3 and #4, my doctor said I had to have repeat sections because of the risk of a vaginal birth. My advice to you regarding VBAC: make sure your doctor has performed many of them, ask your doctor how he handles VBAC deliveries vs. regular deliveries. Most of all, you have to trust your doctor 100% because there are risks associated with them and you literally have to leave it in the doctor's hands. I had a great doctor, just like you and I trusted him completely. When the delivery went bad and they had to knock me out, I literally didn't know if I was going to wake up with a baby in my arms or if I was going to be told that she didn't make it. I woke up to my doctor sitting next to me, holding my hand and telling me that my baby had indeed made it and would be fine. He is 1 in a million. I wouldn't change a thing and I have no guilt whatsoever.